Sony ECMHS1 Video Microphone with Zoom for DCRHC 40/65/85 Camcorders

During live band performances this microphone offers several advantages.
In ensembles the mike will zoom with the lens on a soloist and highlight that solo. In more open spaces it creates the equivalent of a tunnel vision view of the target of the lens, helping to weed out ambient noise.
In stadium settings it helped to tune out the crowd, and zero in on the field band. It has the effect of offering an automatic mix to the audio that is in synch with the video. It fits the 8 pin shoe of my Sony TRV-900.

Like most I bought this before searching out some reviews. I should have searched first. This mic is for buyers who haven't listened to it before purchase.

On my Sony PC330 camcorder the zoom function is really a mic mixing function: in wide shots the built-in mics are used, and as the lens is zooms out the accessory mic is faded in while the built-ins are faded out. Since the two work on very different principles (built-ins are up-facing XY-configured omni mics and thus have a very good frequency response but strange soundfield and room responses; this accessory mic is a capsule-in-a-tube mono so it has no bass at all and is very comb-filtered) the sound obtained while zooming is bipolar (in the mental-health sense of the word). It's such a disconcerting effect that it's best used in comedy skits.

If used only when the lens is zoomed out and left there it's possible to overlook the tinny nature of the sound if you need a lot of directionality in a noisy environment (it does a good job of minimizing off-axis sound). But the zoom feature, the only real selling point of this mic, is useless. Better to buy a cardioid M/S mic and let the stereo field remain constant during a zoom shot than deal with this mic clearly produced for those who buy blind.

I have owned one of these for over 3 years and are very happy with it. I use it frequently when I need to get the sound from a distance source rather than the environment that I am in. Some examples are:
- someone giving a speech without amplification
- picking up the sound of a waterfall rather than the crowed at the overlook jabbing through the whole thing.
- picking up a conversation of people walking towards you (from a significant distant to directly in front of you)>

For an overview of the features and how they work see the review of 'A customer from California'. The only thing that seems to be different with my PC110 is that I only get one mono channel when the mic is in use (either as zoom or gun) and nothing from the internal mic.

Albeit this mic goes very well with my PC110. It complements the internal mic very good and it is also small enough to fit into one of my pockets.

Last but not least I would like to react to some of the reviews that you can read here, which are so useless that they forced me to pitch in my 2 cents:
- of course you need to make sure that your camera is hotshoe compatable. Just as you need to make sure that any filters or lenses you buy fit the thread on the lens... (probably intelli means only for people that can make that distinction).
- when I bought this mic in 2000 I was also a little bit concerned about it being mono. I also had some reservations about the sound quality which didn't seem to measure up. When using it I realized that this was a non-issue.
1. The sounds that you want to record with this mic are typically mono aural and pretty far away.
2. When editing the video I also edit the audio, dropping most of the non-essential sound and putting a music track in the background. This typically comes out very well for recordings with this mic.
3. If you need to record ambient sound (amplified events), use the internal mic or an external mic which is non-directional.
4. If you have a static setup use remote (wireless or otherwise) mic. I use a good mono Sennheiser for recording speeches or presentations.
5. Lastly for those that want to record concerts, use professional audio recording equipment and do your sound engineering the way it should be done. If you are just taping something from the audience (make sure it is legal) the internal mic in your camera will be more than adequate.

I bought one of these over a year ago when I could not find any reviews or any explanation of how the "zoom" worked. Boy, did I feel ripped off. I meant to warn others about the product but it got buried and forgotten until I ran across it today while cleaning my office.

Although some may like the convenience of no cables with the smart shoe connection, the audio quality is really quite abismal. It actually makes the on-board mic of my TRV27 shine. I was pretty naive about camcorder audio when I bought the ECM-HS1 but the fact that Sony doesn't publish any audio specs on the unit should be a big red flag to avoid this one. At best, this should be considered a speech only mic; forget music.

Although I've since moved on to pro audio equipment, you don't need to go to this level to get decent audio. After making the mistake with the ECM-HS1, I bought a Sony ECM-MS908C. It's compact and has a camera shoe mount although not the smart connector. However this means it will work with any camcorder that has an external mic mini-jack. The published audio specs are still thin but the audio quality of the ECM-MS908 is markedly superior AND it's stereo. I've gotten decent musical recordings with it and I've read recommendations from others who have used it for mini-disc recordings at concerts. Much more bang for the buck.

Amazon.com guidelines state "your review should focus on specific features of the item and your experience with it." Unfortunately, four out of the five previous reviewers DID NOT ACTUALLY USE the microphone. Here are my experiences, under four major points.

First, you need a Sony camcorder with an "intelligent accessory shoe" on the top. This resembles a hotshoe for a 35mm still camera, but has a sliding plastic door that exposes contacts to match the 8 pins on the bottom of the mic. There's a logo that looks like the letters "i" and "A" together toward the back of the shoe. The shoe is used to hold and power other Sony accessories such as the PVPMSH color printer, HVLFDH3 video light, and HVLIRH2 NightShot infrared light. The microphone has no cord and no jack for attaching a cable, so don't try to use it on non-Sony camcorders, or on Sony ones without an intelligent accessory shoe.

Second, about its physical characteristics. It's about 5 cm (2 inches) high, 7 cm (2.5") wide, and 13 cm (5") long. It weighs about 60 grams (2 ounces). It's made of not-very-strong-looking plastic. There's no battery in it (the electret condenser is powered by the camera). The rotating collar locks the mic onto the shoe securely. It swivels in a horizontal plane through 270 degrees, with indents / stops at 0 degrees (facing forward) and 180 degrees (facing backward).

Third, how it works. There's a three-position "mode" switch (zoom/off/gun) at the back. It seems like the "zoom" is done electronically. In "zoom" mode, when the lens is wide-angle, you hear mostly the on-board omnidirectional mic in stereo and very little of the ECMHS1 mike in mono. As you zoom in to telephoto, more and more of the directional mike comes into play. If you're recording live music, it's probably "disconcerting" to zoom around because the sound will appear to switch from stereo to mono and back. In the "gun" mode, you hear no onboard microphone at any time (similar to how it sounds when the zoom is at the longest focal length possible) and the sound is totally mono.

Finally, about the sound quality in "gun" mode using a DCR-TRV240 Digital Handycam, which uses "Digital 8" tapes. YMMV. The low frequencies could use some boosting, but are only slightly weaker than the onboard mic. For classical music and speech, the bass is acceptable. The microphone does not totally eliminate sounds coming from the periphery, but overall is better for faint distant subjects than the one on the camcorder because it (a) records a stronger signal onto the videotape, (b) does not pick up too much ambient sound occurring away from the field of view, and (c) causes less tape motor noise (which is a problem with my onboard mic in quiet situations) to be recorded. (Zooming is very quiet for my camera, so neither the built-in mic nor the ECM HS1 picked up any significant zooming sounds.)

A few minor points: There is no instruction page (you have to figure out what the "zoom" and "gun" settings mean, and how to mount the thing onto your camcorder). The "specifications" lack a frequency response and other useful info. A provided storage pouch gives protection from dirt but not water or shock.

In conclusion, this shotgun-style microphone is worth the money for subjects that are not producing much sound, that don't need to be in stereo, that strong bass is not critical for, and that are on screen. (If you're taping loud concerts for which you want to hear the music in stereo, with plenty of bass, and all the time even when the performers are not in view, the mic that comes with the camcorder will work fine.) Buy it at Amazon.com!