Camcorder External Microphone for Piano video?

I'm learning piano but I won't do recitals anymore--I did one and I was never more stressed out in my life (I'm picking up the piano as a middle-aged adult). But I do want something to shoot for, to polish my piano pieces. So I've decided to videotape myself for select piano pieces.

I tried using a Sony HC90 camcorder, and was pleased with the video, but the audio had no bass at all, making my piano sound like a honky-tonk bone jangler. I'm guessing I need an external mic to improve the sound. But I don't want to go overboard.

What sort of mic should I buy?

- I don't want to spend a lot--say around $100-200. I cringe at the thought of spending more for the mic than the camcorder.
- My camcorder can only take a mini 1/8" plug (I bought an adapter which lets me take a 1/8" plug in the Sony proprietary hot shoe). But the expensive mics have XLR plugs. Can I just get a XLR-to-1/8" adapter? How much will the audio degrade if I don't get an active XLR-to-1/8" mixer/converter?

I'm glad to hear that you're taking up piano! I've had a lot of fun with the piano.

Well, getting to your question, I would recommend the Rode Videomic. It's what I use for my video production (granted, I'm a 14 year old doing a couple of videos with my school orchestra and band ). I've heard mostly great reviews of it (the only people who really have any problem with it are very high end professionals who would rather shell out the hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of dollar for more high quality microphones..and can afford it!). The great thing about it is that it uses a 1/8" adapter on it to plug into the camcorder.

I'm also drawing this from memory, so I may be wrong here, but I remember a professional in the video production business putting together a "shoot out" of a bunch of different video and audio equipment, and during his tests, he found that the Rode Videomic sounded as good, and in some cases better than some of the more expensive shotgun microphones he was testing (easily $300+).

I believe the Videomic can be purchased for around $159, I got mine new with a wind screen for $185. I'll put a link at the end of the answer.

In regards to the XLR question, if you decided to get an XLR microphone, you could certainly use an XLR to 1/8" adapter without losing any quality (I believe). The only thing that you need to watch for is whether the microphone uses phantom power. If it uses phantom power, then it gets its power over the XLR cable instead of using a different means of power, such as batteries. So if you decide to get an XLR mic, make sure it has batteries (unless you wanted to pay an extra $200 for a beachtek XLR converter which would supply power over XLR and convert the signal to 1/8", but that would be out of your price range).

The VideoMic is really a great microphone, I recommend it.

You can pick it up for $159 at dvestore.com:

http://dvcreators.net/rode-videomic

I hope I could help!