Rating

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RHUTCGOBAKEY So, you bought a Canon Vixia camcorder? The picture is stunning – and it’s hard to believe you can get such gorgeous images from such a compact camcorder. Unfortunately, there is no way you’ll get top notch sound from a compact camcorder, no matter how much you paid for it. This isn’t a matter of a design flaw; it has to do with the physics of sound: a directional microphone needs to be long; for best sound the microphone needs to be physically separated from the body of the camera; finally, some kind of muffle is needed to prevent wind and breath from interfering with sound. Canon’s DM-100 is designed to achieve all of these things for the sound of the Vixia line camcorders, without overwhelming the simplicity and ease of a compact camcorder. I’m very pleased with it.

It plugs in directly to the mini advanced shoe on the Vixia camcorders. When it is plugged in it automatically becomes the mike for recordings – no need to fiddle with settings. Importantly, it is small enough that it doesn’t overwhelm the compact size of the Vixia camcorders. Sure, the “Dead Cat” looks a bit silly, but it makes a huge difference outdoors in the wind; and you can take it off for indoor shoots where you want to take advantage of just the directional aspects of the mike. There are three basic settings: shotgun (for focusing sound capture to sounds directly in front of the microphone), 90 degrees and 120 degrees.

ABOUT THIS VIDEO:

For this video I only focused on how this mike improves outdoor shooting, and also on showing what the DM-100 looks like on the Vixia camcorders – I have the HF10 and the HFS10, so I took pictures with it on both of these, with the “dead cat” on and off. I also used the HF10 (no mike attached) to shoot me shooting with the HFS10 with the DM-100 mike attached, then I synched up the sound so I could alternate between the sound with and without the mike. For the purposes of shooting myself in my front yard, I didn’t reckon the directional settings would be useful, so I left it on the DM-100 on the 90 degree setting the whole time. I also didn’t reckon there would be any excellent way to give a real sense for the quality of the sound via this (quick and dirty) video review – but the look of the mike and the wind elimination are obvious. Note that the video starts out with the sound from the onboard mike of the VIXIA HF10, and then I indicate with cool flashing text when I’m recording with the DM-100 (MIKE ON!) or with the HF10 onboard mike (MIKE OFF!). You should note that it’s not just wind noise you hear when I’m recording with the on board camera, there’s also just a low system hum that is nearly completely eliminated when recording the the DM-100. I know the video is quick but I prefer to place most of my review in the text and reckon of the video as merely an illustration – if you want to look more closely at the pictures, just pause and gander all you like.

FINAL WORD:

If you care at all about sound, and especially if you will ever shoot outdoors, you probably need some kind of external mike for your Vixia camcorder. There are better microphones than this one, and even cheaper ones; but you have to remember that if you buy another mike you’ll also need some kind of adapter if you want it to mount on top of your Vixia, and it won’t power directly through the Vixia, plus you’ll have a wire hanging around that plugs into the external mike input mini plug. For most non-professional and semi-professional situations, the DM-100 will give you the sound you need, is simple to use with the Canon Vixia camcorders, and looks excellent on top of your camera.

Rating

This Canon DM-100 Microphone does block wind noise and it’s directional feature works well, too. I’ve found it works best in the camera’s “Simple” shooting mode. Overall, I’d say it exceeds my expectations. Didn’t notice any reduction in sound quality. It may even be somewhat better. Expensive, but since I couldn’t find or make a wind screen to just fit over the camera’s built-in mic, I’m pleased with it. Very pleased to get rid of that wind noise. Plus, I perceive a reduction in the volume of the camerman’s recorded voice when coming from the area behind the camera, which, to me, seems to be too loud when using the built-in mic. Probably, due to the effect of the ‘shotgun’ mode.? Overpriced, probably, but I bit the bullet on this one.

UPDATE: I found a small windscreen that covers the onboard mic and it really works. Search for ‘thewindcutter’.

Rating

I bought a Canon VIXIA HF11 High Definition (HD) camcorder to take on a once-in-a-life-time 15-day family vacation to Hawaii. I needed to minimize the risk of capturing terrible video/audio because I’ll probably never be ever to afford to vacation in Hawaii again. This camcorder picked up a lot of wind noise while testing on a windy day. Wind noise can be very distracting to viewers, so I wanted to minimize this problem as much as possible. The Canon DM-100 directional stereo microphone had mixed reviews, but I thought it was worth a $150 gamble to dramatically improve the quality of audio captured on my family’s Hawaiian vacation.

As usual, Amazon.com provided fantastic service in fulfilling my order as I received the mic within just a few days. The mic looks huge when mounted on the camcorder. But, both the mic and its windsock cover appear to be made of high quality materials.

We spent 15 days in Oahu visiting all of the major tourist attractions (e.g. Pearl Harbor, Kualoa Ranch, etc.), Waikiki Beach, and Turtle Bay up on the North Shore. I used the Canon DM-100 mic on at least half the scenes taken, and forgot to use it for several other scenes. Three days after returning home from Hawaii, I took the camcorder and DM-100 mic with me on a trip to northern Minnesota, and recorded some scenes of my Dad on his bass boat fishing.

After I returned home from Minnesota, I tranferred all of the captured video to my video editing computer. Bottom line, it was absolutely incredible to hear how effective the DM-100 mic was. Several scenes taken without it contained a lot of wind noise, while scenes captured using the mic contained small or none. For example, I could clearly hear the crashing waves while viewing beach scenes, and the noise of the waves made by my Dad’s quick-moving fishing boat (as it traversed across the lake)–with small or no wind noise.

Bottom line, the Canon DM-100 mic was well worth $150 Amazon buy price, and I highly recommend it to those who will be using their Canon HF/HG series camcorders extensively outdoors.

Rating

My onboard mike on my new HD videocam easily makes a buffeting sound with the smallest amount of wind present. This option really solves the problem 100% (with the wind guard on, of course).