Hello Steve,
Depends how serious you are about recording. Generally if you use the inbuilt
microphones, handling noise will be your biggest problem - also even with the
accessory windshields, wind noise will also be a problem. For birds, you'll
have to use the high sensitivity setting to get your peak levels up to near
-12dB, the optimum. You'll also have to get fairly close to most birds to
achieve this with the inbuilt mikes. If you don't get close, most of the other
background noise can drown out what you are trying to record. The serious sound
recorders use PCM (WAV) format, but I use MP3 and I can't hear any difference
and fit much more sound on a card. On an LS10 I find the best setting for input
volume to get clean recordings to be about 7 (out of 10). There is an AUTO
setting but I've never used it.
If you have a look at my website www.graemechapman.com.au in the resources
section you'll see the most convenient setup I have found to use with an
Olympus LS10, an older model, now sold as an LS5. It is more expensive than an
LS7 but has a few better features including manual input and output controls.
There are cheaper microphones than the Sennheiser now available that would be
OK but I would be wary of anything for less than $100. Just Google shotgun
microphone.
By the way, any of the recordings on my website that have an LS prefix in the
file number, were recorded with the LS10 (Golden Whistler and Silver-backed
Butcherbird for example). The latest and greatest of the LS models is the
LS100, but although its specs are a lot better, I find it less convenient to
use than the smaller versions, which all go in your pocket.
Unfortunately, a good microphone is always the expensive part, but if you want
recordings that are better than just a record, you'll need one.
Cheers
Graeme Chapman
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