Equipment for video

In conjunction with a private discussion with a forum member, I came up with a list of the sound recording equipment I have acquired for video recording with my cameras. He thought I should share it, since maybe somebody else could be helped by something. So here it is. It has some peripheral discussions too, but they may perhaps be of some general interest too, so I let them stand.
There's some general discussion about video too. As always, skip what doesn't interest you.

There are two major types of microphones (and a bunch of more special ones).
• Dynamic
• Condenser microphones

Dynamic microphones need no external power. This means they aren’t very sensitive. They are typically used handheld on stage, where you almost literally have to be able to lick on them for them to work well. Advantage is that they don’t pick up much interference from around you, since they simply don’t hear it. They are only useful when the fact that they’ll be visible in the movie doesn’t matter. Like a singer on stage.
I have two. I use them for narrators (and singers, should one happen to pass by). You can’t connect them directly to the camera.

Condenser microphones can be made more sensitive. But they need power, and there you have two options again.
• Their own power
• Fed by what they are connected to

For the first category, there are again two versions
• Internal battery
• External power

My Canon DM-E1 is of the first category. It has a CR2032 inside to power it.
Canons more recent DM-E1D is instead powered from the additional pins in the new hot shoe on cameras like the R3. So it’s using the camera’s battery. Indeed about USD 300 to buy it.
https://www.usa.canon.​com …-e1d?color=Black&type=N​ew

Those living off what they are connected to also come in two versions.
• Phantom power
• Plug power

Phantom power is usually a 48 V DC power applied to mono microphones connected with XLR connectors. The principle is that the sound signal, which is AC, is overlaid by a DC offset. Since DC is silent you can’t hear that you lifted the whole level. The sound will be transmitted on a higher level electrically, but you filter that away and out comes the sound signal only.
The power is then extracted from the two signal wires together against the third ground wire. Thus you need an extra wire, so you can only have a mono microphone, in spite of having three wires. You also must use XLR connectors, since the ¼” tip-ring-sleeve phone plug would short-circuit the supply in the jack during the plug-in process, as it’s sliding across all poles when pushed into the connector. XLR have three parallel pins, so they all connect at the same time.
Phantom power of 12 and 24 VDC also exists, but it’s not so common.

The other solution is plug power. It’s a 5 VDC power applied across the two sound channels, left and right, in stereo microphone jacks using the 3.5 mm plug style. They reach the power on the signals in a sequence that doesn’t cause short circuits. Return is on the common ground for the two channels. Thus you can have a stereo signal here and still apply power.
The microphone you found, from Rode, requires plug power. Yesterday evening I checked to see that the R3 does support plug power. It does, just like my older 1DX Mark II does. I tested with my lavalier microphone. It requires plug power, and it works plugged right into the camera. So you can buy that Rode and use it with your camera. No other stuff needed.
The mictrophone I mentioned above, Canon's DM-E1, has a setting for automatic power. Not on, not off, but automatic. That feature actually uses the plug in power to sense if the camera is on or not. If plug in power disappears, then the microphone turns off, to minimize wear of its own battery. When plug in power returns, the microphone starts up again.

The Rode mentioned here is this one: https://petapixel.com …eview-tiny-mic-big-sound/

Regarding myself, I do have quite a few microphones already.
• Canon’s DM-E1. A directional/stereo microphone to mount in the flash shoe. Connects to the camera via cable. https://www.usa.canon.​com …m-e1?color=Black&type=Ne​w
• Two dynamic no-name handheld microphones for narrators (and singers, should Madonna pass by). Similar to this one (mine is discontinued). https://www.kjell.com …med-xlr-anslutning-p23844
• A Zoom lavalier microphone, that kind you clip to your collar (included with the F1)
• A Zoom XYH-6 X/Y microphone capsule. (included with the H6)
• A Zoom MSH-6 MS microphone capsule. (included with the H6)
• A Zoom SSH-6 stereo shotgun microphone capsule. https://zoomcorp.com …witches-and-pedals/SSH-6/

Then I have two separate sound recorders.
• Zoom F1 field recorder. https://zoomcorp.com …rs/field-recorders/f1-lp/
• Zoom H6 recorder/mixer. https://zoomcorp.com …orders/h6-audio-recorder/

These two both support the interchangeable microphone capsules.
The H6 can also directly handle the dynamic microphones.

