Sennheiser.

?url? http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/category.asp?transid=cat34?/url?

Though people often mention Audio Technica I have never seen them on a pro set and my experience has been spotty at best.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Thank you. I'll give that site some overview.

The 416 is pretty good and probably the most common mike on movies I've worked on: I used one a couple of years ago to record an interview with a guy who was standing next to the engine of a steam train, and it eliminated most of that noise. The MKH60 seems to be even better at getting good dialog without background noise but costs a bit more.

You could also use radio mikes, but we've never had much luck with those (e.g. due to interference, long setup time, clothes noise, and a different sound to the main shotgun mike).

By looking at the price, it should be good. So what else do I need go to with this mic so I use it on a scene? As you can tell, I'm very new to this business....but I won't mind learning.

Does anyone know if this MKH60 will be compatible with the Sony Z1 Pro camera?

Yes, the MKH60 plugs straight in: just enable phantom power and turn on the XLR inputs in the menu.

One more thing. If I want to turn this mic into a boom mic for recording, what do I need? Where and what type of poles do I need to hold the mic when shooting? Do I need anything else besides this mic for recording dialog audio? If I have two Sony Z1 cameras, do I need to have two of these mic? Usually how far above the head or what position is best when recording diaglog audio through this mic?

Well, at least for the Senheisser mikes, you can buy complete suspension units with covers that screw onto a boom pole.

I'm not sure whether you can feed the same sound into two cameras easily: you can buy splitter cables, but I don't know if there would be electrical issues if you have two cameras connected to the same cable (e.g. different ground voltages).

As for distance, generally you want to get as close as you can and adjust the recording level. Ideally you'd have a mixer between the mike and camera so the sound recordist can set levels themselves, otherwise you have to do some dry-runs through the scene and set levels on the camera.

What are some of mixers recommended or mostly use for this kind of situations?

Unfortunately mixers are fairly expensive. A lot of people use SQN mixers which seem to go for a couple of thousand pounds upwards, the only mixer I've personally used as a sound recordist was an 'ASC Minx', which was about five hundred pounds worth at the time... basically it's small, battery powered, and lets you monitor levels and mix up to three mikes into one output.

To be honest, I'm sure it should be possible to knock together a simple 'mixer' for one mike to one output for under a hundred pounds if you know anyone who has a grasp of electronics, just so the sound recordist can monitor and control the audio level. I'd buy one if you did :).

So basically any mixer would do it as long as there is an audio level to control the volume and a graphical monitor to display the volume, correct? Do I need to worry about a possible compressor? Usually the sound need to be at what level to consider decent or good?

How good is a Sennheiser MKE 300?

Never used an MKE300. I think it's one of the mikes that's often used for wedding videos and the like, in which case it will at least give better sound than the camera mike :).

Thank you for the response. Any place on the Internet that will sell a complete suspension units with covers that screw onto a boom pole? I did some searches on the web and some sites sell the MKH60 mic for around 15 hundred dollars. If anyone know a place where they sell this particular mic for less than 15 hundred dollars, please mention it to me.

Thanks!