Introduction
The Rode VideoMic Pro, a compact on-camera microphone, elevates audio quality for videographers and content creators.
Design and Build
- Sleek, lightweight design for portability
- Durable build ensures longevity
Performance
- Crystal-clear audio capture
- Directional pickup minimizes ambient noise
- Adjustable gain control for precise sound management
Compatibility
- Versatile compatibility with various camera models
- Easily mounts on DSLRs, camcorders, and phones
Battery Life
- Long-lasting battery for extended shooting sessions
- Convenient power options enhance usability
Pros:
- Exceptional audio quality
- Compact and portable design
- Compatibility with multiple devices
- Durable build for long life
- Adjustable gain control for precise sound
Cons:
- Slightly pricey compared to other microphones
- Battery replacement can be cumbersome
Conclusion
The Rode VideoMic Pro stands out with its superior audio quality, versatile compatibility, and durable build. Despite minor drawbacks like pricing and battery concerns, its exceptional performance makes it a valuable investment for content creators.
Alex –
Have used both the Rode Videomic and the Pro version. Both are recommended but paying the extra for the Pro is well worth the difference in cost if your budget and needs justify it. The Pro sound is richer and warmer and actually seems more directional. Sound is of broadcast quality.
I guess this mic falls into the “prosumer” category and the difference between this and fully professional kit is evident in the build. The mini-jack connection wire feels a little flimsy, although have experienced no problems with it so far after about one year of regular use. Unfortunately, the wire is plumbed into the mic (non-detachable) which means it flaps about vulnerably during packing away. Also, if it were to snap etc., big problem replacing it. In fact the whole mic feels a little delicate and lightweight (plastic throughout). Fitting the battery is fiddley and you’d do well to read the other reviews which suggest the battery lid can break easily. The mic comes with some replacement rubber band thingies to suspend the mic in it’s casing. Haven’t needed them yet, despite nearly losing the original ones a couple of times! Be aware though that the rubbers can easily become detached if the mic is knocked.
Ah well, I guess build is the compromise – it’s how come a piece of kit with such high audio fidelity can retail at this price. Despite all this, it is undeniably well made for what it is. Treat it carefully (mine’s boxed in foam between every use) and it should serve you well.
Overall this mic gives superb sound quality at a reasonable price despite its rather fragile build.
JL –
All I can compare this mic to is the built-in one on my D800. The mic on the D800 is really nice, but I’ve had all I can take of the motor noise of the AF system.
External: Packaging is as expected, mic comes in a paper box – with cut foam fitted for the mic. (Years ago, I bought a similar mic made by Sony called a “Zoom Mic” that was shaped like the letter “Z”). Rode’s mic was packaged similar. Hmm, no coupon for a free dead cat. Wish I had bought this when the dead cat was offered. I did get the dead cat anyway (more on that later). I’ve seen a lot of comments regarding the plastic build. I like the lightness and since the feel seems solid enough, I am guessing the plastic is a good choice? The shock absorber does make the mic feel a bit fraile. For those who do not know (the “Z” mic mentioned earlier did not have this feature…) the mic sits on a rubber shock absorber and not fixed solid to the base. This helps keep a lot of excess noise down.
Internal: The manual is nice – but the instructing for getting the nine volt into the mic – lol – well, it does take some care and attention. The good side(s) though is that the battery will NOT fall out, and you do not have to change the battery too often.
Mic function: Very NIce. I turned the camera’s mic input down, and left the mic on “0” gain. While capturing video, I watched the vue meter on the camera just to be sure that the input was not too loud (away from the red). This worked nicely. I guess I will have to tweak/retweak every time I use the mic. Every situation/location will be different. While I like the extra controls (i.e. mic gain/cut, and high pass) it’d be nice if this can be done auto-magically. I can slightly still hear the AF motor, but I really have to concentrate.
I did order the dead cat and after figuring out how to put this thing on, all is well. Is it worth $30? lol. There are videos online of folks making similar devices much cheaper and works just as well.
