How to enable external mic recording using E-M5 III and ME51S?

[Ishatix]

Hi all,

Some time ago the internal microphones stopped working on my E-M5 III – all I get from them is a very light hiss if I boost up the volume on playback. Now I've just received a second hand ME51S microphone to try as a replacement. It records audio OK when connected to my laptop mic socket, albeit with an extremely high level of noise (presumably this isn't normal/expected??), but when I connect it to the EM-5 III, I get no signal from it at all. It seems like the camera is still recording from the internal mics as the results I get are the same as when using those.

I've tried playing with all the settings without it making any difference. E.g. I've tried on the last attempt setting Camera Rec. Volume to 'Operative', Syncronized Red. to 'On', Plug-in Power to 'On', and Recording Volume → MIC to +10, all to no avail.

Is it really not possible to connect any external microphone to this camera without the SEMA-1 adapter? I had the impression from other posts here that it was more for older bodies without a dedicated mic input.

P.S. Feel free to move this to a different forum. I couldn't figure out whether the Olympus SLR or MFT Talk forum is preferred for this topic.

 

[buratino]

I use my E-M5III with an external mic, but it has a battery. ME51S needs plug-in power, which might be not provided by the 5iii.

 

[Bassam Guy]

Hi all,

Some time ago the internal microphones stopped working on my E-M5 III – all I get from them is a very light hiss if I boost up the volume on playback. Now I've just received a second hand ME51S microphone to try as a replacement. It records audio OK when connected to my laptop mic socket, albeit with an extremely high level of noise (presumably this isn't normal/expected??), but when I connect it to the EM-5 III, I get no signal from it at all. It seems like the camera is still recording from the internal mics as the results I get are the same as when using those.

I've tried playing with all the settings without it making any difference. E.g. I've tried on the last attempt setting Camera Rec. Volume to 'Operative', Syncronized Red. to 'On', Plug-in Power to 'On', and Recording Volume → MIC to +10, all to no avail.

Is it really not possible to connect any external microphone to this camera without the SEMA-1 adapter? I had the impression from other posts here that it was more for older bodies without a dedicated mic input.

P.S. Feel free to move this to a different forum. I couldn't figure out whether the Olympus SLR or MFT Talk forum is preferred for this topic.

Look for a 'provide power to microphone' option in the video menu. The E-M1 III has it but IDK about the E-M5 III until I get home tonight or have time to look in the manual.

 

[Joe Lynch]

Change synchronized recording to "off"

 

[Ishatix]

Change synchronized recording to "off"

Thank you for the suggestion. I was pretty sure I had already tried it, but just to be sure I have tested it again now, and indeed it makes no difference. I am still getting nothing recorded beyond the low level white noise.

Something I have just discovered while doing that is that if I mess around with the jack connection while recording – disconnecting and reconnecting the mic, then I can manage to generate some clicks and electronic interference noises in the recording. I still get nothing from the mics though.

In desperation I've also tried changing both the Recording Rate (freq./bit rate) and Volume Limiter settings which also unsurprisingly made no difference. So I think I've tried changing every settings available now apart from Wind Noise Reduction and Slate Tone.

Does anyone else have any other suggestions, or can at least confirm that it should work / how they are managing to use an external mic with this camera?

 

[Joe Lynch]

I can confirm that I use an external mic with my 5.3 nearly every time I use it for video and it has never been a problem. I've used maybe 6 different microphones with my 5.3.

If the internal mics stopped working before you tried an external microphone, I'm thinking there is an internal failure in the camera. If this is the case, then your least expensive option is to use an external recorder like a Zoom H1 or H1n with the microphone you bought and then add the sound track when you edit the video.

Let me ask a few questions just to make sure you have everything covered. Are you recording a video clip to the sd card and then transferring that file to a video editor and playing the video file back on your computer and not seeing any audio in the audio track?

The reason I ask is that I have had more trouble with the audio not showing up on the computer than I have with the camera--the audio was there in the video file but was not playing back correctly in the computer. I had to fix the video editing software and or computer and not the camera. Do video files from another camera play back normally and it is only files from this 5.3 that have the audio problem?

 

[Ishatix]

I can confirm that I use an external mic with my 5.3 nearly every time I use it for video and it has never been a problem. I've used maybe 6 different microphones with my 5.3.

Hi Joe,

Thank you very much for your response which is very helpful to hear.

If the internal mics stopped working before you tried an external microphone, I'm thinking there is an internal failure in the camera. If this is the case, then your least expensive option is to use an external recorder like a Zoom H1 or H1n with the microphone you bought and then add the sound track when you edit the video.

I have had that same concern myself. I'm just not sure how to go about confirming that there is an internal failure that is also breaking the external mic functionality.

I mainly only record video to record bird song for wildlife sightings (which I can even use my phone for to some degree), so it is not the biggest issue for me really, and certainly not worth a whole additional recording device. But it would be nice to have the option for occasional video recording at least.

Let me ask a few questions just to make sure you have everything covered. Are you recording a video clip to the sd card and then transferring that file to a video editor and playing the video file back on your computer and not seeing any audio in the audio track?

Currently while testing I just check the movie playback directly on the camera itself. I don't really need to even go that far as I can see the L/R audio levels while recording (and that they are not getting activated at all apart from the noise I was able to trigger as mentioned above). Though I did initially notice the problem from a video file already transferred to computer.

Do video files from another camera play back normally and it is only files from this 5.3 that have the audio problem?

I have no issue playing other video files (and I am quite adept at IT in general including audio analysis, production and editing).