Hi Folks

Sorry folks but I am a complete newbie at this kind of thing, so if my questions don’t make any sense I apologise beforehand.

I work for a community organisation and we’ve recently done some video work. We have two cameras at Sony HVR-A1E, which we bought recently; we were also given a Canon XM1, which I understand it much older.

Someone said that to be able to use the Canon we would need an XLR box, which costs a couple of hundred pounds. Previous to that someone said that we just needed some kind of adapter.

I don’t want to have to spend money on items we don’t need so would really appreciate some advice. My understanding is this is something to do with stereo sound?????

But as I explained earlier I don’t really have a clue, all help much appreciated.

As I understand it the Mic input on the XM1 is a stereo mini jack. Canon do make an adaptor that is powered from the shoe that gives you two mono XLR sockets both of which have phantom power available for powering pro condenser mics.

Depending on the mic/mics you want to use you may or may not need this. If you want to use condenser mics that require 48V phantom power (as MOST pro mics do) then you will need one) If however you can manage with a dynamic mic or a condenser that is powered by an internal battery, then the right kind of adapter is all that is required.

Mics that fall into the latter category that come to mind are the ubiquitous Shure SM58 vocal mic, (dynamic) the Rode videomic (internally powered condenser) the shure would require an XLR - Mini jack cable, the Rode already is suitable for mini-jack operation.

There are a number of consumer/prosumer mics that are designed for camcorder use without the need for an XLR adapter. The Canon DM50 would work with the XM1, it is a dual mode shotgun/stereo wide field mic, that powers off the canon hot-shoe, the Sennheiser MKE400 is a little new shotgun designed for small higher end consumer camcorders. I just got me an Audio Technica ATR25 stereo mic, which is silly cheap money for what is actually quite a good mic. They also do the ATR55 which is s shotgun version.

I really like some of the Bayer Dynamic stuff - the MCE 86 II S is a battery powered shotgun with a great spec, but it's not cheap.

But if you already have some high-end phantom powered mics around the only solution really is an adapter, the Canon MA300 should be compatible (but check with the dealer), alternatively look at the BeachTec range.

If you don't need a field solution and you are going to be working in a studio situation, you could look at a small mixer from the likes of Mackie, 402 VZL3, (about £90) all of which will have good preamps and phantom power, and use the mixer output to drive the line-in on your camcorder

Hi

Thanks very much for your response, its really difficult when you don't know what you are doing

We have three microphones Sure SM57 - Sennheiser ME66 - Sony F-112 we also have a Sennheiser Evolution Wireless G2 kit.

We are community organisation and we produce a monthly community newspaper, as a result of some funding we received last year we were able to produce two internet TV news shows. We worked with two professional to do those programmes but now we are on our own and it's proving quite difficult to continue as there is so much we don't understand. But we will give it our best shot and now i've found this forum i'm sure we will be asking lots more questions in the future.

If you want to have a look at what we have done so far follow the link below, the shows we produced are called On Hattersley
[***.hmcm.org.uk/index.php?q=taxonomy/term/34+31+32+33+40]

The SM57 and Sony F112 are both dynamics and as such only need the right cable adaptor (such as the Hosa XLR-Mini-jack - XVM Series adapter)

The ME66 would require the Sennheiser K6 powering module Sennheiser Worldwide: K 6 - K 6 I guess you might already have that.

The G2 wireless kit doesn't need phantom power as the EK100 receiver has it's own battery (but I don't know what the output socket type is and their website isn't that clear)

So I would say you don't need an XLR box with those mics

Here there

I've been trying to find the suggested Hosa XLR-Mini-jack - XVM Series adapter - I've googled it and the only thing I've been able to come up with is ***.dolphinmusic.co.uk/shop/flypage/product_id/8560 which i don't think is the right thing... If it not right, it would be much appreciated if you could point me in the right direction.

Try these

Hosa 3.5 mm to XLR (F) Mono Plug, 5 ft. | Dolphin Music

or

Lynx XLR (f) to 3.5mm stereo jack Minidisc cable 1m | Dolphin Music

or

Bandland