How To Connect A Microphone To A Camera

Connecting a DSLR or Camcorder to an External Mic

If you lot want to produce high-quality sound to get forth with your video, you need to know how to connect a microphone or soundboard to your camcorder. This tutorial will testify you, starting time for a traditional camcorder with XLR connectors and so for a DSLR with a i/8" jack.

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Posted on March 3, 2021

All camcorders include an internal microphone, simply you should never use information technology to capture audio for bodily product. If yous're shooting a meeting or webinar, lavalier microphones will deliver better quality, whether they're connected through the soundboard or directly to the camera. For a concert or similar event, you'll near always want to take sound from the soundboard.

So, if you want to produce high-quality sound to keep with your video, you lot demand to know how to connect a microphone or soundboard to your camcorder. This tutorial will prove you, first for a traditional camcorder with XLR connectors and then for a DSLR with a 1/eight" jack.

Audio Basics

Let's start with some basics.

XLR vs. 1/8" (3.5mm)

Most microphone connectors are either XLR connectors, shown on the left in Figure 1 (below), or 3.5mm connectors (also called 1/viii" connectors), shown on the correct. The bulk of professional person microphones employ XLR connectors, which is why most professional camcorders accept XLR plugs, while consumer camcorders and DSLRs have 3.5mm plugs. Although there are some high-quality mics with 3.5mm connectors, I call back it'southward best to piece of work with XLR equipment whenever possible. If your camcorder has 3.5mm plugs, utilise an adapter or device like the Comica audio mixer (which I'll hash out subsequently in the article) to input the XLR audio and output a 3.5mm connector.

Effigy 1. XLR (left) and 3.5mm (one/8") connectors

Note that all XLR connectors are mono, while the 2 blackness lines in the 3.5mm connector transmit the left and right signals. If you need true stereo, you'll need two XLR connectors, ane for each channel. Still, for near talking-caput audio, stereo doesn't really matter, and so yous can input a mono bespeak every bit long equally you route it to both channels in your camera. You'll acquire how to do that here.

Powering Your Mics

In that location are two types of microphones: condenser and dynamic. Condenser microphones are generally more sensitive and tin exist encased in a much smaller package. For this reason, nearly lavalier (lapel) microphones use condenser mics. Notation that condenser microphones need electric power to operate. So, if you're connecting a lavalier microphone directly to your camcorder, chances are that you'll accept to power it.

Specifically, if you're working with an unpowered XLR microphone, you lot'll need to supply 48V phantom power, which most professional camcorders tin can provide. Figure ii (beneath) shows the sound controls from my Panasonic camcorder; on the right are the selector switches that supply 48V phantom power to an unpowered microphone.

Figure 2. Audio controls for supplying phantom power

Even so, if you're working with a battery-powered microphone like many on-photographic camera mics, you don't demand to supply external ability; that's what the bombardment does. In these cases, you would plough phantom power off.

Note that condenser microphones with 3.5mm connectors crave "plug-in" ability, which is well-nigh two.5V–5V. Many, just non all, 3.5mm plugs on camcorders and computers supply plug-in power; for case, the plug on my Sony a6300 does, while the plug on my old Canon Vixia does not.

Line vs. Mic Inputs

When connecting audio gear to a camcorder, note that at that place are two input levels, every bit shown in Figure iii (below): Line and Mic. Powered devices similar soundboards typically output Line-level outputs, which are approximately 1V in power. In contrast, microphones output merely a few thousandths of a volt and crave amplification circuits in your camcorder to boost the signal to a useful level.

Figure 3. Choosing between Line and Mic input

If you plug in a microphone and your input is set to Line, you likely won't hear annihilation because the levels volition be as well depression. If you plug in a soundboard with the input set to Mic, the signal will usually be loud and distorted. Equally you tin can see in Figure 3, professional person camcorders let you switch inputs via a control on the camera body.

Most DLSR and consumer camcorders input Mic-level merely, so you tin can't direct connect a Line-level output to the 3.5mm plug. Instead, you'd have to use an adapter similar the Kopul ACH4-25MON Line-to-Mic Attenuator Cable or a mixer like the Comica unit I'll discuss after.

With this every bit our background, allow'southward jump to the first job: connecting a lavalier microphone directly to a camcorder.

Connecting a Lavalier Microphone to a Camcorder

Figure 4 (below) shows the Shure SM93 condenser lavalier microphone that I'm connecting to my Panasonic camcorder. The following are the discrete steps of connecting and setting up the microphone. Note that controls will vary from camcorder to camcorder, with some accomplished via the card organisation rather than via the camera body. But you need to bear upon all of the bases to ensure connection and command.

Figure 4. Connecting the Shure SM93 condenser lavalier microphone to my Panasonic camcorder

Step 1—Connect the microphone to the camcorder. I'm using Input 2 for reasons that will become articulate in a moment.

Step 2—Enable phantom ability past clicking Input ii to On (Figure 5, below).

Figure 5. Enabling phantom power

Step 3—Switch to the external microphone, and select Input ii for both channels. On this camcorder, yous switch off the internal microphone via the controls shown in Figure 6 (below). As previously mentioned, the XLR input is a mono signal, which is why I'yard routing Input 2 to both the left and correct tracks. This is the reason I plugged the microphone into Input 2; it's the only input that I tin can road to both tracks.

Figure 6. Switching to the external microphone and routing Input ii to both left and right audio tracks

Step 4—Select the Mic input for Input 2 (run across Effigy three).

Footstep v—Fix the Mic levels. The Panasonic camcorder I'one thousand using in this tutorial allows you to adjust Mic levels to either -50 dB or -threescore dB, the latter of which is more sensitive and will boost the mic signal by an additional 10 dB. This may be essential if you tin can't get adequate levels from the microphone (Figure 7, below).

Figure 7. Adjusting Mic gain

Other camcorders I've shot with have an attenuator switch that lets you cut 20 dB from the incoming signal when it's too hot. Also common is the ability to add gain to the incoming microphone indicate, which boosts the volume but can create noise. The bottom line is that your camcorder probably has multiple audio-related controls that you should get familiar with long before your first professional shoot or live event.

Step vi—Choose manual or automated gain control (AGC). On nearly camcorders, you tin either manually control the volume (Figure 8, below) or let the camcorder control it via AGC. Typically, in a talking-head scenario in which volumes don't fluctuate all that much, y'all're better off setting levels manually.

Figure 8. Going transmission to set audio volume

Step 7—Adjust the volume to the target. This footstep is complicated by the fact that different camcorders use unlike level markers. For case, the Panasonic volume meter shown twice in Figure ix sets a -12 dB target where nearly of your spoken audio should meridian. If you hit the red, every bit you run into on top of Figure 9 (beneath), the sound will "clip" and sound distorted.

Figure 9. The book is too high on summit as indicated past the cerise line. Instead, effort to keep above -12 dB, but below the red.

Yous should as well check to make certain the audio is relatively noise-free when no one is talking. If you see levels in the meter when everything is repose, this means you either have some noise in the audio or you're shooting in a noisy room. This would be a good fourth dimension to remind you to tape in a tranquillity room whenever possible. This means shutting off all computers and peripherals, phones, heating, and air conditioning, if possible, likewise as putting a sign on the door to continue visitors away.

Never work with audio unless you have headphones to monitor it. Meters are fabulous, but you lot never know exactly what yous're capturing unless you lot hear it with your own ears.