Phantom powered mic
 

Hi all,

Is it possible to use a phantom powered mic on XL-1s camera ?
Is there any piece of external equipment to power those mics, or would it be better to find a mic that runs on 1.5v battery ?
any suggestion ?

Sassi

A phantom powered microphone is essentially a condenser mic without a power supply. The front camera mic that canon supplies has to posts. the smaller is a DC voltage output to power the mic. The rear mic inputs on the the MA 100 may provide phantom power to some degree...perhaps enough. I have never used condenser mics with my XL1s, so I don't really know. However, connect a phantom powered mic to the system and see what happens. There should not be any risk of damage as the phantom powered mic will only function if it receives power. Confirm the connection with a dynamic mic first so you know your cable connections are valid.

The MA-100 does not provide Phantom Power to a mic. The 5 DVC is to power the circuits in the MA-100 only. Same for the MA-200. The 5 VDC provided at the camcorder mic jack does not qualify as phantom power, it basically is adequate to power Canon accessories such as the standard mic or some legacy mics that Canon marketed over the years, and a RFU Canon marketed

However, some phantom power-capable mics can also use an internal battery, and they wil work with the MA-100 if a battery is inserted. There are external phanotm power devices sold, including some XLR adapters. Beachtek, Studio One, and perhaps others may offer models, but I've not used or researched them.

Thank you
 

Thank you,

I'd better search for a self powered mic.

Sassi

I had the same problem and I used the Sennheiser ME66/K6 self-powered mike system in a Rycote blimp to get better sound. It gives good results but I have found that by using a portable Sennheiser MZA 14 P 48v battery-powered phantom power unit I get better signal/noise over ong leads compared with the 1.5V battery in the K66 adapter. I just clip the belt clip of the MZA14P48 over the battery/radio mike bracket on MA-100 XLR adapter.

It also means that the mike can be turned on and off at the camera rather than having to disassemble the 'Zeppelin' wind screen to turn off the battery in the K6 unit and you don't have to worry about a mic-mounted battery going down during a shoot as a new 9v PP9 battery lasts 20 hours in MZA14 unit.

A side-effect of using this system is better camera balance when hand shooting.

I got my unit second-hand off eBay for £57.00 but they are available new for about £200.

I currently use AKG B15 power supply with Sony microphones. They work great. Here is a little information from a website about the B15's

The B 15 is an in-line battery supply. An integrated on/off switch helps prolong battery life. The B 15 uses a single AAA size 1.5-V battery.

Hope this helps.

Jon