Dunno if i need to release a chemical attack first to wipe out everything living and noisy before I film??.. Cars,... birds,.... neighbours , WIND and a host of other noises that get on my video,...okay I have no choice in where I film at the moment, either in a yard outside my house or outside the workshop... the wind is the killer and drowns out the words ... what can I do about it all??...will a directional mic work??

To some extent, yes, but the most significant aspect when recording sound is how close your mic is to the source you want to record.

The cheapest solution would be to get a tie clip (lavalier) mic. You can place this within inches of your mouth which will all but exclude any other sounds (though strong wind will not be eliminated - this requires windsheilds which I suspect aren't at all effective given the size they'd have to be).

The other solution is a shotgun mic held by a collegue on a boom pole. The issue here is that for wider shots, he'll have to move the mic further away from you to avoid being in the picture - which will quite possibly be no better than using a camera mounted mic.

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Tim

Okay, I generally work alone as most collegues around me in my profession have a somewhat immature attitude to filming...we won't go into that. Lets see if this wil work but that means getting an independant sound recorder. Is it true that the clapper board clack is to sync up the sound and vison together??

That and to identify the scene/shot/take. The "clap" sound causes a sharp spike in the audio waveform which makes it a cinch to sync different sources.
If you're working alone, what's wrong with a tie clip mic plugged into the camcorder?

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Tim

Plug your fieldmixer in the camera and you don't need a clapper board, other than for being interesting and look very professional!!!

When you have a camcorder with decent audio inputs (XLR with 48v power) you can use a boom pole with a directional mic. and a windshield (you know, those grey fluffy things )

A lavalier is a good option to, because of the closeness to the speaker, but the problem is that lavaliers is that they pick up the wind quite hard... So you'll have to use a wind shield for that as well. Not a pretty option given the fact that it looks as if your subject has a dead mouse on his chest, but in this kind of educational video's my take on it is that the quality of your voice over is more important then having a windshield on the chest....

In your case I would use a headset microphone.

It is worn on the head with a little "boom" which comes around the face. Used by singers who "dance" onstage. There are cheaper ones available for aerobics instructors which actually sound quite good. Not broadcast standard but for the spoken word on a budget, perfectly acceptable.
Feed the cable down the back of your shirt and you have both hands free and good sound whichever direction you turn your head.

Audio Technica and Sennheiser are two makes I would Recommend. On a cable into the camcorder... Job done!

Great idea.

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Tim

Remember that it doesn't matter what mic you use if you get a lot of wind noise it will ruin your audio. As Thieson said use a fluffy/dead cat etc. Also try some sort of wind barrier such as a wall or "improvised wall". This will help to cut down the wind noise. You should also think about doing the audio separately to the filming. If you have a shot when the wind comes up just swap the bad audio for the good one. This technique is used all the time in big movies where they have to over dub or add new sound or change a few words etc.

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Every thing said by me should be taken with a pinch of salt. Unless you have high blood pressure, then I would recommend a salt substitute.

Midnight Blue Productions

Unfortunately the camcorder has no jack plug for fitting a mic into it..

Until you get either a new camera with a mic socket or a separate recording device like a Zoom 2, you could stick a bit of fluffy fur over the on-board mic. It's best to use Velcro for this like in the video below.

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Every thing said by me should be taken with a pinch of salt. Unless you have high blood pressure, then I would recommend a salt substitute.

Midnight Blue Productions