As it stands, many filmmakers and sound recording artists look to shotgun mics for many situations. The directionality, response curves and build lend themselves to this task but there is room for improvement. Even the current darling, the Sennheiser MKH416 has some areas that could be refined.
Sony has approached this with a completely new design which, although it may look fairly similar to the previous ECM-680S the ECM-778 has all new internals, from the capsule to the acoustic tube, giving it a very flat response curve at any distance. This should hit the most important areas of the frequency range between 100 and 3k. Important for sound supervisors on set, as well as YouTubers and other content creators, who tend to mount mics to their cameras.
Another benefit for this style of sound recording is the overall size. Shotgun mics can get problematically long, risking infringing the frame but Sony’s design is actually quite compact at just 176mm.
It’s also a lightweight microphone, even though it has a metal body, which should ensure a good service life and protect from damage on livelier sets and harsher conditions.
The new acoustic tube and matched super cardioid capsule, are tuned for human voice and highly directional capture, negating extraneous noise from interfering with results. Alongside a very flat response curve, and a low signal to noise ratio, it looks set to outperform the competition in results and form factor.
To further mitigate unwanted sound, the ECM-778 has a low cut filter, as well as both foam and fur wind shields. Some welcome additional accessories are included, such as an XLR cable and a mic clip, with an insert for use with other clips
The Sony ECM-778 will ship in a hard case, which is a good thing as you’ll want to protect your $1,199 / £930 investment!
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