Canon 5D Mark II: ATR6250 Microphone

Further to my post on microphones for the Canon 5D Mark II, and having decided to add one to my audio equipment, I walked over to B&H (see note below) today and bought the Audio-Technica ATR6250 Stereo Condenser Video/Recording Microphone.

This is an extremely affordable stereo microphone, and I thought it would be ideal for use either on my Canon 5D Mark II or with my Marantz audio recorder. It has a bunch of accessories, most of which I don't think I'll use, except for the hot shoe adapter.

In my earlier post, B&H recommended a couple of microphones such as the Rode VideoMic, Stereo VideoMic, and the Sennheiser MKE 400. The latter in particular seems to be quite popular with photographers, however it costs $200 whereas my new ATR6250 is only $32. I compared the specifications, and what I made of the differences were not enough to warrant the increased cost as far as I am concerned...except for the coiled cord (which the ATR doesn't have).

Naturally, I will continue to record audio with my Marantz PMD620, but use the microphone when I need to shoot video since the Canon 5D Mark II built-in microphone just doesn't cut it. I will post my impressions as soon as I can.

* I'm not affiliated with B&H in any way. The Audio-Technica ATR6250 is also available at many other stores, on-line and otherwise. I only mentioned B&H because that's where I got it.