Sunday 19 June 2011

Microphone Windscreen - attention getter, windscreens


I bought this after an outdoor video shoot on a windy farm yielded a lot of audio ruined by wind noise. I was shooting with a Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic mounted on my camera with the standard foam windscreen, but no matter which direction I turned I couldn't get away from the constant wind noise caused by maybe a 5-10 mph wind, tops. Barely a good breeze to anyone else but me.



I got the Deadcat just in time for my second farm shoot on a nearly identically windy day. Worlds better. Almost all of my audio was perfectly clear, and any slight, occasional wind rumble that came through actually sounded like natural wind instead of jet blast.



However, and this is why there's no fifth star, the Deadcat has a weak spot: the opening. The whole thing just slips over the foam windscreen that you (hopefully) already have. If you don't have it, there's no way to secure it to your mic. But even slipped over the foam, there's no real way to tighten it down or cinch it up. The result is that the rear is still wide open, and any wind coming from behind is funneled straight into the mic. It took me a few shots to figure out what was happening, and I was able to stop that wind by simply reaching up and holding the Deadcat cloes with my hand. Next time, I'm going to have to bring an extra velcro cable strap, a rubber band, some Gaff tape, or something to close that up.



Finally, the thing really doesn't look like it should be as pricy as it is. Same as other reviews.



But for the most part, it works very well. Audio was far and away much better, and that's the point. Rode Deadcat Microphone Wind Muff

Sometimes some stray hair from the wind muff gets in the way of recording, but you can trim it down or just brush it out the way with your hand and it should remain out of the picture. Aside from that, very nice addition to your camera accessory kit! - Windscreens - Microphone Windscreen - Attention Getter - Camcorder Mic'


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