As a newbie to filmmaking, and the owner of a Sony Digital Handycam, i have become used to the low quality of the few shorts i have made. But what bugs me the most about my movies is the camera noise i get in the background of my movies. I was wondering if there was a low/no budget way to improve upon this without having to buy a new camera? Is there a way to use a different microphone than the one thats built into the camera? I have a few high quality mics that i use for other purposes, can those be used to record the sound on my Digital8 tapes? I know you guys/girls are the experts here when it comes to low budget movie making, so anything you guys can help with would be great.

*D*i*N*G*E*R*

Just using a mic not physically mounted to the camera will help greatly (i.e. boom or plant mic). If that's not an option, use one of your mics in conjunction with a shock mount mounted to the hot-shoe of your D8. This website is a wealth of information regarding better sound for camcorders and has all of the available adapters (which aren't free but are cheap):
http://equipmentemporium.com/audiofor.htm

and if that's too complicated, record it with the on/in camera mic then do voice over work and foley everything. Of course if you don't have a small computer that records sound and writes it to the harddive at a nice speed, then you'll have to do what joren said.

you could spend 10 bucks at radio shack and get a mic with a mini adapter (i'm assuming you have an audio in or 'mic' hole available). test that out.

- C. Davis
President, Alabama Film Club
Owner, Yellow Hammer Films

i pride myself on my sound, every scene has ambience, obviously room sound, and tiny details. i too hate camera buzz and i try to eliminate it with ambience (if the film is set in the city, find a street ambience, in the suburbs, find a car pass and add some birds or weather effects like rain pats). Covering it up isnt the best but if you dont have a mic like stated above it beats the buzz.

worst case option if you dont have a mic jack but do have the good mics you mentioned, use an external recorder with your mics, perhaps a mini disc recorder, some can be picked up on the cheap at this point. sync the audio and video in post ( a clapboard would be helpful.)