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My gear is a Canon T5i DSLR, and I take home made videos in family gatherings, kids playing, birthday parties, etc. The internal mic is really bad, especially in noisy environments.
I am thinking of buying a cheap microphone to connect to the camera. Which one you would suggest for an amateurish/multipurpose use: shotgun; RØDE VideoMic or Zoom H1 ?
Stuff I am looking for: ease of use, noise cancellation, and enhancement of the audio record quality.
Thanks
For the H1, X/Y micing is a good option for an improved stereo room mic, but isn't going to be as focused as a shotgun mic. The input is nice, but doesn't really buy you much over the built in 3.5mm jack that many DSLR's already have. 3.5mm also isn't a professional audio connection, so it greatly limits the selection of microphones available. It does give pretty decent sound quality, though I don't believe it is the best quality in the price range if memory serves (but I haven't looked in a while.)
For the Rode VideoMic, it is much more focused on what is directly in front of it. It has pretty good quality (probably a little bit better than the H1) but it also won't pick up everything the H1 does (both noise and any actual sounds you want that are off to the sides).
Ultimately, it primarily comes down to which picks up what you need to pick up. If you want stereo, then the H1 wins hands down. If you need to pick up the sound of the room overall, the H1 also wins hands down. If you need to focus in on a particular subject in the middle of your frame or at a distance and need minimum background noise, the VideoMic wins hands down.
If you have a mix of situations and needs, then the H1 is probably a little bit more versatile, but the VideoMic is probably a little bit easier to use as it is designed to plug directly in to the camera instead of being it's own recorder. Additionally, with the VideoMic, more of your money is going in to the microphone itself since they don't have to worry about the audio recording hardware that has to be worked in to the H1.
