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RODE Video Mic Question

Charlie_Grinnell

Charlie_Grinnell

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Bob Gundu said:
I remember reading on the forum here that it's not possible to use this mic.
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I remember seeing something but I thought I'd ask...

Can anyone point me in the right direction of onboard audio that is very small such as a mic that plugs in etc.
 
I can see no reason why it would not work. The mike is battery powered (not needing phantom pow) and the cable is just a stereo female 3.5mm to dual mono male conversion. Should be straight forward...

Would also be interested to hear from someone who'd tried on camera, or a resonable argument for why it would not work.
 
I use the video mic pro into my EPIC via a home made patch cable - works fine. It's a good solution if you ask me, it's a really small and light mic and the quality's fine for on-camera audio. I am hanging out for XLR inputs though!

Chris
 
It will not work out of the box because the Rode uses the 3.5mm jack in this way

Ring - Ground
Sleeve - Signal +ve
Tip - Signal +ve

The EPIC is wired as follows

Ring - Ground
Sleeve - Signal -ve
Tip - Signal +ve

Thus balanced. If you plug the Rode Videomic straight in the camera's circuitry will subtract one signal from the other resulting in silence. Easiest way to get around this is to have a short patch cable that only has the ground and the tip connected.
 
Is there a place where a person lacking DIY skills could buy such patch cable?
 
I use a Sennheiser mke 300 straight into the camera, works fine. Good enough for ambience track, which is about all a camera mounted mic is good for anyway. That's an old model, but the current is probably wired the same way.

edit; Just checked out the current model, MKE 400. Looks like it would work. These DSLR mics are cheap plastic mics that sound ok. Not really for dialog, but plenty for ambience and fx.
 
I have used the Rode videomic Pro on my Epic. I use it via XLR and a Wooden camera A-box. Rode makes a balanced XLR adapter for $15. You can also get a properly wired mini cable adapter. It does work and is suprisingly okay.
 
rod bradley said:
I have used the Rode videomic Pro on my Epic. I use it via XLR and a Wooden camera A-box. Rode makes a balanced XLR adapter for $15. You can also get a properly wired mini cable adapter. It does work and is suprisingly okay.
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Can you please point me in the direction of the "properly wired mini cable adapter"?

Thanks for all the info guys!
 
Also adding I'd be hesitant to use the adaptor cable listed in the OP in case it damaged the camera by shorting out phantom power.

In lieu of a properly made patch cable you could MacGuyver one out of a pair of Y-splits, thusly

1x Male stereo 3.5mm jack to 2x RCA plug
1x Female stereo 3.5mm jack to 2x RCA socket

By running the Rode into the latter, and then from there into the former but only hooking up ONE of the RCA pairs you will then have a 3.5mm output to plug into the camera that only has one channel wired thus should work with the balanced circuitry. It's a bit of an ugly hack but should work.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/216446-REG/Hosa_Technology_YRA_154_Stereo_Mini_Male_to.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...hnology_YMR_197_Stereo_Mini_3_5mm_Female.html
 
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Hudson Tanimoto said:
By running the Rode into the latter, and then from there into the former but only hooking up ONE of the RCA pairs you will then have a 3.5mm output to plug into the camera that only has one channel wired thus should work with the balanced circuitry. It's a bit of an ugly hack but should work.
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Thanks for your wiring stats earlier. As far as this one, I would be embarrassed to have an RCA plug on an Epic (or a Scarlet, for that matter) If you're not shooting a 7D, get a decent mic. For lightweight, get a battery powered mic like:

For $150, you could try this;

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/733895-REG/Sony_ECM_CG50_ECM_CG50_Shotgun_Microphone.html

or better for about $300

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/367747-REG/Rode_NTG_2_NTG_2_Battery_or_Phantom.html
 
Pretty sure that Sony won't be wired balanced. It'll be wired like the VideoMic. Aside from some radio mic gear, the EPIC is the only thing that does balanced audio on a 3.5mm jack. It's really uncommon.

The Rode NTG2 just has an XLR connection, you'd still need a properly wired 3.5mm to XLR lead, and pretty much any commerically manufactured lead you can find in this configuration is going to be incompatible with balanced, because they are designed to run balanced mics into handycams (by dropping or shorting the out of phase signal)

Yes it's not neat to have a couple of RCAs hanging off your EPIC but that was just a quick, cheap and simple example to get the VideoMic working on an EPIC. If you need it to look professional go get the Wooden Camera A-Box and use your favourite flavour professional mic with an XLR connection.

EDIT: This is an example of one that is wired correctly for EPIC http://www.swamp.net.au/line-level-cable-3.5mm-trs-to-xlr-f-audio-cable.html

EDIT2: I've actually been making up cables like the above example today to test audio on the EPIC. Supposedly the latest BETA build lets you select between balanced and unbalanced, which *in theory* would let you plug something like a VideoMic straight in, but from my testing this setting has no effect - ie you still need to send a balanced signal (in phase, out of phase, ground) or with a custom cable send it (in phase, no connection, ground)
 
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Here's what I don't understand... There is mini jacks on the front of the epic, the rode videomic is a mini jack. There has got to be some sort of mic that works out of he box with epic that is mini jack... I just find it annoying to own one of these mics and it doesn't work when hey have the same type of jacks. If I have no othe choice I'll buy an a box, just wanted to see what the options are.
 
If your putting a mic mounted on an Epic then the audio will be practically unusable, the mic is in completely the wrong place. If its used for guide only then you can get away with it so virtually any mic will do for guide audio. Dont worry about it but also dont think you can use the audio either. Best option is get a suitable inexpensive cable XRR to Mini jack and move the mic off the camera and to a suitable placement for the audio you need, that should work fine.
 
Charlie_Grinnell said:
Here's what I don't understand... There is mini jacks on the front of the epic, the rode videomic is a mini jack. There has got to be some sort of mic that works out of he box with epic that is mini jack... I just find it annoying to own one of these mics and it doesn't work when hey have the same type of jacks. If I have no othe choice I'll buy an a box, just wanted to see what the options are.
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It's the way the EPIC is wired. It's non-standard.

Dave Blackham said:
If your putting a mic mounted on an Epic then the audio will be practically unusable, the mic is in completely the wrong place.
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Not necessarily true, it depends what you're doing. I fashioned up a little bracket today to hold a Sennheiser shotgun mic onto the Epic via a shock mount. It would be perfectly usable for run-n-gun on docos, etc. Couldn't hear the fan at all (although if you monitor via the headphone socket on the EPIC you may hear some electrical noise from the fan but it doesn't seem to make it into the actual recording)
 
Have to say I don't agree Dave. Particularly for doc's or factual I think it's worth having a mic at least as good as the Rode on-camera, obviously not for recording sync sound or interviews but it will give you some useable atmos that you don't have to go through the rigmarole of recording seperately and syncing up later. I mount mine on a noga arm extended a little way out from the vents, it works at least as well as any ENG on-camera mic. And like you say, very useful for guide track in other situations.

Cheers,

Chris
 
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