You can actually get decent sound from the built-in mic on this camera by using the manual audio level,turn on the limiter or similar and windcut and set the manual control to -12db.this the only cam i ever could use the audio from.honestly if your not satisfied with that using a plugin mic will just be a waste of money,use a seperate audio recorder.------"Quote from older post i made on this very subject".----I always run seperate audio,you shouldn't rely on the camera audio.I have the Canon hv30 and have recorded extremely loud concerts with good results which i have not achieved with any other camcorder even 3500 dollar camcoreders.The key is to control the audio level in the camera manually.First go into the menu and turn ON the limiter and turn ON the wind cut.Now make sure the switch on the right side is set to P not A.P is manual control.Now press in the joystick once and you should see a mini menu which allows for exposure and audio control.Select the audio and you should see a Green bar below the levels make sure the loudest sounds don't go past -12db.Now you should have useable undistorted audio from the camera.Run your seperate audio recorder and know you have 2 sources you could mix together in post.Here's one i recorded this is the camera audio only I can tell you this was very loud and i was in front of the stack.I had to use an 11db attenuator on my DPA 4061 source.Again this clip is just the camera audio built in internal mic using the method i described above.