The D7000 can record audio to go along with your video, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind while using the built-in microphone. The first is to make sure you don’t block the microphone. If you look closely at the front of the camera body, you’ll notice three small holes right below the silver D7000 nameplate, located above the lens release button.
The next thing you need to know about sound is that it is mono, not stereo. This is lower quality sound than you are used to hearing in movies and music. To get stereo quality audio you will need to use an external microphone. I use a Rode shotgun microphone (Figure 10.2) that mounts to the camera’s hot shoe and plugs into the stereo audio jack. These mics do a very nice job of recording audio for your videos and are one of the least expensive options.
Turning off the sound
Sometimes you may wish to turn the sound off altogether—maybe sound would be distracting or you plan on adding your own soundtrack later. This comes in handy when I add the Chariots of Fire soundtrack to my daughter’s cross-country videos.
To turn off sound
- Following the directions for setting the movie quality above, locate the Movie Settings menu and press OK.
- Highlight Microphone and press OK again (A).
- Select the Microphone Off option and press OK to lock in the change (B).
- Press the Menu button twice or the Live View switch to return to shooting mode.
