long lens and Microphone ?

[GyRob]

ok i know nothing about vidio but got a 7d :)
Now if im using My 500f4isL on it say on some birds 30/40yds away what sort of microphone do i need to capture the sound .
Im sure the inbuilt one isnt going to be of much use at that distance .
Im not wanting to spend lots on this type of thing.
Rob.

[JohnJH]

you need a shotgun mic, but for your application you'd need one of those extra long supercardiod shotguns...and possibly one of those satellite dish style hand grips...other than that you're only option really is to somehow mic the area where the birds are with some sort of wireless transcieving system, who's range is probably exceeded beyond 25 yards...

[GyRob]

Thanks John
theres a bit more to this than i thought and it looks like it gets more involved than i want to get into, as it was more for just a bit of fun wile out birding with the 7d .
I had no ider that sound went to a level / hobby all on its own lol
Thanks again
Rob.

[Bruce Foreman]

If you're close enough to hear the birds a separate digital audio recorder may get what you need. I use a ZoomH2 (sells for $143.38 at amazon.com) and records on SD and SDHC cards. I use 2GB cards in mine.

For outdoor use you will need a furry windmuff, foam windscreens (one is included) never really kill wind noise which will ruin audio. I ordered from thewindcutter.com and am really happy with what it does. I copy the audio from the ZoomH2 to my hard drive, process and trim it with a free program called Audacity (Google for a download source), save it as a WAV file which my video editing program works best with. Import it into the video editor and put it on a separate audio track in approximate position.

Sync'ing with the video is as easy as sliding it to where the waveform peaks align with those of the in camera audio as close as possible and then muting the in camera audio. The built in mics on the Zoom unit are amazingly clean and clear.

[GyRob]

Thanks for that Bruce i will take a look at that.
Rob.