Canon t3 question

yea T3 doesnt have a 3.5mm microphone input but the T3i does. idk why but yea if you want external sound on a T3 you need an external recorder

for future reference just post in the photo section if you need video help as this section is usually pretty dead and i seem to usually be the only one giving advice in here and i rarely check it because not many people post here anyway lol

one thing that is still kinda nice is that you can attach an external recorder on to the hotshoe mount of the camera which works nicely but you still have to record sound externally which will actually end up being better than recording it into the camera as you will not have any audio control in camera anyway.

zoom h4n is top of the line and very popular at $300
zoom h1 is much simpler, does not have XLR input but has 1/8" stereo mic input as well as headphones out to monitor your audio and is $100

zoom is hands down the most popular especially among DSLR shooters because of its size and features. has excellent microphones that are adjustable for area of pickup. and you can get a small little hotshoe adapter that screws in the bottom to mount the recorder on top of your camera.

for shooting with a DSLR on a budget and keeping everything simple i would only use a zoom. if i needed the highest possible professional quality because the video is for a paid gig i would use an zoom h4n and a boom microphone OR a preamp for the DSLR and boom mic into that.

oh sorry yea. the best part about external recording is that the audio is going to sound great and unaltered. The problem with almost every DSLR camera except the very new ones (5d3, D800) that i have not yet tested is that they have this awful feature called AGC or Automatic Gain Control and they lack the ability to manually control audio levels without the magic lantern hack. this feature ruins your sound even if you input through a 1/8" stereo mic jack because whenever the camera detects low audio levels it will automatically boost the gain to search for sound and this results in a awful hissing noise in the background of your audio. it is possible to remove it but a pain in the butt. what you will want to do with the H1 is hit record on it and then record on your camera and then when you start to edit you will have to sync your audio which is not too bad. the easiest is to have whoever or whatever you are recording clap their hands so that you can get on that point in the video and then you find that point of that noise in the audio track and line them up on your timeline and then you are ready to go. it will take a while at first but once you get the hang of it then it will only take about 30 secs max of your time to do. and you will be a lot happier with thatquality of the audio

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JJC-MSA3-Hot-Shoe-Mount-1-4-Shoe-Adapter-HS1-HS-1-for-Zoom-H4n-and-H1-/261024452305?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc6450ed1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Zoom-HS-1-Hot-Shoe-Mount-1-4-Shoe-Adapter-Zoom-H1-and-Zoom-H4N-NEW-/180776190596

and one from amazon just in case http://www.amazon.com/HDE-Tripod-Screw-Shoe-Adapter/dp/B005005EEM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337865666&sr=8-1

and a B&H link http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/616257-REG/Pearstone_9041690_Male_Accessory_Shoe_Adapter.html

any of these 1/4" adapters will work. i am still pretty young so i have not memorized all the different screw sizes for everything but pretty much most stuff takes a 1/4" adapter and these will also work with mounting a video monitor on top of your camera as well but honestly its not necessary and expensive unless you are doing video work where you need to see the footage on a calibrated monitor so you can know exactly what it will look like when you edit

but yea im here to help anyone that needs it or has any questions im just more likely to see posts in the photo section since i pretty much am only in that section or you can PM me if its urgent which many people have done in the past
Edited by Conspiracy - 5/24/12 at 6:30am

ok?

You got the right answer. You cannot use an external Microphone... to a Canon t3