Any tips for a home-made wind filter for camcorders?

[Jason Blum]

Can anyone recommend some ideas for a home-made wind filter? I'm assuming there isn't much to it. I figure some cardboard, tape, and rubber bands will probably be relatively sufficient, but I'm interested in any feedback as to whether this is effective or not, as I have never tried it.

I just purchased an upgrade to my camcorder. I'm on a budget, so I couldn't get anything fancy, but I got the Sony HDR-CX100, so it should hopefully be a decent mid-price camera until I can afford something better. (I didn't want to devote a new thread just to this particular camera, but if anyone reading this has experience or opinions regarding this model of camcorder, I would love to hear it!)

Anyway, the camera is shipping on Monday, so today I'm just shopping for a tripod, carrying bag, et cetera... and it got me thinking about the wind screen.

Thoughts?

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Hmm, I've never once thought about doing this, but now I am. The first idea that popped into my head was maybe taping a cotton ball over the hole...wherever it may be.

 

[John Wetter]

The key being to muffle the wind but not also kill the regular sound... I'd be afraid a cotton ball would be too efficient of a muffler on the mic and cardboard would make it sound tinny. I was thinking one of those feather micro-fiber duster deals like this one:

I have no idea if this specific one would work, or how you'd attach it, but that seams to be the closest to the real wind screens like windjammers:

Or, with the smaller mics on the handled like you purchased, maybe attaching a lavalier mic windscreen to the camera like this one at B&H:

 

[John Wetter]

Thinking about this more I did more digging on B&H and found this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/315567-REG/Rycote_055401_Gustbuster_Camcorder_Windjammer.html

 

[Tony Perkins]

PC mode off. Did anyone else think of "Air Israel" from the movie Airplane! after seeing that BHPhoto product shot?

 

[Richard Dickson]

I've got one of the Sony VX-2100 with the mic extended out front on the top. After getting tired of the wind noise in my tapes, I looked at the B&H catalog and found they wanted about $120 for a mic cover for mine. Not being a professional video photographer, that was more than I was interested in paying.

Was looking in the automotive section at WalMart one day and saw one of the sheepskin mitts for washing a car. Inspiration struck in a flash. I cut the thumb off of the mitt and punched a series of holes around the severed thumb with an icepick. I also punched a number of holes elsewhere in the cover to make sure all of the sound wouldn't be blocked, just the wind. Laced it up with some nylon twine and installed it on the Sony. Works quite well for an amateur and cost about $6 if I remember correctly.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

<<<<<<<<<<<<<O M I T>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

Some pretty funny posts here - no doubt!
What you are trying to accomplish with the 'wooly' windscreen is to keep the abundance of wind off of the element so that it doesn't load up your audio recording with 'white noise'.

Not all camcorders are so equipped with external mics on booms. If you have one, the mfr probably has the 'wooly' for that unit. If not, using/making a 'wooly' substitute by making one out of cotton, an old animal fur, etc - will not work and inhibit both the smooth freq response and mic output.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Cotton is fairly easy to tear, so if a whole ball was too much...well...

 

[Darren Addy]

While you are considering upgrading the sound on your videos, you might want to get an external mic. Internal mics pic up hum from tape motor noises and other camera-body-related clicks and scratches. An extermal mic is also easier to make a real "blimp" or "zeppelin" for.

A few link that might inspire you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpECH4K5eow
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1303273/diy_wind_shield_for_camcorder/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/963275/diy_microphone_blimp/
http://www.joelandkaren.com/mic-zeppelin/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Microphone-Blimp/

This one is interesting:
http://www.f7sound.com/windtest.htm
Maybe using some ordinary nylon window screen material fashioned in different shapes would work over the front of the camcorder's built-in mic too.

 

[Jason Blum]

Great tips, everyone! Thanks.
I'll be chasing in mid-May, so I've got a few weeks to play around with it and experiment. I may even try using a fan to simulate wind, and test different methods.

 

[John Begler]

something I am considering is open-cell foam over the mic. am trying to find a suitable piece from some home window foam.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

I would be careful for sure, because your audio is incredibly important...and having wind noise is far more preferable to having muffled tinny voices and wind. If you are rigging something up, just remember you want everything to sound natural but to cut out the wind. If the audio isn't natural sounding, it's probably just best to figure something else out.

Anyways, there are some doable ideas in this thread that sound like they'd work...but just wanted to drive home the point that you shouldn't sacrifice your overall audio quality to get rid of wind noise...