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(More customer reviews)I bought this to use on a Kodak Zi8. I could tell from the photo of the mic that it was only one microphone with a stereo plug on the end, so I knew it would not be true stereo. But this microphone only puts sound onto the left channel of the audio. When I tested it with my voltmeter/ohm meter, I found that ground was shorted to the right channel and the microphone's audio signal was only going to the left channel of the plug. I had to cut off the plug and solder a new stereo plug onto the mic, wiring it correctly myself. I now get audio on both left and right channels going into my camcorder.
Let me see if I can explain this further. The microphone was wired like this. Looking at the plug from wire to tip, the three rings turned out to be ground, ground, mic signal. But pocket camcorders such as the Zi8 require a stereo jack that is, from wire to tip, the three rings should be ground, right channel, left channel. If you want to use a monophone microphone, meaning one microphone like this one is, the plug should have been connected, from wire to tip as ground, mic signal, mic signal, so it will put the one microphone onto both the left channel and right channel.
I cut open the plug to look at it and saw the incorrect wiring was not a mistake. The manufacturer clearly had a soldered in connection between ground and right channel within the plug. It seems to be manufactured for monophonic use only, like they ran out of monophone plugs so they soldered in a stereo one. Matter of fact, the instruction sheet that comes with the mic shows a picture of it with a mono plug, not a stereo plug. Interesting.
Now that I wired it correctly, soldered on a new microphone plug going from wire to tip as ground, mic signal, mic signal, the mic itself is nice. It performs very well and sounds clean. The battery that came with it was fine, not flat or anything. The little foam windscreen fits nice and tight on this one, encircles the mic instead of just sitting on it, nice touch. The cord is wonderfully long, like 20 feet long! Might make a youtube video about this if I have time.
So, if you have some soldering skills and want to run to Radio Shack for a new stereo plug, I would recommend this mic for pocket camcorders such as the Kodak Zi8.
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