Don't WASTE MONEY on a Microphone | Zoom F2 Long-Term Review

this is an on-camera microphone specifically the dod D4 Duo but that doesn't really matter there are a ton of options for on-camera microphones for just about any budget and I don't think you should buy one at least not all of you I know this channel is about photography but I also really love videography and half a video is audio think of this video as a PSA a screaming Cry for Help into the Limitless black abyss that closet my sanity leaving me an empty vessel devoid of what one would consider a human psyche or tips and tricks on better audio maybe you don't make videos maybe you can share this with a friend that does a friend that has once uttered I'll just use my iPhone LOL similar to an intervention for somebody close to you that has fallen deep into a meth binge and would rather find creative ways of removing their own skin than show up for Thanksgiving dinner I can't tell you how to get 40 billion subscribers but I watch a lot of YouTube and there are two things that make me close a YouTube video faster than a pug hunting a cheetah in the Serengeti one of which makes me wish I was blind and the other makes me wish I was deaf the first one is when people make eye contact with themselves instead of looking into the lens and the second one is bad audio I would even venture to say that audio is even more important than video quality and I'm going to prove it to you later I'm reluctant to say audio quality because I think that often just communicates mic quality but you really don't need a super high quality mic to have high quality audio it's more about my type mic placement a method of recording and not being an to the people listening to you before we get into the hairy delicious stuff let's talk briefly about mic types now I'm not a meteor biologist so I'm not going to dive too deep into the Botany of microphone technology but this is the AKG Perception 120. it's a condenser microphone for about a hundred dollars condenser mics are generally very sensitive and suited to pick up sounds of an entire room if you'll look behind me you'll see off-gassing sound foam whose poisonous fumes are probably why I'm so stupid but they could also very well be causing permanent damage to my lungs and throat which is why my voice sounds so deep and comforting I sound treated this room specifically to use this microphone because condenser mics will pick up every reverberation and echo in your space I promise this is all going somewhere so what if your room isn't sound treated like a kitchen or a prison cell this is the Shure sm58 a dynamic microphone for around again a hundred dollars these microphones are much less sensitive and they're meant to be used right up to your mouth chances are if you've ever listened to a podcast they're talking into a dynamic microphone usually the Shure sm7b their pickup patterns are designed to reject off-axis sounds which is why they're used in loud places like on stages or in your mom's room if you tried to use a condenser mic on a stage you would be beaten to death by a mob of very angry deaf people now if you're not a plank of wood or a cyclist you might have picked up on something this video is supposed to be about camera microphones and I've been Tethered to my computer this whole time both of these mics connect with XLR which I believe stands for xylophone lunar rhombus it's a connector that goes into an audio interface and then connects to my computer there are also USB microphones out there that are great quality as well I just use all this because I'm a nerd and I like to complicate my life as much as possible so what if you want to go outside well then chances are you've considered something like this or you better have if you bought a camera to shoot videos and you just planned on using the built-in microphone do me a favor and lock yourself in a cage Forever This is the deity D4 Duo it's a super cheap microphone that connects with a 3.5 millimeter cable directly into my camera but there are a literal ton of options out there these days from 50 bucks to several hundred but I want to convince you not to buy one or at least not an expensive one we're outside now with the D4 Duo on top of my camera and I'd say this audio is acceptable but just like when we tried to use the condenser mic in my kitchen you can hear all the stupid around me so let's go to an even louder location I'd say this is not acceptable audio I had to lower the game levels on the mic so the traffic isn't clipping that means I have to shout as well this sucks so what do we do now each of these methods of recording have very clear and weak and that's where I want to introduce you to my friend Malcolm the Pug not this time but the zoom F2 which you're listening to me on now I've had this thing for a couple years now and I can honestly say it's one of the best purchases of my life the F2 is what's called a field recorder it has a mic input and a slot for an SD card upon that glorious SD card lies a 32-bit float file again I'm not an astrologer so I'll put that in simple terms it's like shooting raw but with audio you don't set the gain you just hit record and it does it all for you you can yell you can whisper it'll capture it all without clipping and if it does clip you can just give up forever and delete your Channel or you can pull the waveforms down and post and reveal their detail again in this mic input is a lav mic specifically this is the road link lab this thing does come with a lav mic but I found it to sound like pubic hair so I spent another hundred dollars on this one but honestly even the lav that comes with the F2 will still sound better than an on-camera mic in most situations the reason I autistically talked your ear off about my studio microphones and their different uses is because those philosophies apply to this scenario as well lab mics have their strengths and weaknesses just like any mic but for my use and probably a lot of people's use the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses they too like the sm58 reject most sound that's not right on top of it so if you're presenting to camera alone this is your best bet by far but the cool thing about this is that you can use it in every situation I used my other mics for loud yep kitchen or a prison cell yep treated Studio yep as now a lot of people like little babies about syncing audio and post but I'd argue that syncing and post is much easier and less stressful than setting gain levels with your camera's shitty preamps plus I'm free I can get up and walk away from the camera and get the exact same audio quality I'll show you I'm taking a piss right now you can walk away with transmitter mics but if you go too far the signal will cut out but since I'm recording completely separately I can go to Wyoming right now and leave you there and as long as I sync and post everything will line up perfectly I'm literally a block away with Malcolm right now ah it's beautiful out here you guys should see it but you can't because you're sitting inside like a nerd you guys really need to get off the tripod more the zoom F2 comes in two versions one with Bluetooth and one without the Bluetooth one is 230 USD and the non-bluetooth is 180 USD I bought the Bluetooth one but honestly unless you have somebody else miked up and you want to control it from your phone you really don't need it you can get mics that will suit each of these scenarios for cheaper but then you might end up with several mics like this dumbass or you can get one that suits all of them yo the only scenarios where a lab wouldn't be useful was if you wanted to capture the sound of a space or if you have multiple people talking on camera but even then you can plug this mic into the F2 as well and still get 32-bit float with a different microphone now earlier I said I would prove that audio is more important than video on YouTube right now you're watching me on a point-and-shoot camera but with the zoom f2s audio you're also watching me on my a74 with its built-in mic which do you prefer if I was forced to sit through this one I would probably rip off my own head and throw it into a crowded movie theater please think more seriously about your audio I'm trying to create a world here a world with less audio induced brain damage visual induced brain damage is whatever but the world in its ears will thank you thank you for watching if you'd like to see an adventure where I use the zoom F2 in the real world click right here foreign thanks again for watching foreign

Channel: Carey West

Views: 8,361

Keywords: 32 bit float, microphones, deity, akg, zoom f2, lav mic

Id: nzOAe2PR3Mc

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Sun May 07 2023