Firstly let me start by commending such a brilliant and informative website,
I have just joined and am very impressed with the contents from the forums.

I have recently purchased a canon xl1 and am some what of a novice when it comes to the technacalities. I am interested in updating the onboard microphone, but as i am a student I do not have a huge budget. I have been looking into purchasing a MA100 xlr adapter so that somewhere in the future i can perhaps invest into a reasonable mic, on searching the internet I came across a number of xlr adapters that simply plug into the mini jack, these peripherals entised me due to there low price, but my concerns were weather or not they would do the same job as the MA100 adapter? if anyone knows about this or has some good advice on good value mics, It would be greatly appreciated, cheers, Bruce.

Some, such as the products form Studio 1 and Beachtek, are popular and used with success by many. And they have some adantages over the MA-100, not the least of which is the ability to work with line-level sinput signals.

The advantage of the MA100 is it provides an improved shoulder rest, a platform for mounting some other accessories sucha as a wireless mic receiver, and about 6 dB of gain, but it does not accept line-level inputs.

Cheers for that info, its saved me a bob or two, I already own a shoulder rest so no real benefit.

yeah... the ma100 is nice because you gain some flexibility in mounting add-ons to your camera (wireless receivers, phantom power belt packs, etc.). as an xlr adapter, it's probably not the best option. there are better options out there, like the beachtek dxa8, that give you line inputs, gain control, limiters, and 48v phantom power. you probably don't want to use a high-end mic on-camera anyway.