Hack: Get a Phantom Powered Microphone On Any Camera
May 12, 2014
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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One of the drawbacks of using the camera in-microphone port is that it only supports 3.5mm and while there are some decent solution for that (see the Rode video mic pro), if you really want nice audio, the higher end shotgun microphones require something called Phantom Power – this is a way to provide the microphone with electricity via the same XLR cable that connects it to the recorder (in our case – the camera).
Mike Kobal shares a clever hack for getting Phantom powered XLR shot gun mics on a DSLR. (seems like everyone is hacking their DSLRs nowadays – this really compliments the power hack we featured last week)
The solution is to use the IK Multimedia iRig Pre Microphone Interface which is originally a Mic to iOS Device, but works wonders on the GH4 video monster and other DSLR.
The irig Pre goes via an iPhone to standard plug converter and plugs into the microphone jack and the head phone jack. And both the shotgun mic and the earphones goes into the iRig Pre.
Mike suggests to get a few connectors as they are very flimsy.
[The $29 XLR hack for the Panasonic Lumix GH4 via ISO 1200]
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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3 responses to “Hack: Get a Phantom Powered Microphone On Any Camera”
The solution is to use the IK Multimedia iRig Pre Microphone Interface which is originally a Mic to iOS Device, but works wonders on the GH4 video monster and other DSLR. http://sn.im/28wjrxn
Better to go to a good musical instrument store and pick up a phantom power battery adapter. Those are meant for the job, and won’t degrade the audio quality like an iRig will. They’ll also run off regular batteries instead of using up your smartphone battery, and will keep recording when your phone rings.
The iRig doesn´t use the iPhone battery, it´s conectted via plug. So the phone issues are non-existend. I can say that the iRig is good at it´s job for the price you pay but it could be better.