So I’m pretty well supplied, even without buying another microphone. Canon’s DM-E1D is very handy on an R3, since you just plug it in and it’s all set. No cables. But you can only use it on Canon’s cameras with the new hot shoe design.

In this slide show, the Zoom F1 with X/Y microphone has been used to record some of the surrounding sound, to give a better feeling of ambience.
https://youtu.be/psUHW​DgFRog

I’ve started using my Pinnacle Studio 23 software for not only video editing, but also to create slide shows. Advantage is that you get familiar with the controls. Disadvantage is that it does create a video all the time. If you show the same picture for three seconds, it’s 75 images to show (in Europe, 90 in the US). So you get huge files.

If you do want to go into video, be aware that there’s a significant educational and equipment threshold before it starts looking like something you don’t have to be ashamed of. But it’s quite fun!
They don’t know that yet, but I’m planning a short film with two of the grandkids being the star performers. So casting is completed.

There’s a pedagogic advantage in letting the kids see how much is fake in a movie. On purpose, there’s quite a lot of fake in this little movie too. Like emptying a glass of water and out comes three gallons from a bucket not shown, or a temperature gauge showing 80°F in early spring, because there’s a hot air fan aimed at the sensor and so on.

This is a copy of another post I made in the main R3 discussion thread. But I realized that if somebody searches for video related content, it should be here. So now it's in both places.

In case anybody is considering purchasing a Smallrig cage for the R3, I can report that it fits. The only issue was the little screwdriver that's located in the bottom of the unit. The hexagonal end of that one was so badly manufactured that it didn't fit the screws it's supposed to drive. Had to grind it off a bit to make it work.

The other issue, which is by design, not a manufacturing defect, is that the Swiss Arca mount on the left side prevents using Canon's cable support for the micro-HDMI socket.

You have to remove the camera strap, if you have one, to mount the cage. But the strap can be attached to the cage instead. It's also possible to attach Canon's hand strap E1 (the old one) to the cage.

When shooting video you frequently want to stay with a 180° shutter angle. When recording 25 frames/s, that's equivalent to 1/50 s. Which is a long time when the sun is out (no problem in Sweden today - very grey...).
To remedy that you normally turn to ND filters, since just stopping down the aperture may not be enough, and may also change the depth of field to something you don't want.
As I so far haven't bought any RF lenses for the R3, I realized that I could use Canon's drop-in filter mount adapter EF-EOS R for this purpose. It can be equipped with a variable ND filter, a polarizing filter or just a clear void lens, to make it useful without any filter inside.

It works as expected. Haven't carefully checked if there's any color tint, but it's at least not much.
You can replace the filter with another type with the thing mounted on the camera. Adjustment of the ND or polarizing effect is easy. Perhaps too easy, as you can change it by mistake.

One thing I noticed as an afterthought is that you lose the control ring, if you normally have the control ring mount adapter EF-EOS R. Whatever you assign to that ring you have to change by some different control.

Pretty expensive, but you should spend your money on something before they disappear in some bank crash...

Here's the result of my attempts to make the R3 a camera more suited for video recordings. No dedicated video lens mounted. They are a bit too expensive to be realistic just for some movie recordings for fun.
A bit overloaded with sound recording equipment, but that's more to show what's possible than realistic. The sound recorder, if connected, should usually be closer to somebody who speaks or whatever.

After using this in the field a couple of times, I've observed a few things:

• The R3 outputs 50 frames/s at the HDMI output regardless of whether you set the camera to 25 or 50 frames/s.
  
• Especially when focusing manually, it's a lot easier to see if you are right or wrong on the larger Ninja V screen than on the camera's display.
  
• The range of settings for display appearance is quite a bit larger for the Ninja than for the camera's display.
  
• The Ninja V can record two sound channels from the camera (via HDMI) and two channels from another source, like the Zoom H6, at the same time. To record more channels you need to expand your Ninja.
  
• The remote control of recording on/off via the HDMI from the camera works. When enabled, the Ninja will start and stop recording at the same time as the camera records the same video internally.