topic No audio with external mike in Camcorders

No audio with external mike

tweaver113 — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 19:19:02 GMT

Using brand new VIXIA R500 camcorder, auto mode. Normal audio with built-in mike. Normal audio with headphones. But when I plug in external mike, there is no audio, and level meter doesn't move. True for headset mike, and brand new Nikon ME-1 mike. Can you help?

Re: No audio with external mike

Richard — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 21:14:27 GMT

Hi Tweaver113,

From your description, it sounds like the microphone may not be compatible with the camcorder. Here are the specifications for external microphones:

3.5 mm stereo minijack
-57 dBV (with 600 Ohm microphone)/5 kilohms or more

I recommend checking with the manufacturer to ensure that it's compatible with the VIXIA HF R500.

Re: No audio with external mike

tweaver113 — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 21:20:26 GMT

RODE Stereo mike arrived today, it works perfectly! The difference is it has a built in 9V battery. That's one more thing to crap out in a middle of a shoot, but I'll live with that. RODE is higher price, but regarded as the defacto standard. Next step is shooting outdoors on a windy day, see how much noise supression there is. That's the whole reason I went with external mike.