Camcorder lense brands

[Marc Austin]

I will be getting a TRV900 soon and I wanted to know what brand of UV lense or Wide/Telephoto lense you prefer? I was looking at Tiffen lenses. Anyone have any experience with them? I'm looking for something pretty cheap <$25. I was also looking at getting an external microphone for my TRV900. Does anyone know of a good one? I was looking at this model:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1749...eo_Mic_for.html

Some reviews claim that it's very sensitive and I didn't know how this would work with the high-wind environments around storms, but overall the ratings were very high. Would you recommend a different mic or perhaps the internal mic on the TRV900 is sufficient? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[John Diel]

For an external mic in windy environments, you're going to get the rumble. Face it, your just going to get it. At least with what your willing to spend on it. There are fur (synthetic) mic muffs or Wind Jammers available. They will run you about $25 to $40 depending on what you get. They can run up to as much as $500+ for the really good ones.

The cheapies to help. They knock down a reasonable amount of wind noise. They generally slip on over the stock foam wind screen that is usually included with an external mic.

I can give you a quick example. I have a Audio Technica AT835b shotgun mic for my camera replacing the stock mic. This mic is designed to pick up sound in front of the mic and reject sound to the sides. With the stock foam windscreen, I can still hear the wind noise as it rushes over the foam. On normal shooting or indoor shooting, this isn't an issue. However, I have one of the "cheapie" windscreens that slip over the foam and the difference was remarkable. I filmed a Bass Tournement weigh in a couple of weeks ago in which the winds were about 30 mph and intermittent rain (plus it was COLD!). I was able to pick out coversations 20 feet away with little wind noise and the camera was broadside to the wind. Not bad for a $30 cover that looks like a tail less rat hanging on to the camera.

Obviously, you will get what you pay for on this. The more expensive one will replace the stock foam and really are engineered to knock out wind noise. They generally do a very good job of it.

As far as lenses are concerned, here again, you will get what you pay for. Cheap lens will give you distortion, chromatic aberation, and generally sheap looking video. Either go with the Sony offerings for this camera or look at Century Optics. More expensive? Yep. But well worth it in the long run.

As far as filters go. Tiffen is a good choice. B+W is another. For a UV filter, you can get away with cheaper if your really strapped. Be careful though. Some of the less expensive alternatives have a tendency to cross thread when going on and can be a real pain to get off the camera.

Good luck! I doubt I said anything you really wanted to hear, but if your looking for the Ray Nox brand of stuff, you will ultimately be disappointed.