External mic for G12: How to lash it up

I've been thinking... surely some enterprising developer has figured out a way to utilize the fancy hot shoe to tap into the mic circuit and deliver at least a 1/8" stereo mini-plug and maybe even an XLR mic input via that circuit. Shouldn't it be doable? If so, please point us to it. If not, let's go into business and make one and get rich. Either way, this ought to take away one possible selling point of the P7000 over a G12. I'm a G10 owner trying to decide if I should upgrade.

Doug

Consider a digital recorder - will give better results and be more versatile.

I have to agree with Mustafa, although I share your original sentiment. It would have been nice if Canon had put an external microphone input on the G12 (and on my G11). But it didn't. Adding one means opening the camera, finding the appropriate place to tap into the stereo audio circuit (if the appropriate circuit nodes don't happen to reside inside of an IC), and then routing the left and right audio channels to an appropriate connector. Thats a lot of handwork and you still need to buy an external stereo microphone, which runs $100-$200.

Contrast that with a Zoom H1 external recorder. That's $99 at Sweetwater Sound including stereo microphones. It "wirelessly" gathers audio wherever you put it and it stores as much as 10 hours of stereo audio on one 32Gbyte micro SD card. All you need to do is visually sync the H1 recording to the G12's audio track in a PC-based video editor and there you are.

Hard to beat $99. I just spent $189 for Canon's proprietary stereo shotgun microphone for the Vixia HF100 HD camcorder. The camcorder has a special proprietary mini hot shoe so that microphone will only work with that camcorder or another Canon. I think an H1 might have been a better idea. It will work with any camera that shoots video.

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Steve Leibson

Shooting with Canons for 35+ years

OK... I'll consider that. As a matter of fact, a guy at work just urged me to do the same thing last week. Just can't get used to the idea that I'd be recording on a completely different machine. Radical, dude.

Thanks.

Took the plunge. G12 it is. So far, first impressions are -- it's grand.

Hi guys. Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I wasn't looking for a way to open the camera . My theory is - if an external stereo high-quality boom mic can be operated via the advanced hot shoe without outside cables, that must mean there are open audio connections on the advanced hot shoe. Somebody (or one of us, if we're enterprising enough) should have designed an adaptor for the hot shoe. Slide it on and -- bam -- give us 1/8" mini-plug and XLR audio in connectors without opening or modifying the camera. Such an adaptor would sell best if priced in the $30 range (rather than the $100 range!).

This idea worked well enough for me on my G10 - but it does not replace a proper mic system which these cameras do not have.

I taped one of the earphones of a head set to the camera's body next to the microphone. The earphone's foam should cover the microphone but not overly compressed.

The camera recorded the sound quite well.

The headset is part of a wireless microphone system.

Ear buds may work, I didn't try them.

Allan

@DougLucas, where did you get the idea that there were audio contacts in the hot shoe? Certainly not from the Canon G11 manual. I just did a search on the PDF of the manual. It only mentions flash applications.

Canon's audio mini shoe is only found on its camcorders, not its still cameras. The G11 hot shoe is an EOS still-camera hot shoe, designed only for flashes as far as I can tell. Canon sells no microphone accessories for its still-camera hot shoes.

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Steve Leibson

Shooting with Canons for 35+ years

Ahhhh... My mistake then. I was assuming those hot-shoe boom mics would work on a G12 too.

That's certainly innovative. Now I wish they'd see this thread and make a G13 (or G14) with a simple external mic input!

Don't get me wrong, although I think a separate recorder is the optimum solution, the omission of a mic port looks like an oversight.

I would also like to see some means of attaching a windshield. The internal mic isn't too bad, but is plagued by wind noise.

That's highly unlikely too, since the 2 mics seem to be flush on the top of the camera.

DougLucas said:

That's highly unlikely too, since the 2 mics seem to be flush on the top of the camera.

Click to expand...

I was suggesting that in the next iteration (G13/14...) there could be slots for foam globes (or whatever works) to be attached over the mic holes. I wouldn't expect there to be a solution for the current design (although I have designed in my mind a shaped foam block that would push on over the mode wheel and would cover the mic grille on my G10 -- one day I'll get the scalpel out).

aaahhh... I see. Well let's hope they listen on dpreview forums!

Hey guys. I know this post is 10 years old, but it addresses a question that I have. I have a YouTube Show McGerkFish65 OUTDOORS. That I have been initially filming with a Samsung smartphone. I want to shoot in wide-field HD and obtained at Canon G12 from a pwn shop for $60.

I have a Pyle wireless mic set up, but i want to input the mic into the Canon G12 so that the video spots sound more professional

Do you guys ever come up with a way to interface a wireless mic into a G12

I am getting a GoPro for 1st person view (this is a bass fishing show), which has a 3.5 mm input that the wireless mic will fit. I want to do a 2 camera approach with the G12 and the GoPro-unique, I think, to YouTube Fishing shows. Any thoughts. I would appreciate any help. The guys on this site seem to be experts at this sort of thing.

Thanks

Gary