You can go as far with this as you want to go. A studio would use a mic on a boom with an XLR cable to some kind of preamp box and would probably record the sound separately and then sync it later with the video during editing. Or something of the sort. I am aiming at something significantly better than using the mic built into camera without going crazy.
Watch the following video! This guy covers (and demos) a wide array of on camera external microphones in the $200 and under range. I wish I had discovered this video when I was first researching these sorts of microphones.
Several things came up in the video. The Rode VideoMic GO II (for $100) can be connected to USB and used for voice overs and while doing that has a headphone jack. It is more or less a reduced cost version of the VideoMic NTG (for $250).Also this video talks about the Deity line of microphones, and I would look at those (along with Rode and Sennheiser) if I was doing this again.
It has been said too that sound is all about personal preference. This is true of speakers also (and perhaps every sort of electrical to/from audio transducer). So what one person might consider "best" might be different from another persons choice. What we want to avoid is products that are actually bad. And we want to consider price. And we may want to think about size, weight, and convenience.
The Sennheiser MKE 400 is a condenser mic, amazingly enough, so it requires a pair of AAA batteries that they say will give 100 hours of service. Be sure to carry or have available an extra pair or two. The microphone comes with two cables, which puzzled me. For a mirrorless camera (like my Canon or Sony) you want the TRS cable. The TRRS cable is for use with a phone or other mobile device, and I will probably never use it. It is nice that Sennheiser provides both.
The microphone has a headphone jack with volume control on one side. I am not sure that I will ever use this -- I presume that if I do, my batteries won't last as long. The other side of the microphone has a power switch. A short push turns it on. If you press and hold until the green light goes out, your turn the mic off. Then you have a 200 Hz low cut switch that may be handy to deal with certain ambient noise, and you have a 3 position "level" switch. I am using the center "0" position, the others are marked + and - for +20 db and -20 db.
We will see how the switch settings work out. It is generally a good idea to boost the signal at the microphone and reduce the boost in the camera, but it depends on which circuits have the least noise. We sort of expect Canon to be focusing on the video aspects of things, and Sennheiser to be doing a first rate job on the audio, but assumptions can be entirely wrong.
This is a $24 microphone with a USB cable. It is a condensor mic powered by USB. The idea is that if you are doing budget podcasts with a cheap webcame (or Zoom calls) this takes your audio quality up a notch for very little money. I have one, or I would pay this no attention.
There are the K669B and K669D also.
It looks like the K669B is the same microphone in some updated form.
The K669D is something else entirely with an XLR connector.
I give them two black marks for this kind of confusion.
Amazingly you get a bracket and a little tripod for the price.`
This video spends 31 minutes and covers the field. The title says that it is a review of the Rode VideoMic GO II, but it is actually more comprehensive. He looks at many other microphones in the general price range).
Here is a quick table of the Rode and Sennheiser offerings:
Sennheiser MKE 200 $80 Sennheiser MKE 400 $200 -- I bought this one! Sennheiser MKE 440 $380 -- stereo (2 mics in one) Sennheiser MKE 600 $360 -- long shotgun Rode VideoMicro II $80 Rode VideoMic GO II $100 Rode VideoMic $150 Rode VideoMic NTG $250 Rode VideoMic PRO+ $350
For starters there is the "VideoMicro" at prices from $48 to $80 depending where you buy it. At the low price you will also be needing a 1/8 trs cable and perhaps also the furry wind cover.
More interesting from Rode are these:
The Sennheiser MKE 200 is about the same price as the VideMicro, you get a cable, and some people like it just as well or better.
I ended up buying a Sennheiser MKE 400. I found a refurb on Ebay for $90. Full price is $200. I like the design better than the Rode. The Rode puts the flexible isolation frame out in the open whereas Sennheiser puts it inside a metal cylinder. This makes the whole thing less fragile. I see lots of positive reviews of the MKE 400 and when I could get it at the same price as the MKE 200 or the Rode VideoMicro I jumped on it.Vacuum tube preamps are like the holy grail for hardcore mic enthusiasts for their signature sound 'color'. Aficionados argue that FET preamps sound sterile compared to tube preamps, but I've never used a tube preamp so I can't really make a comparison, but I do know first hand that a high-end preamp (like the RME brand or SoundDevices) sounds so much better than a cheap preamp like the bargain brands like Focusrite or other low-cost models.
The term to search for is 'audio interface' (B and H has lots to browse) which is basically a mic preamp that outputs either a digital signal (each brand has their own signature ADC sauce) or a line-level analog signal that can be fed to any other device that can do the analog-to-digital (ADC) conversion (such as the R5 itself). While most preamps (audio interfaces) have their own ADC's built-in, the most hardcore audiophiles will have a dedicated preamp (vacuum tube, likely) that then feeds into a separate high-end ADC if they need the digital signal, otherwise they keep it all analog and pump it to speakers or headphones. Usually cameras, phones, laptops, motherboard soundblaster processor, etc all use the same $0.10 ADC chip that all sound the same, so to get really good sound, getting good electronics is a good idea.
There are also some really crazy audio interfaces, like the Universal Audio Apollo series which include FPGA onboard to do processing on the signal chain between the preamp and ADC. These can emulate vacuum tubes digitally or do other crazy stuff directly on the device without any computer/software in the loop. Music singers use these in the studio so they can hear their processed voices in real time while performing (using an autotune in the FPGA is common).
I have on my desk the RME Babyface Pro FS (audio interface) that I use with the Sennheiser MKH 416.
Those two combined sound pretty amazing.
The MKH 416 is kind of the gold-standard voiceover mic for Hollywood and a lot of the movie trailer
voice actors use it (though probably with tube amps or some other crazy expensive preamps and ADCs).
(Note by me: the Babyface is $1000 and the MKH 416 is also a nominal $1000 item.
The 416 is a big shotgun microphone.)
It's a giant rabbit hole to go down as you can see...
Also, 'field recording' is its own separate niche (compared to studio recording). The gold-standard field recorders are usually 'mixers' as well, so they combine preamps, ADC, digital recording, and the ability to create separate 'mix' tracks of all of the channels (and record those, too). So a six channel field recorder will usually record eight tracks (six raw channels plus the stereo mix). The mix is critical for the film director to hear real-time all of the different mics together while filming. I have a Sound Devices MixPre3 that I use with a 3-channel parabolic field mic (Wildtronics mono+stereo parabola), and I can mix the channels in the field (it records 5 tracks to a memory card).
Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org