Video camera users/techies

I need some help from the pro camcorder/camera users on here. I have a sony handycam that I bought from a member on here. I've taken some video's not as much as I thought I would. This past saturday i did a little railfanning and with the slightest breeze the mic would pic up on it and it would sound horrible. Also any time a trains horn went off you would here a buzzing on the playback. Is there anything I can do to the camera to prevent this or would a hotshoe mic be better?

What you need is a "shotgun" style microphone (hyper or supercardioid pattern which are most sensitive at the front but reject sound from beyond about 90 to 100 degrees from the sides and from the rear) and a substantial windscreen. However, in very strong wind, even the pros have problems with the wind (and you'd look funny with a mic "blimp" that's bigger than the camera...)

As for the buzzing when the horn would sound, are you very close to the train? You're probably overdriving the AGC (Automatic Gain Control) of the camera. The audio circuitry can't attenuate fast enough to roll off that kind of volume accross that broad a spectrum.

Thanks for that help. I know sony has 2 style mics I can use. One is a shotgun type and the other is a stubbie looking one.

Ok i was able to figure out the volume issue by adjusting the recording volume. But now i have a problem with video quality when I upload to youtube or convert to mp4. The camera is set to record in HQ (high quality) highest recording quality possible. Then when I goto convert the video from the camera's setting to mp4 i have it set to highest quality also. But when I upload to youtube the video quality just plain old sucks.

What can I do to keep the quality i see view the video on the camera? its crystal clear.

2005GLI wrote in post #6088937
Ok i was able to figure out the volume issue by adjusting the recording volume. But now i have a problem with video quality when I upload to youtube or convert to mp4. The camera is set to record in HQ (high quality) highest recording quality possible. Then when I goto convert the video from the camera's setting to mp4 i have it set to highest quality also. But when I upload to youtube the video quality just plain old sucks.

What can I do to keep the quality i see view the video on the camera? its crystal clear.

Glad I was able to provide some assistance on your earlier issues but as far as Camera --> Web goes, I'm afraid the only experience I have is with T3 lines streaming live broadcasts.

I'm guessing but in order to get a video down to the size required by sharing sites like YouTube, etc, you're looking at some pretty extreme compression.

Not all that different than trying to get a full res RAW file off a DsIII down to where it's street legal for POTN. Whole lot of squeezing needs to be done.