Monitoring off 5Dmk2 mic

[Harry Simpson]

I have a Rode SVM mic that, for acoustic shows I want to place on a stand I've built and run a 20 ft cable back to the 5dmk2 on a tripod. I've bought some quality over the ear headphones for monitoring. I know I can use the juicelink or some other device but was wonering if there was ANYWAY to simply hook into the signal going into the mic input of the camera to listen to the sound coming from the external mic?

I'm embarassed to say I had a splitter 2 female 1/8s going into one 1/8 male course I heard nothing cause both were inputs.....

hmmmm maybe i could turn it around....would the headphones plugged in degrade the sound going to the camera?

Is there a simple device out there that would allow me to use headphones to listen in on the sound going from the mic to the camera?

TIA

[Steve House]

The mic level signal coming from the SVM is totally incapable of driving headphones on its own. You need the amplification that a device like the Juideclink would provide. A simple splitter won't do.

[Evan Donn]

I believe Magic Lantern allows you to use the A/V jack for monitoring via headphones, although it may need a small inline headphone amplifier to get acceptable levels.

[Zach Love]

A simple device would be a mixer, and / or a seperate audio recorder.

Part of the lovely workflow of using a still camera to do video.

Also I'd be wary about using a 20' cable on that mic. I think the mic / camera have unblanaced audio which isn't good for anything over a few inches.

I'd say you might get better audio if you put a Zoom H4N 20' away from the camera, record audio there & then just sync things up in post.

[Harry Simpson]

Thanks Zach,

I've actually gotten good (to my ears) audio with the mic on the end of a boom on a stand about 15' away but via the 20' cable so I know it "works" - how well is another matter but the audio was clear and I cleaned it up even more and was satisfied.

I suppose and H4N would have a monitor jack to listen in realtime while it's recording?

[Jay Massengill]

The H4n has a single output for either headphone or line out. If you wanted to connect that output to your camera and also listen with headphones, you would still need some additional equipment and experimentation. I've never attempted to split this output and use one leg for headphones and one leg as a line output. That may work or it may not be satisfactory. You'd need a splitter, headphones and an attenuated dubbing cable for the camera to test it out.
If this didn't work well you'd need a small mixer instead of a splitter.
In addition I've never used the 1/8-inch mic input on the H4n, some people report it is worse than the XLR mic inputs for noise floor if you wanted to connect your Rode mic to the 1/8-inch jack.
I almost always feed my H4n with a controlled line level signal into the 1/4-inch connectors. Rarely I use the onboard mics.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Harry Simpson

Thanks Zach,

I've actually gotten good (to my ears) audio with the mic on the end of a boom on a stand about 15' away but via the 20' cable so I know it "works" - how well is another matter but the audio was clear and I cleaned it up even more and was satisfied.

I suppose and H4N would have a monitor jack to listen in realtime while it's recording?

As far as the quality of signal delivered, there's no real difference between balanced and unbalanced - they both can be equally good. But an unbalanced cable is more subject to electrical noise pickup than a balanced cable might be. How severe it is or whether it is an issue at all depends on what else is going on in the environment. Some locations might have so many strong noise sources like high amperage AC power lines, dimmer boxes, or flourescent lights with leak ballasts that even 6 foot would be too much while other, quieter, environments you might be able to get away with even more than 20 feet. It's going to be a roll of the dice.

[Harry Simpson]

thanks for explaining that - makes sense and I did not know that.

[Harry Simpson]

So now I have an interview tomorrow and i'm afraid to wire the mic off camera for fear of line noise which wasn't a problem at the last interview but this is a different venue - so turn off AGC, turn off the stabilizer and shoot with the RODE on the camera somewhat close to the talent? I just want to get the best setup to use with the Mk2 for audio.

[Jay Massengill]

I would test with the cable and mic mounted on the stand.
On-camera will likely be too far away.
At least that's my bet on which is the bigger risk.

[Harry Simpson]

Thanks

Ended up keeping it on the hotshoe (i was about 8 ft away. Tried to dial in the audio pre manually but for whatever reason on playback I heard NO AUDIO so I turned the AGC back on and used it. The good ol AGC provided a steady noise when no sound existed but I was able to clean it satisfactorily in post. The client loved the output so I reckon all ended well.

Thing is if I had tested wired, other playing back a test through the crappy on camera speaker, I have no way to really verify anything other than if I have sound or not.

[Jay Massengill]

Perhaps you could add a netbook, an iPad, or a notebook, and a card reader to your field kit? Then you could play your test files on that with headphones and the larger screen.

Really though you do need a small mixer so you can at least monitor the live sound going into the camera.

[Harry Simpson]

any recommendations on a good small mixer for this purpose? so the Rode SVM mic into the mixer and the mixer output to the Mk2? With headphones off the mixer?

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Harry Simpson

any recommendations on a good small mixer for this purpose? so the Rode SVM mic into the mixer and the mixer output to the Mk2? With headphones off the mixer?

JuicedLink DT454 ... 2 XLR inputs plus 3.5mm stereo input (thus will handle either the SVM or a couple of more professional XLR mics or hard-wired lavs), metering, headphone amp, AGC defeater if necessary, well made, low cost

[Harry Simpson]

I've about decided to base my whole audio capture around the Zoom H4N and a combination of XLR wired mics......cause I'm not rich and the "budget" for most gigs isn't there. Anyhoo Guess I've need a minimum of two mics and could even use my RODE SVM wired (monitor the input on the Zoom via headphones right)

Louder concerts I'll probably at least dual record (Zoom plus Mk2 mounted RODE SVM).

Acoustic concerts with say an upright bass, guitar and another fiddle etc.....could two wired mics cover that? Is there a mic that does really well covering an area say 10ft radius?

TIA
Harry