HTH.
thundafellow –
I gave the product five starts because it works surprisingly well with DSLR’s. However, when we compare it to other professional shotgun microphones, this one is decent. Many professional videographers use it because it is small, lightweight, and has great sound quality! Its noise reduction feature works very well. DSLR’s normally have poor audio wiring inside. So when you purchase a mic like the NTG-2 or a high-end one like the NTG-8 along with an XLR to 3.5mm adapter, you get a lot of whitenoise. This mic is prepared for the poor wiring and uses a system that puts out the mono signal to both channels, making it stereo and getting rid of most whitenoise. To even further eliminate noise, you put the settings on High Pass Filter and +20dB. Then you go into your camera’s audio settings and manually adjust the volume level to about 20-40%. (with a Canon T3i, that’s 4 clicks up from the bottom). Be sure to purchase a wind muff, although there aren’t many out there that will work too well, it will at least help. BE GENTLE WITH IT. I’m already having issues with mine. The area just above the hot shoe and just below the actual mount came loose and is getting dangerously close to breaking. To fix the problem, I have to use a boom pole. The battery is difficult to get in because of the stubborn lid. Luckily, if anything breaks, Rode offers a ten year warranty, so they’ve got you covered. One other small thing that bugged me is that the base doesn’t pivot, so it’s pretty annoying to get the right setup with a boom pole. To sum it all up, great mic for the price and task, buy a wind muff, High Pass and +20dB, 20-40% camera volume, BE GENTLE, doesn’t pivot. Hope I helped and I hope that if this is the mic you choose, it will serve you well.
Linares –
If you want a good quality, very compact, directional mic for your camera this is a good buy. The +20db boost/ -10db cut and the bass roll-off options are very useful. I would only give it 4 stars rather than 5 because the suspension mount – four moulded rubber bands – is rather flimsy and the rubber bands have a tendency to fall off. Although the whole design is lightweight (in itself not a bad thing) and doesn’t inspire confidence, in practice the mic has performed well. It is worth noting that Rode are now using Rycote lyre mounts in their new VideoMic which are very effective and almost unbreakable (you can buy a Rycote lyre mount that will take the VideoMic Pro but that will set you back another 50 quid or so).
If you don’t need a mic as small as this, the Rode NTG1 or NTG 2 ( the NTG2 has the option of battery power whereas the NTG1 needs a 48v supply, standard on pro video cameras) – a very solid short shotgun mic – will give you much better results. If, however, you are shooting with a DSLR or a compact video camera you probably want the VideoMic Pro.
Having said that I must emphasise that, in the majority of cases, a camera mic is a compromise. Even a directional mic should be no more than 3 feet away and pointed at the subject’s mouth if you want good clean dialogue – a camera-mounted mic is no substitute for a boom or a personal/radio mic. Camera mics are useful if you are shooting documentaries with a wide-angle lens (and therefore are close to your subjects) or for picking up general ambient sound, but otherwise a mic on top of the camera is simply in the wrong place.
Rolo –
This Rode Mic Pro does exactly what it says on the tin. The Quality of sound that it records is brilliant and Its Absolutely worth every penny.
I am a Freelance Cameraman/Videographer and when i’m on shoots theres a 90% chance i will be capturing sound, whether its for interviews or Ambient sounds with the video and i usually bring a Boom mic with me. However This Rode Mic pro has been such a benefit to have along with me when i cant get anyone to hold the boom and need to go mobile, its perfect.
Negatives:-
The place where you put the battery is pretty annoying, you almost have to force the battery in as the design for that area isnt good, and the first time i tried putting the battery in, i thought i was going to end up breaking the Mic itself!
One other negative, (although it might just be me) If there is a mobile phone near the mic, even if the mobile phone is in my pocket, about 0.5 metres away, the mic picks up a signal interference and messes up the audio by making a beeping noise during the recording in the actual video file. Its happened to me a couple times during crucial moments and i ended up not being able to use the video footage. Quite Annoying.
OVERALL: Like i said the quality of the sound is brilliant, doesn’t match a boom mic with a sound recorder, but for the price you cant go wrong at all. The positives outway the negatives by miles. DEFINITELY buy it!
Christopher Burian –
I bought the Rode Videomic Pro after wasting time with the Azden SMX-20 which I promptly returned because it was tinny and hissy–worse than the stock mic built into my Canon T3i.
As I found out from a helpful video blog, the Canon Rebel suffers from a poor audio input circuit leading to a great deal of hiss when most brands of external mic are used. The workaround presented in that video is to employ a headphone amplifier in series with the low gain external mic. This lead me to believe the cure is to use a mic having high gain natively, and the only mic I can find with gain is Videomic Pro. All mics, at least the ones over $100, should have high gain option, IMO. Seems to me that a mic which is powered anyway should be designed to also output line-in levels with a switch or tweak of a pot and not limit itself to standard mic levels.
