I am trying to set up a mobile recording device for a 60+ year old philosopher, he is awful at tech, I want:
Ease of use.
Reasonable price.
Ambient noise reduction mic, he does a lot of public speaking.
A reasonable camera.
Is someone going to running the camera or is it just going to be the 60 year old philosopher?
Does he have slides that you are trying to integrate at the same time?
What is your definition of Reasonable Price as it will determine if the audio solution is a wireless mic or something else.
Microphone-wise, you've got a lot of options. If you're building a kit exclusively for recording, it's easiest to slap a wireless lav on him and record from that, rather than try to pull a feed wherever he goes (if there's a PA at all). Grab a shure wireless system if you have the space to travel it, or get a Sennheiser G3 kit if you don't.
Noise reduction is far and away best handled in software. If by ambient noise reduction, you mean you want tracks that aren't noisy, well, you'll have to cough up some cash for a recorder with higher quality preamps than the cheap stuff.
Most effective solution for audio, IMO, is a senny G3 kit and either a Roland r26, Sony pcm-d50, or zoom h6. Get everything used. It all packs down to a corner of a backpack and is relatively cheap.
By the way... The senny mic that comes with the G3 kit sounds... Bad. It's just bad. You can use it, or get a cos11d or whatever to replace it. Up to your budget. It's usable if you can't afford another $400 for a decent lav.
Izotope RX is what you want for noise removal, if it's needed.
Philosophy doesn't pay well funnily enough so it will be just him when he does lectures in universities and halls across the world. The cost of sending a tech with him would be.. well yeah, his hard philosophy not neil degrass tyson
No slides, reasonable is minimum cost for quality, I don't want bad hardware/software so a sweet spot for the cheaper end without going into waste of money category.
I don't know what that price point is in this tech category.
Thank you for the suggestions and the information, I will look at those devices.
so for video I would say either a Panasonic or Canon Video camera in the 1500usd range like the Canon XA30 and for wireless kits as that will be your best bet, the Sennheiser G3 kit as previously mentioned or the Shure FP1 kit. if you are just recording audio pick up a zoom Recorder with xlr in and a Sony ECM 44b or the Audio Technica Pro 70. I personally like the Sony ECM 44b better but there are some minor headaches in that it has a long cable and a relatively long cylindrical tube that has the xlr connection and battery compartment so it can be hard to put it in a pocket and the Audio Technica while not my preferred is extremely close its just a difference in where in the frequency range its drop off and pickup happens. The audio Technica has a traditional belt pack body so its easier to pocket/clip on.
hehe you preempted my next question.
I am really liking the look of the shure set up, is it mix and match so I can use 1 lav and 1 mic from the range of products to then connect to the camera?
1 lav for Dr Resnik (the philosopher) and a mic for questions?
Or do I have to research which combo's work?
Also the fp was the one that poked me in the eye is there a difference between the fp1 and the fp?
The camera seems a little overkill for a talking head video is there a step down that would work? He is using a laptop web cam atm it is atrocious.
So you would need two FP Recivers with what you want to do. The FP nomenclature is the product family from Shure You can mix and match and while its STRONLY NOT RECOMENDED you can put two mics on the same reciver just wait till both mics try and talk to the receiver at the same time.
There are a lot of steps down in quality you can take but the advantage the either the Canon XA 30 or its Panasonic Equivalent is they take XLR audio in and have easy to control settings for audio as this will be a set and forget situation.
Cameras in this quality range can normally be put in the back of a mid size lecture hall zoomed in optically rather than needing to be put up close to the speaker.
Thanks for all the great advice.
So I will look into 2 receivers and the camera's you have suggested. Lucky there is a place close by in Perth Aus with a huge line of Shure products, I will research some more then head to the shop.
oh man I sure hope Camera's are not ridiculously priced in Australia like PC Hardware is due to taxes. Along with that the product availability may be different in Australia because of that but the tip is look for cameras that take XLR in and have Easy to setup XLR controls as you want to be able to put the camera on a tripod plug in the receivers set the levels and walk down and start presenting.
yes at the moment everything is insanely expensive, but you have given me a place to start the research, which is a weight off my mind.
The setup you recommended is perfect now it's just trying to get the particulars and the costings.