I did some bird stalking today with my nt4 in a home-made shotgun mount.
The device is not yet perfected I must say. I ended up giving up
hand-holding and stuck the shockmount on my camera tripod and carted
that around. Not such a bad way of working given the weight of the nt4.
I was following a gang of white tailed cockatoos and I also got some
kookaburra cries - both noises I was specifically looking for - so I am
pretty happy. At some stage I will have some material for those
interested to download.
...to business...I would still like an effective shotgun mount so I am
looking for some design advice.
I was wondering how people channeled the microphone cord in these
devices so it doesn't knock against things or act as a microphone for
friction. The other problem I had was the friction noise of my hand on
the handle. To eliminate this noise required me to hold the device
quite tightly - and this was not 100% effective.
I originally had a hollow plastic handle and I realised this was acting
as an amplifier for the friction noise and filled it with plaster. This
helped but the result is still not satisfactory. But given the density
and solidity I can't see a wood handle making any difference...
Possibilities:
1 . looking at the surface rather than the density/rigidity of the
handle...
for instance covering the handle with fake fur cut short with clippers?
I have noticed fake fur has good abilities to absorb vibration when I
was draping cords over camera stand which was holding the microphone.
This might also provide the beginnings of a solution for my problem with
channelling the microphone cord.
Fake fur might be too slippery but then perhaps I could change the shape
of the handle so a bit of slipperiness is okay. Presumably slipperiness
means less friction noise.
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