Sony Active Interface Shoe

[Neil]

Hi Guys!

I tried doing taping at CES this year with my Sony HDRSR10, but the recording audio quality just wasn't good enough because I need an external mic. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't have an external mic jack. Instead, it has a Sony "Active Interface Shoe".

I just want to wire a traditional hand-held microphone to the camera. Any ideas on where I can find the right microphone? Is there a converter that will work?

Regards,
Neil

[chrisdfw]

I'm into audio/video gear and have had my own Canon HD video camera for a few years. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the Sony models. I always stay clear of Sony since they insist on using their own proprietary memory, batteries, and connectors instead of the industry standards.

After doing a little research, it doesn't appear you can get an adapter to use standard microphones.

However, there is an article that makes it look pretty easy to buy a sony part and hack it to add microphone support:

http://www.camerahacker.com/Forums/Disp ... input.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hope that helps.

Chris

[BlackShark]

Hi neil.
I also have a sony handheld camera with an active shoe interface and it is perfectly possible to use external mikes.
For trade shows like CES, GDC, E3, etc... the best option is a hand mike. You can get great professionnal hand mikes for about 100$. Any cardioid or supercardioid should be good, dynamic mikes are recommanded since they only pick sound from close sources (your mouth) and not far sources (the very noisy trade show).



First you need to know if you have a 3.5mm mic jack on the camera or if you only have the active shoe. Cameras with a mic jack are quite rare but they exist (my camera, an HDR HC7 has one).

If you don't have a mic jack, then there is a mini-jack to active interface shoe adapters but i 've heard it's quite difficult to get one. it's called the "sony vmc k100"


Then all you need is the XLR -> mini-jack converter.
XLR to mini-jack converters are rare, so you may have to do it XLR -> jack 6.35mm -> mini-jack 3.5mm, this is the way i did it and it works great.


just make sure you use a jack 6.35 -> mini-jack 3.5 CABLE and not a big bulky adapter or you may not be able to lock the jack. (or make sure you have a little additional 3.5mm cable extension)


I used this guerilla reporter technique when i filmed my video at the ESWC Paris masters in july 2008 (Electronic Sports World Cup).
http://www.dailymotion.com/blacksharkfr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


As a last possible solution, you can use an external audio recorder but that's not recommanded synce you will have to sync the audio and video manually and there are very high risks of unsync due to the two recorders (camera and audio recorder) not having constand sync connection.
So you must make sure you don't record stuff more than a couple minutes long before resynching.

[Neil]

I found a cure to the problem!

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetai ... atid=20048" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They exchanged and gave me an amazing deal.

Problem solved!

Regards,
Neil

[yuriythebest]

Neil! awesome that you got a microhopne, also get a tripod- they are cheap, I got mine for like 30$

[Neil]

Hi Guys!

I'm at NAB...with my NEW CAMERA! WOOHOO!

This camera is absolutely amazing, and the hand microphone makes such a difference!

There are going to be lots of videos and interviews to post, and I'm sure you will all be pleased!

Regards,
Neil

[Neil]

Hi Guys!

Need some help!

In addition to having interview content, I have some really big panel discussion videos from NABSHOW 2009. When I encode them, for 1280 X 720 resolution, what would be the best bit rate to use? I don't think members will download gigabytes of files, and I think it would be a waste to not have decent video quality to share given that it is coming from an HD camera.

Need some guidance!

Regards,
Neil