Holophone H4 SuperMINI 5.1 Surround-Sound Microphone

Bizarrely resembling some sort of egg balancing on a brick teetering on your camcorder, the Holophone H4 SuperMINI is in fact an all-in-one 5.1 surround sound microphone, capable of bringing Dolby Pro Logic II encoding to the prosumer film-maker.  The question is, though, is it any good?  That's why DV.com slapped one onto their JVC GY-HD250 and set to work testing it out.

Thankfully, for a microphone unit costing $2,495, it apparently works pretty well.  According to reviewer Carl Mrozek, you need patience and some prior practise to get the best results:

"Getting clean and usable surround recordings in the field, particularly outdoors, is fraught with challenges, but with the SuperMINI it can now be done by a mini crew-one person, if necessary. With a bit of skill and under the right conditions, it enables the capture of rich three-dimensional recordings that provide unity of time and place, with high quality matching ambient audio" Carl Mrozek, DV.com

Although there are a couple of hiccups – the weight of the H4 changing the balance of the camera, for one thing – the size and durability of the SuperMINI, together with the ability to use external plug-in microphones (if the environment is suitable) seems to impress.  Check out the full review to see exactly what DV.com decide.

In Review: Holophone H4 SuperMINI [DV.com]