Posted by Richard Crowley on 05/29/07 20:37

"Powell" wrote ...
> Purchased a new video camera with manual XLR
> inputs. However the microphone preamp has such
> little gain that I'm forced to use an external microphone
> preamp as a head-amplifier to drive the camera's
> XLR inputs.
>
> What type of microphones have sufficient gain to drive
> these XLR inputs? What doesn't work: Shure KSM 27
> (104 ohms), AKG C420 (200 ohms) and Sennheiser ME66
> (200 ohms). A phone call to Canon tech support, they
> didn't have any information on the microphone preamp
> specifications. It was their_understanding_ that any 600
> ohm microphone would work.

Impedance by itself isn't really going to tell you anything
about the output level and/or sensitivity of a microphone.
There ARE specifications for sensitivity if you want a rough
idea of whether certain mics are more sensitive than others.
But it can't reliably predict which microphones you will find
work "properly" with your camcorder.

You are better off using almost any external mic preamp
than the one that is in a camcorder. Even high-end cam-
corders have very basic sound capabilities. The sound
system is pretty much an afterthought and we're lucky
they work as well as they do.

Recomended reading: "DV Camera Audio: Real Numbers,
Real Recommendations" by Jay Rose
http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.php?category=Archive&articleId=23902929

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