Canon Vixia HF R800: Lots of External Microphone Options!

[@KRYPTOS_K5]

This is a quite practical lesson and in fact quite complete. Thank you Brasil

[@jamesmurphy1389]

Thanks for this! Really helpful. Can you tell me why my wireless mic is only recording on one channel (in playback) with my VIXIA HF R800? everything's fully powered up and both lights green (on sender and receiver). Thanks for any help. 😎

[@iixxion]

10:30 this is just wrong. A battery is necessary, but not sufficient. There are several mics that have batteries, but will NOT work with the Vixia cameras. Deity, Rode, Sennheiser, all have on-camera mics that do indeed have a battery, but will still NOT work with a Vixia. Their literature confirms this. One of the main reasons why they will not work is because they have automatic on/off based on whether the plug-in power signal is detected. If they don't detect power from the camera, then the mic never turns on, and thus, is as useless as a non-battery mic. Examples of battery-powered mics that will NOT work with Vixia include: Sennheiser mke 400, Deity v-mic D4, and Rode VideoMic NTG.

[@DanielSRosehill]

Thanks for the correction

[@iixxion]

@@DanielSRosehill I've been researching this for three days now and it is very frustrating trying to find a good on-camera-style mic to use with my Vixia R800 (mounted in a cheap hand grip that also supplies 3 cold shoes). The only all-in-one options are 200+ USD. I'm finding some shotgun mic kits (e.g. Vidpro XM-55 bundle at 75USD) that give you a self-powered shotgun mic and XLR to 3.5mm cable, but then it comes down to signal quality and that's basically where I'm at right now. Trying to find something with decent signal-to-noise ratio and build quality. Some I've had to rule out due to weird issues, the worst of which is one particular mic requiring cr2032 batteries...those things are like five dollars a piece and last just a few hours.

[@DanielSRosehill]

@@iixxion it's a very frustrating design limitation. I bought the HFR800 because it was pretty much the only camcorder on the market at around its price point that supported external audio. You'd think it wouldn't have been too much extra design cost to add PIP to the port. For what its worth, I've since graduated to the XA40 which thankfully covers just about all microphone options, including XLR.

[@iixxion]

@@DanielSRosehill When the R800 released, it was not an issue, because way back then, on-camera mics weren't in demand the way they are now. most current on-camera mics were designed for the vlogging crowd who sent dslr sales through the roof and then everyone forgot about camcorders. Yet, ten year old camcorders are far more versatile and useful than a DSLR that shoots video.

[@MIKROWAVE1]

@@iixxion I just connected a classic Dynamic Hand mic (no power required) and one XLR to 3.5 mm mono cable and it works perfectly.

[@EarthNectar]

Hello, i notice an intermittent buzz sound in your audio. Is that a problem with the Lavalier mic?

[@DanielSRosehill]

I wish I had the answer! Unfortunately I've since upgraded to a pro Canon camcorder (the XA40) and don't use my Vixia so much any more. But .... more likely a problem with the mic than the camera.

[@larrydavidhansen]

Does the Canon Vixia HF R800 work with an external mic that requires phantom power?

[@DanielSRosehill]

Nope. It supplies literally no power out of its 3.5mm port. Neither low voltage DC / PIP nor phantom power.

[@geoffzalot665]

Do you have any clue about whether the Deity D3 will work with the HF R500? I'm having trouble getting it to work. I assume the HF R800 has the same mic jack. The D3 uses a TRRS cable and is self-powered so the question boils down to, does the HF R500 work with a TRRS cable? Though I realize you may only be able to answer whether the HF R800 works with TRRS.

[@DanielSRosehill]

Yes sadly I couldn't find anything online about compatability between that specific mic and camera. Did you try connecting to the camera with a TRS (rather than TRSS)?

[@geoffzalot665]

@@DanielSRosehill I did some testing and found that the D3 works with my phone, but not with the Canon HF R500, either with a TRRS or TRS cable. I believe the issue must be that the camera port does not supply 3v bias voltage (mentioned on the Deity site). My understanding was that because the mic is self-powered it would work fine with the HF R500, but that has proven not to be the case, unfortunately. I thought that what was required was power for the mic (which this camera does not provide, so you'd need a self-powered mic) and simple passive audio inputs, but whatever 3v bias voltage is, that is also required, and that seems to be available only on higher-end and/or newer devices.

[@iixxion]

@@geoffzalot665 see my comment above. Deity mics do NOT work with Vixia, even the ones that have batteries in them.

[@GeoffZalot]

@@iixxion I took a chance on the Comica CVM-VM20, which looks pretty much identical to the Deity D3. I assumed it was a clone and also would not work, but apparently there are electronic differences, as it works fine.

[@iixxion]

@@GeoffZalot How is the sound quality compared to the built-in mic? that is an excellent find btw...the major difference is that the comica doesn't have the automatic on/off feature (that's the feature that renders a mic useless on a device with no PIP). And their literature does indeed say it will work with camcorders (i.e. devices with no PIP).