Birthday Party

A microphone that “zooms” to pick out subjects from noisy surroundings

It's your child's birthday, and you want to capture some video memories of the occasion. Since your subjects are children they'll probably be moving around a lot, so you'll need to shoot handheld to follow the action. They're also likely to be noisy, so extra care will be needed to capture clear audio related to the scene you're shooting. You can capture outstanding video and sound in a situation like this with an ECM-GZ1M Gunzoom Microphone mounted on a compatible Handycam® (digital video camera recorder) or Cyber-shot (digital still camera). That gives you a lightweight, manageable system that is mobile and versatile enough to track your energetic subjects.

Handycam®
Birthday party
  • Cyber-shot RX10
ECM-GZ1M
Gunzoom Microphone
ECM-GZ1M

Compatible Cameras

  • The ECM-GZ1M Zoom mode does not function with the interchangeable lens digital cameras

Tech Note

Gun or Zoom Mode

The ECM-GZ1M has “Gun” and “Zoom” modes that make it easy to isolate sound from a desired subject while suppressing surrounding noise. The “Gun” mode selects a fixed shotgun-microphone type pickup pattern, while in the “Zoom” mode the microphone's pickup pattern is linked to the zoom lens used and dynamically varied according to the zoom setting. The pickup angle gets narrower as you zoom in, effectively matching the audio to the video.

  • Gun mode

  • Zoom mode

Microphone's pickup pattern

Wide

Middle

Tele

  • Built-in microphone
  • Gunzoom microphone

Approximate pickup patterns in the Gun and Zoom modes

Mode switch