Thanks, Rob! No, the HD2 doesn't have manual gain control, unfortunately. It also doesn't have a headphone jack I quickly discovered, so it's hard to monitor what anything is sounding like in the field (wind noise, etc).
I'm plugging in various mics that I had laying around and comparing them to one another vs. the on-board stereo mic. The on-board mic is very sensitive, but as you might imagine, too broad. I like the external's sound better, but I wish you could monitor in real time. Anyone else have any feedback for this particular camera? Also, maybe we should start a "Gear List" on the wiki to compare and contrast what hardware everyone is using, no? > If the Sanyo Xacti HD2 has manual gain, that is quite a find these > days. I'm not sure what type of recordings you have in mind, but the > Rode VideoMic seem to be a good investment mic for a boom mic. The > shock it comes with can be mounted on a pole too. A pair of small > lavaliere electret mics is very flexible for recording locations in > stereo and interviewing. You can make these for less than $20 or buy > them for around $70. > > >Audio gear gets so neglected in the tech gear blogs! Help! > > The naturerecordist list is a good resource to search about field > audio recording: > http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/naturerecordists/ > Rob D. >
