After spending many days combing the internet and reading review after review I decided to give the RODE VideoMic Directional Camcorder Microphone a try. I wanted something that was good, light, somewhat short and inexpensive. I have a small mini dv camcorder that is only about 5 inches long and didn't want a mic that would get in my viewfinder's shots. The mic sticks out about 5 inches in front of my lens, but manages to stay out of my shots.
First let me comment on the sound. This little bugger picks up sounds very well. In a quiet room I can be 40 yards away and still pick up the conversation. The quality is outstanding. The audio compared to the built-in mic in my camcorder is night and day. The Rode is so clear. The price is great. I'm guessing the quality would compare to other mics in the $300 range.
My Rode came with a Dead Cat wind screen which resembles a cat's tail. It really saved me some money! At first I didn't use the Dead Cat, but then I ran into a little wind which interfered with gathering good audio. After using the Dead Cat, I always keep the wind screen on the mic. It does not interfere with the clarity of the audio and works incredibly well in breezy conditions. I will mention that I had to trim the hair on my wind screen because I could see the hair in my videos. After trimming the hair a bit, the wind screen is still effective and no more hair dangling in the top of my video screen.
The shock vibration design is cool and they even gave me extra rubber band thingies. This mic sits high off the camera and stays out of my shots. Since the mic is somewhat far away from the camcorder, I don't pick up any camera humming noise that can happen with other mics that are too close to the camera. Even on my hotshoe, I don't get any humming.
I wish I could say that I have used $300 mics and above, but I haven't. I will say that you won't be disappointed with this microphone. I'm a photojournalist by trade and I have begun to shoot video for our newspaper's web publication. This mic is perfect for my needs.
If you buy it, don't forget to turn off the mic. I accidently left mine on. There is no auto shutoff. Rode VideoMic Directional Video Condenser Microphone w/Mount
The introduction in the owner's manual states it perfectly. Rode said that when looking for a good camcorder microphone, they were either horrible pieces of junk or super expensive professional models and so they decided to design a mic for this purpose. This model strikes a perfect balance. The quality of this mic is excellent. It is very sensitive and has good directional properties so it rejects noise to the side quite well. Although not meant for picking up sound from long distances it can do quite well from 20 feet away and maybe more.
The mount is attached to the mic so this is the only way you can use it and it is made to mount to the standard "shoe" that is on nearly all camcorders. It is a mono microphone but it has a stereo miniphone jack that plugs in the camcorder mic jack and feeds the audio into both channels. After trying several inferior microphones I was delighted to stumble upon this mic. It is a good value and an excellent microphone for camcorders.
I like the sound I get from the mic and it is very good valuue for the money for prosumer cam owners, but consumer-level camera owners should beware.
I bought this mic and found that it was way too sensitive/hot for consumer cameras like a Panasonic gs200 which has no audio input level control. It picks up too much background noise and overwhelms the camera's automatic gain controller when things get loud. I'm not sure if the gs200 had a mic attenuation setting or if turning it on would have been a sufficient answer. I put a cheap radio shack in-line volume controller in between the mic and the camera (which can introduce crackle if you adjust it while recording).
On prosumer cams with input level control like the Canon GL2 it works fine, even without turning on mic attenuation. If you have a camcorder with input level controls I might get this.
Another important caveat: You cannot run this mic through a the 1/8" connection of a Beachtek mixer box. You'll hear nothing on the beachtek's output because of an impedance mismatch. I don't know if putting an XLR adapter on the mic cable would work.
I bought this mic because I, probably like you, was planning to shoot a movie with a common hand-held HD camera and virtually no budget to splurge for the good stuff. Though the audio you get from this mic is top notch, the mic was all but destroyed on a four week trip that I filmed in hopes of making a documentary. Firstly, the rubber bands that suspend the mic began squeaking with every little movement of the camera, which spoiled hours of audio before I was able to find a fix (vaseline). The bands also constantly broke and had to be replaced, which is a waste of time out on the field when filming. It may help to double up on the rubber bands, or buy your own because the included ones don't tolerate rough wear. Honestly I'm not sure why the mic needs a shock mount at all. Many shotgun mics firmly attach to the hot shoe with no suspension and function equally well.
After more use, the plastic cold foot just wore down and began to slide out of the shoe, needing to be wrapped in duct tape to not fall off completely. A metal foot with a better locking mechanism would be appreciated.
Also as you're probably aware, you're going to need an adapter to use this with many of Canon's video cameras which use a small proprietary shoe system, and all the adapters I could find are cheap plastic crap which are sure to break as well.
Like I said, the audio is great, but I'm upset that I left for the trip with a brand new snazzy mic and came back with war-torn remains brutally duct taped to my camera. I think they should use more metal and redesign the shock mount to make this product durable enough for an extended shoot. - Rode - Video Mic - Microphone - Camcorder Mic'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
