RedShark Review: DPA 4017B condenser mic

DPA 4017B

RedShark Review: The DPA 4017B, a short shotgun mic aimed at high-end video and film production.

There's a line in classic cinema – Jurassic Park, I think – in which someone asks a small child who's handling a piece of technology if it's heavy, to which the child replies that it is. "Then it's expensive," comes the understandable response. "Put it down."

Light and sturdy

DPA's 4017B microphone bucks this trend by being both light and, inevitably, somewhat expensive, because this is a microphone aimed directly at a very demanding market. At a bit more than double the price of the industry stalwart, the Sennheiser MKH 416, the 4017B (which can be had for around £1,406.99) is at first glance clearly much smaller and well under half the weight. While the extremely low mass of the 4017B is unlikely to make a noticeable difference when mounted on a camera that's already many pounds, it's on a boom pole, where the extra engineering effort really makes a difference. With a boom operator's arms forming the shorter part of what can be a very long lever, even small differences in mass make a big difference. At 74 measured grams, the 4017 could float away on a dozen average helium-filled party balloons and that's a very good thing.

To read more, head over to the rest of the review at our sister site, RedShark Sound.