What’s wrong with my camcorder’s mic?

After spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars for a high-tech digital camcorder, you may be frustrated by the so-so quality of the audio recorded by the built-in microphone. The problem is that the camcorder’s mic is prone to pick up a lot of noise you don’t want, while not recording enough of the audio you actually want. Unwanted noise includes wind roar, people chatting next to or behind the camera, and even the camcorder’s own tape drive. In this clip, I shot a scene of my son watching sea lions at a local seaport. The camcorder’s mic picked up the sound of barking sea lions, which is fine, but it also picked up voices of people chatting outside the video frame and various other undesirable sounds. If all I want in this shot is the sound of sea lions barking, I’ll have to rely on another method of recording.