I unpacked the Videomic Pro, popped in a 9V battery, turn it on with +20dB gain, and plugged it into my T3i. It took me a few minutes to decide the optimal manual mic level for good amplitude and lowest hiss, in between 25-30% maximum.
This mic has virtually no hiss and excellent frequency response. Even with the high pass filter turned on, it has great bass response. Voices sound natural. It illustrates the rotten acoustics of a typical room however, the curse of high sensitivity and low directionality. It would be nice if it was more highly directional to prevent picking up echoes and non-content coming from the sides and back.
My complaints are that this mic too big and heavy, and the rubber shock mount is too weak for the suspended mass thus making it too bouncy and wobbly. Despite protruding out a ways, it still picks up lens noise (manual focus is widely recommended for that reason).
To make it perfect, move the battery to the shoe portion of the suspension, perhaps replace it with a lighter battery (stack of button cells), make it much more directional, make the mic body shorter, and the wind screen smaller and removable. But then it would be a lot more expensive, right?
I’d give it 4-stars not considering price or competition, but have to bump it up to 5-stars because it is such an excellent value for the price and performs so drastically better than a mic list price only $75 less.
Purchased this ‘used’ (nearly 20% off new price), factory-sealed, dented box and fulfilled by Amazon. Very fast ship, in perfect condition. Great savings for a great mic.
JL –
-PROS:
Lo he tenido durante 10 años y ha cumplido muy bien su función. Muy simple de usar y con dos botones en la parte trasera con los que puedes regular los dB y también puedes ajustar si deseas que el micro sea más direccional. Se conecta con mini jack.
-CONTRAS:
Ofrece una calidad de sonido muy justita, pero te salva de algún apuro, ya que los de las cámaras DSLR dejan mucho que desear. No se puede pedir más teniendo en cuenta que lo compré en 2013.
-RESUMEN:
Me ha durado mucho tiempo, pero ahora ya se me queda pequeño por la gran cantidad de micros nuevos que hay en el mercado. Aun así, ha cumplido su función correctamente.
Linares –
you know a lot about sound recording because recording sound is every bit as hard (and technical) as recording video..If you are new to buying microphones and making videos, this might be the review for you 🙂
First it can record good sound but that’s hardly surprising given the price and the make! The question is more like “do I need it?” and that’s harder. This mic fits neatly onto the hot shoe of your dslr or camcorder which is the worst place to have it! If you have it on the camera it will pick up the sound of the image stabilization, buttons being operated and even you breathing…
So you either need to place it away from the camera or practice shallow breathing and ninja like camera operating skills.
Surprisingly this mic is quite heath robinson build. rubber bands hold it in place that pop off in the camera bag.
With lots of practice I managed to record a 30 second clip of great sound, just google alex sally dunnock singing..Quite impressive but I have had over 30,0000 views on youtube and yet to have a single comment on sound quality. Also if you are making videos to share it has to go through the sausage machine of youtube and is played back through other peoples computer speakers…
I learnt a lot using this mic, and there is one very important thing I did learn. More important than the mic is learning where to place it, when to use it, what sound to record and how to use it in the finished video. I can get better results from a cheapie microphone if I use it right than by using a good mic like this used as if all you need to do is put it on the camera and press go.
I have used a very cheap microphone and made a diy dead cat (using a washing up scrubber) , placed in woodland at dawn and got very good sound.This mic is shotgun and very sensitive which means it also picks up car sounds and planes even miles away. Made me realise how rare “dead quiet” is.
So if you want great sound this can do it. But its only half of what you need. You also need to experiment a lot to get good results. I made a hotshoe on the tripod so the mic was better placed , away from me and the camera sounds. I also used a long extension lead.. here are a couple of things you may find useful.. Oh and do me a favour, in return for my two penneth worth of opnion please click that you found this review useful. I hope you did. If you are new to microphones I think these are good tips. Here are a couple of things that might be useful with this mic:
Camera Flash Hot Shoe Mount 1/4″ Tripod Screw Adapter for Wireless Flash Trigger, Flash Stand, Microphone (pk of 1)
Make better videos with your dslr or camcorder
3.5mm Stereo Jack to Socket Headphone Extension Cable Lead 3m
Alex