MA300 XLR microphone adapter

need to fabricate an accessory which will enable me to safely mount
my Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic to the MA-300 XLR adaptor.
It seems only a 25mm mic will fit in the neck as it is and the adaptor
is not adjustable. Known additional accessories? Suggestions beyond
switching to a Beachtek? Thanks in advance...

[Ken Tanaka]

Since the MA300 is an acccessory specific to the GL2 / XM2 I thought your post might be best served over here.

I believe that this is the same issue that XL1/s users have long faced with the thinner ME66. It's been solved by the use of a special bushing inside the fitting. Give the folks at ZGC (zgc.com) a call. I'd bet they have a good solution for you that's less expensive than getting a BeachTek.

Thanks for the ZGC suggestion, Ken. They did try to get me an adaptor ring from a company called lightweight systems which was supposed to work, but does not. ZGC plans to modify these rings by having the metal sized down, so a "true" adaptor should be available through them in the coming weeks for those who need. meanwhile, my own temp solution is a play off another suggestion from a collegue. Apparently sound folks have made due in this kind of jam with a bicycle innertube cut to size to absorb shock and hockey stick tape. I went for what seemed the best of both worlds: outergrip meant for tennis rackets. this mainly sticks to itself and does not create a sticky mess on your mic and is also designed to absorb shock as the rubber innertube would and is used to handling the humidity and moisture of sweat. not to mention that the duratrac by wilson is the exact width of the MA-300s mic cradle! Sennheiser seems pretty safe, snug and sound on there, run and gun shooting conditions will be the true test. Hope this helps someone else out there facing the same problem...

[Ken Tanaka]

Good for you! Thanks very much for following-up with a solution that probably will help many others with the same problem.

[Les Hull]

I have searched and I can't find any info on this question. When using the MA-300 can you use the audio coming into 1 XLR on one channel and audio coming into the 3.5 mic input on another? I guess my question is basically can I use a shotgun mic plugged into the XLR adapter and then plug the output of a Sennheiser Evolution 100 wireless receiver into the 3.5 jack and get audio from both simultaneously or is it all XLR or no XLR at any given time? Thanks again for your help.

[Chris Hurd]

Sorry, but with the XLR adapter, it's either all or none. Besides, the mini-jack on the right side of the GL2 is stereo anyway. Meaning that if you plug in a mono device, it doesn't automatically free up a channel. Both channels are "taken," but one will be dead, the other live.

For what you want to do, consider an adapter cable to convert your receiver up to XLR and plug it into the MA300. Hope this helps,

[Eric Richmond]

Hey guys, I was wondering is there a marked difference in quality between the mic on cam vs. a shotgun mic that would be plugged into the side of the cam vs. the ma-300 adapter with two xlr mics?

I'm currently thinking of recording some footage of jazz musicians in a controlled documentary style setting. My immediate guess would be that using the ma-300 with two real nice mics for true stereo imaging would work best. Especially because I would be able to place those mics wherever I wanted.

Does this make sense?

I guess the shotgun mic would be used for when you need good audio on the move?

[Don Palomaki]

Makes a world of sense.

The GL1/2 (XMx) built-in mic is decent as on-camera mics go in its price range, but there is no substitute for close mic-ing the program material with appropriate mics. For bst results mic each piece with appropriate mics and use a mixer - feed that signal at -30 dBV to the GL1 set to MIC ATT setting. Manage your levels to heep the GL1 outof AGC/limiting mode.

Alternatively, consider getting a single point stereo mic, such as the AT-825.

In general on-camera mics are poor for musical ensembles, and as you move the camera to ediffrent angles you will get a different stereo image.

[Eric Richmond]

Thanks for confirming my ideas!

