As always the answer is, 'it depends'..
I have no idea what your target use is, how professional you want to go, or how deep 'into the bush' you plan on getting. I am certainly no expert on wildlife recording. But I have traveled extensively throughout India and Asia and I have made many enjoyable amateur recordings of trains, birds, frogs and other non-human things here in the States.
Some important things to consider:
What is the primary goal of the trip? Sound recording above all else, part vacation, or mostly vacation with some sound recording as well? How much gear can you / do you want to haul? What will be the primary use of the audio? There seems to be two different approaches to wildlife recording, with different aims even if they are not necessarily exclusive of the other. Although it sounds like you are looking for some of both, it's easier if you primarily target one or the other of these, since getting both at the same time is more difficult and generally takes more gear. At the risk of insulting your expertise with my limited understanding, this is how I differentiate the two: 1) capturing the overall sonic feel and atmosphere of a particular environment. This is often used for 'traveling audio journal' type material, think "your are there in the bazaar or out on the Serengeti" NPR audio documentary type material. It's an approach that stresses naturalness of the overall sound and is generally used more for artistic or story telling purposes, things like radio or film ambiances, etc. Although recordings of this persuasion might end up layered or used as a background track, they can usually stand on their own, sonically speaking. 2) Isolating a particular sound of interest, such as a specific animal's call. This is often a more analytical goal, focusing on capturing the sound of one particular element or critter in the overall sonic environment 'scene'. This approach often sacrifices naturalness of the overall ambience as less important than maximizing the clarity and presence or signal to noise ratio of the sound of interest. As an example- bird researchers are far more concerned with properly identifying the species and numbers of birds present and place much less value on all other sonic qualities of the recording. This approach is what you will encounter on many, but not all wildlife recording forums. That isn't always the case, as the goal may be high quality samples of animal calls for TV or film work where the naturalness of the specific sound is primarily important, but those sounds are not designed to stand on their own terms and are nearly always layered on top of other environment ambiences.
So consideration of those things will obviously influence your choices.
Next time I travel to India and Bhutan I’m bringing my four 4060s as part of a 4-channel surround recording rig that I can literally fit entirely in a small shaving kit bag (including mics, small telescopic TV antenna as A-B bar, recorder(s), batteries, chargers, media, preamps, etc). I’ll probably not even pack a small stand and simply use the ‘rabbit ear’ telescopic TV antenna like the coat hanger wire you mention- works great, adjusts easily and packs small. My goal is high-quality overall ambient capture and small, easy to carry, but environment-hardy gear. I also want to be able to record with a minimum of fuss. Small electret omnis fit those requirements nicely and I know I can get the quality I want, powered by a few AA’s and rechargeable 9V batteries.
The DPA 4060s (or other high-quality and probably less expensive, small PIP powered omnis such as the Sennheisers John mentioned, possibly the Countryman B-3, etc.) are excellent for making realistic, enveloping 'you are in the enviromnent' type recordings. They are incredibly small and very hardy in difficult environments. I've drenched them in pouring rain, rinsed them in distilled water and they were fine. They usually only need foam windscreen protection for any weather you’d be recording in. Self noise of super small omnis will be higher than ‘big mics’, and that topic always comes up on nature recording forums, but I haven’t found it to be a problem using the 4060s for the quiet ambient material I’ve recorded (it could be a factor with other mics). As omnis, they generally fit approach #1 above, unless you can plant the rig quite close to the critter you are targeting, or perhaps use them with a parabolic reflector, which of course adds considerable bulk to your rig. I’ve never used a parabolic reflector, but that can be a way of getting some approach #2 with the same rig when you need to focus in from more of a distance. If interested in that, check the nature DIY forums for parabolic techniques using baffled stereo omnis in the reflector, or you might try using one mic of the pair in the reflector like a typical mono parabolic mic, and the other attached to the back side of it, capturing the general ambience.. some of both worlds.
If the focus is the #2 approach, shotguns do a superior job of isolating specific sounds at a distance, but the naturalness of all off-axis sound suffers. Quality shotguns (and figure-8s if combined for MidSide stereo) are much more costly than quality small omnis, and generally require phantom powering.. meaning bigger, bulkier, more expensive and much more power hungry equipment. True condenser mics are also less hardy in difficult environments, phantom powered Sennheiser RF mics excepted. The gear is generally much bigger, including all the support stuff, like the cables, shock mounts, effective windscreens, etc. But if the #2 approach is your goal, then these may be reasonable concessions.
Hope that helps, apologies for being so wordy.. analyze your goals are and figure out the best trade-offs.
[Below are a couple photos of my
'shaving kit' packable 4 channel surround rig, using telescopic TV antennas and small stand. Without the stand it all fits in the smaller rectangular kit bag, including chargers.
Flikr slideshow of setting it up is here]-
Topic: field recording newbie: shotgun or parabolic dish? (Read 11543 times)