Rode VideoMic Pro arrives!

Just a quick post because the posty brought me a rather exciting parcel this morning...

The Rode VideoMic Pro is practically 'industry standard'. I did a lot of searching around and reading of reviews and all roads seemed to lead to Rode! For DSLR 'on camera' audio opinions were pretty much unanimous that this product was worth spending the extra money on (for once I didn't try and cut corners and buy a cheap Chinese knock-of)!

This rectifies my inadequate sound recording facilities, the Canon 700D's built-in microphones being so feeble (basically it'll pick up your breathing fine but you'll hardly hear anyone you are interviewing)!

I splashed out (this is all my monthly pocket money gone in one go) and bought the Rode 'Dead Cat' (windshield) and their hand-grip as well. I already own a 3.5mm jack extension cable so have the option to have the VideoMic on the grip as a handheld interview mic or mount it on a boom pole.

But, mostly, I hope to use this mounted on the camera as a run-and-gun interview mic.

I'll write more about this once I've had time to experiment.

(Incidentally, the XLR audio cable came as a free bonus with the Rode mic, even though the Rode is a 3.5mm jack appliance! However, this is quite useful as I have an adapter that converts 3.5 to XLR and this means I can use my VideoMic Pro with an XLR recorder, such as my Tascam 100 Mk. II.)