This blizzard (we got 2 feet of snow!) gave me a chance to shoot a microphone test. Jeremiah of Clyde Media Productions loaned me an Oktava MK-012, and I’ve been curious to compare it against my trusty Josephson C42.

I took this opportunity to toss in my Rode NTG-3 and lavs, partly to prove a point — that shotguns belong outside, and lavs just don’t sound as good a booms. When used properly, the NTG-3 sounds awesome, and I really like both lavs for what they are. And of course, I’m not a sound guy. A real sound guy would probably be able to make all of them sound great, especially if he has a mixer.

I also took this chance to shoot with available light on Ilsa (my Red Dragon). I shot at ISO 3200 (bumped up to 5000 later in the video) and it looks pretty great. It’s definitely noisier in the raw clip, but the mp4 compression kind of smoothes out the noise. Still, 3200 is pushing it, and I think it’s probably best not go over 1600 if you can help it. Grain can always be added in post, through Red Cine-X or by overlaying a loop of real film grain.

Take a look and let me know what you think!