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Stereo mic vs mono mic in cameras?

What does stereo, or mono mic mean for cameras? Which is more perferred, especially for concerts

Public Comments

1. Stereo is two channels. Mono is one channel. Lets say a band has 6 musical instruments and they record in stereo. The right speaker might play the sounds from 3 instruments and the left speaker would play the sound of the other 3 instruments. If they recorded in mono all sounds would be played by both speakers. Its supposedly the same for stereo and mono mics in cameras. A stereo mic will pick up certain sounds for playback on one speaker and certain sounds for playback on the other speaker. I believe there are two separate pickups on a stereo camera mic. A mono mike records all sounds to be played back on both speakers. I dont know how well stereo mics work on cameras. Good stereo sound needs separation. If the stereo mic is on the camera there is no separation. They are too close together to produce good stereo separation. They may use software in the camera to create artificial separation but I dont know how good that is. Kind of like digital zoom uses software to create artificial zoom and degrades the images. If I were shopping for a camera I wouldnt pass on a camera with a stereo mic but I just wouldnt let that feature influence my decision at all. Id look at other features to make my buying decision and go with whatever mic the camera had.
2. Stereo has two channels, a left and a right, usually the mic heads are aligned so that there is also some cross over, so that most sounds come through both left and right but some others come through only left or right. Built in mics are pretty rubbish for serious sound recording. Neither type of built in mic is going to be much use, heres why: You will record the sound through the PA, but also with every other noise between the camera and the PA speakers, so folk chatting, folk moshing, the sounds closest to the camera will dominate. You will likely be getting jostled around so you won't be square onto the PA or in the same position much of the time. You will pick up handling noise too. Any competent sound recordist would take a line into the camera from the sound mixer, maybe have a mic facing the audience for some ambience or to soften the mix.. IF you don't have this option available to you then you probably shouldn't be attempting it. I've heard nasty stories of bouncers smashing cameras up....
3. Paul gave a very good answer so pick him for best answer. I just want to add some cheap compact digital cameras shoot video but don't even have sound. Many shoot video but have one microphone for mono sound. There are some with two microphones so the shoot stereo sound. In theory it's better but if both microphones are identical and pointing the same direction there probably won't be any real benefit. Seriously, you'd probably have better luck shooting the video with two different mono cameras and using each of their soundtracks in your final video file.