-Eric

[Linc Kesler]

Hi Eric,

You didn't note the setting. If it's in a club, and the musicians are already mic'ed for the PA, you could just run line level from the PA to the camera. I don't know whether the Canon adaptor provides attenuation for line level feeds, but the Studio 1 adaptor I use does. If you are using more than one mic, or want to have some EQ control, a small mixer is a good idea. Behringer makes a very small one my local music store was selling for $69. I had to run it through the Studio 1 for attenuation, but it worked. With this mixer, it was pretty critical to keep the mixer gain controls at neutral or less, or the mixer introduced hiss, but the EQ worked fairly well, and it does have phantom power, which is very useful, esp. at this price, if you are using mics that require it. No doubt a $400 Mackie would be better. But again, if it's in a club setting, you might have a really good board to work with, and the musicians might already be using mics they like.

I've also read that other people have not typically regarded the sound recording circuitry in this level camera to really be up to "CD quality": the sampling, etc., is, but not the preamp circuitry, so they seem to do sound separately on a DAT deck, or mini-CD, and mix it with the video in post. But that may be way overkill for what you want to do, and kinda takes things out of the scene-documentary space, if that's more what you are looking for.

Oh yeah, while we're at it, it also seems that people recording live music note that some volume levels are a bit high for the mics one would use in other situations. I know musicians commonly use very specific (and relatively inexpensive) mics for both vocal and instruments in live environments, and I think they are designed more for those applications (Shure 58s are popular, if I'm remembering right--could be 85s!) and won't be overwhelmed by the sound levels.

I'm really no expert, and most of this is just info I've gleaned from other sources trying to keep myself out of trouble. For my immediate work (oral history), I decided to skip the mixer: the added EQ wasn't enough of an advantage, and keeping it simple made a lot of sense, esp. given the sensitivites of my subjects, for whom the camera and wearing a lavalier were already intimidating enough. But it was worth checking out for me, just so I knew what I was or was not missing.

Linc Kesler

Linc Kesler

[Eric Richmond]

thanks for that post, yeah... I think for what I'm envisioning, the camera (thru xlr) sound will suffice.

I have a pretty decent audio studio I built about a year ago (actually my dv studio is part of the audio studio.. the dv studio consists of my gl2, vegas video 3.0, and soon to be adobe after effects :))

So manipulating sound once I get it isn't a problem. those behringer mixers are decent for the price. my friend usesthem for to submix his rock band during performances. However, I've noticed (as you stated) there is a lot of noise that comes from it. Since I wanna focus on jazz, I'm gonna get a mackie if I get anything

I'm about to get a 1604-vlz pro for my studio anyway.

-Eric

hello, after my second day using the canon gl2 with the ma300, using an at835st mic, it just stopped working. ive spent two weeks trying to resolve it, i know all the menus and settings to this thing by memory now, and nothing solves it, even taking out the battery for a day to reset everything. i see no levels on the audio meters, nor is sound recorded to tape nor heard live. the mic works fine, the cable works fine, i dunno if its the ma300 or the camera.

do i just try and get canon to help? their email support doesnt answer me. thanks for any input, im pretty sad and drained about this.

[Chris Hurd]

I don't understand why you have been sitting on this for two weeks; you should have called for help immediately, at most within a day or two of the problem.

Contact your nearest Canon service facility, which Canon Factory Service at 100 Jamesburg Road, Jamesburg, NJ 08831. The telephone number there is (732) 521-7007.

If possible, try a different mic and see if you get anything. Are you sure the MA300 is properly seated with full contact. Be prepared to send the camera to Jamesburg. You'll pay for shipping one way but the camera is covered by the one year parts & labor warranty, provided that you bought it from an authorized US dealer.

i was just thinking perhaps someone else had run into the same unsual problem, or maybe there was something i was overlooking...
im going to try and get another ma300 and see if its something in the ma300 circuitry that went perhaps, that would be a nice a simple resolve.

[Tony Webber]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has used the ma300 and if so whats it like. is it stable or does it wobble on the hotshoe.

What size mic can it hold? does it make the camera front heavy,

anyone who has any info on the ma300 please let me know


regards

tony webber