Product Description
Condenser shotgun microphone
Customer Reviews:
Good value, adequate performance for this price point........2007-12-23
This mic was purchased for use with a Canon HV-20 camcorder and will be used for home (non-professional) video taping. Notable features: Uses a single "AA" battery (supplied), rather than a more-expensive type like CR-2032 or "N" size photo battery. I prefer gadgets that use "AA" for easy, cheap replacement of the battery.
BUILD QUALITY: Better than I expected! The "body" of the mic is aluminum tubing (at this price I'm surprised it isn't plastic). The user-accessible electrical components, which include the power switch, cable, and battery contacts, appear to be of good quality. The mic comes with a foam windscreen which fits firmly over the barrel.
PERFORMANCE: About what I expected for $55.00. There is a little audible static at high gain levels, and this mic is (surprisingly) actually less sensitive than the mic built in to the Canon camcorder, i.e., I have to boost the camera's audio gain control about 3db to get the same sound volume with the ATR-55. The comparable Rode shotgun mic is probably a little more sensitive, and probably offers a better signal-to-noise ratio; depends on whether you think $150 buys you enough added performance to justify the price increase. This mic is probably not sensitive enough for professional videography, or even for amateur use if the sound you want to record is more than about 15 feet away, like birds up in tree or something. It is useful for close-in videotaping when your primary need is to eliminate internal noise from the camera's tape drive mechanism.
The mic comes with mounts for the standard videocamera accessory shoe, and for a mic stand. The mounts are molded plastic, and attach with a tight "snap-fit" to the microphone barrel. I question the long term durability of these parts, as plastic under tension tends to fail sooner or later.
The ATR-55 is a monaural microphone: when connected to a Stereo mic input jack on a camcorder like the Canon HV-20, it will produce a signal only on the left audio channel. If this is a problem for you, an inexpensive Mono-to-Stereo adapter is available from Radio Shack (p/n 274-374, $3.99) that duplicates the output from the ATR-55 to both the left and right channels (this sounds better, at least to my ears).
Disappointing. Worse than on camera mic.......2007-12-23
I purchased and quickly sold two ATR-55's. The mics are very likely to have a whine or drone sound during capture that was worse than my Canon XH-A1's on board mic. They are extremely succeptible to wind noise and the two modes it offers (a wide and a tele) are laughable. I would not purchase these under any circumstance.
Surprisingly effective for entry level shotgun mike.......2007-11-16
Remarkable for the price, worked very well for the purpose of recording small lectures. Mono limitation not relevant to me. The two-position switch acted more like a gain enhancer rather than a narrowing of the receiving angle, and was more effective for doing so. Receive angle was wider than expected, but again, the central gain made this work well for lecture notes. A little noisy on background signal-to-noise, not a limitation for lectures but may be important to music recording. Very simple to set up and use - I suggest having headphones to hear what the result will be like, and choose mic position and set incoming levels to suit. Build quality a bit light, but well enough made to be robust with care in handling. Absolutely recommend as an improvement to using built in mics, and it's not just a toy, even at this low price.
Self noise too high.......2007-11-11
I bought the microphone for the its directional pattern. That turned out to be good. But I am disappointed with the high self-noise level of ATR-55. The hissing noise is very noticeable. There is no self-noise specification for this microphone from Audio Technica. The sensitivity of ATR-55 in the normal mode is very low, less than -50dBv/Pa. This makes the normal mode virtually useless. The sensitivity of the tele mode is barely enough (-46 dBv/Pa). But the high self noise makes the recording noisy. The low sensitivity is made worse by the extraordinary high output impedance of 2200 ohm. This reduces the gain of normal MIC amps.
Jeckyl and Hyde.......2007-07-02
I've rented the high end gear before (Seinheiser shotgun with full zeppelin setup) and I've got to say that this little mic is an odd little option that I like having in my bag of tricks for shooting movies.
It is VERY easy to use. I love the tonality in the 'standard' mode, though the range is quite low when compared to other high end mics. So, as a 'shotgun', the standard mode is pretty useless. However, it delivers a very rich and engaging tone and I find myself using this mic in 'standard' mode very often for regular vocal performances.
The 'tele' mode definitely extends the range...Quite a bit further than the high end mics in fact. The problem is that the overall sound can become a little thin. It definitely doesn't have the same warm quality as the standard mode. However, if you can't get a boom in close enough (and you don't have LAV's), the telescopic mode can really get you out of a jam.
Standard mode = great sound with good directionality, but poor range.
Tele mode = thin sound, good directionality, very good range.
Product Description
Two switchable range settings: "Normal" (uni-directional) for close- to medium-distance recording and "Tele" (super-cardioid) for long-distance pickup 3' attached cable with 3.5mm mini-plugFrequency response: 70Hz-18kHz Includes camera mount, stand clamp, 1/4" plug adapter, battery and windscreen
Product Description
e:personal iPod Cases
Product Description
e:personal iPod Cases
Product Description
Access controls through window Convenient headphone grommet Charge iPod mini while in bag Store cards / cash in flap pocket
Product Description
e:personal iPod Cases
Product Description
e:personal iPod Cases
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