Kevin Reylek over at B&H has done a fantastic review of options to record better audio with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Kevin writes:

“While the onboard mic performs as advertised, I found it to be serviceable at best. Consisting of just 3 tiny pinholes on the front of the camera body, the mic doesn’t have the greatest pickup distance or quality. It is capable of picking up general ambience and voices, but it also picks up a fair amount of handling noise, which can mar an otherwise suitable recording. So, if you’re recording video clips with the goal of having them heard as well, then an add-on mic is a must.”

They did multiple testings with several mics, and you can listen to the results at the bottom of the article.  While some of the options might seem a little impractical and unwieldy, if you’re serious about using a 5D Mk II for video/audio, you should seriously consider these options.  Even if you don’t have the camera and just record audio separately, the article is worth a read, as it provides a lot of information about different types of microphones.