Ever tried to record video with a point-and-shoot camera, smartphone, or…. well, ANY camera, and do so using the built-in microphone? What does it sound like?
Garbage, that’s what. The resulting audio is noisy, full of hiss in some cases, and it picks up every little background noise going on. The subject of the video sounds distant and echoey.
The solution is to use an external microphone. Many cameras have a plug on them for an external mic. However, many smartphones do not.
The iPhone, specifically, doesn’t have an external, dedicated microphone jack. It has a combined port which works both for microphone AND headphones. The little white Apple headphones that come with the iPhone are built to work with it, and there is a mic included. But, once you get away from Apple’s own gear, what do you do?
Well, there’s an adapter for everything. Here’s a video.
You can check out this adapter from KVConnection.
Your alternative is to use a separate audio recording system and then couple your video and audio together in post-production. It takes more time, but works just as well. Here’s a video I recorded some time ago which talks about how to do that: How To Record Awesome DSLR Videos Without An External Microphone Jack.
The PCMech.com weekly newsletter has been running strong for over 8 years. Sign up to get tech news, updates and exclusive content - right in your inbox. Also get (several) free gifts.
