I’ve also got a new boom mic for general purpose doco work. I’ve had a couple of minor issues with the AKG- although they sound fine (especially the hypercardioid), they have had a few crackles and pops when in humid conditions, such as being outside all night. They’re also a bit heavy with the shotgun capsule for one handed doco booming.
Mics which use an RF condenser principle (Sennheiser MKH series and Rode NTG-3) are more resistant to moisture and will work in more extreme conditions. I’d also heard a lot of good things about Sennheiser’s tiny MKH8060, so tried one out and decided to buy it.
It’s got a little bit of a high frequency boost (as shown on the mic’s frequency response chart), which seems to bring out dialogue a bit more and gives the sound a little ‘sparkle’.
With that I needed to get a windshield sorted. After looking at the measurements, even though Rycote suggested a WS3 windshield kit, I’d also seen the WS2-MZL kit (with an MZL connbox, which will work with this mic). However with no additional modules or filters the 8060 will fit in a WS1 with the MZL connbox. I phoned up Rycote to make sure this was correct and they even made up a new part number: 086067 (WS1-MZL kit). I also bought a ‘Tac!t” cable, which contains a steep 18dB/octave high pass filter at 60Hz, which should eliminate low frequency handling noise.
It’s also considerably smaller and lighter than the AKG CK69 setup which fits in a WS4 and weight about 850g, while the 8060/WS1 weight a bit less than 500g. This will make a lot of difference at the end of a long pole.
