Audio Connection for GH2?

L

larrys

Well-known member
I see that the GH2 will have the same size audio/mic in size as the GH1. I never plugged in a mic to the GH1 as I used double system sound. But for the GH2, and with Gain Control, it will be nice to plug a mic in sometimes.

So, WHAT ADAPTER do I need to plug a standard mini-plug into the camera?

Thanks.
 
larrys said:
I see that the GH2 will have the same size audio/mic in size as the GH1. I never plugged in a mic to the GH1 as I used double system sound. But for the GH2, and with Gain Control, it will be nice to plug a mic in sometimes. So, WHAT ADAPTER do I need to plug a standard mini-plug into the camera?
Click to expand...

To connect 1 or 2 mono mics with 1/8" (3.5mm) plugs, I've used these together with my GH1's 2.5mm stereo mic input:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=hosa+gmp467&x=0&y=0
http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimi...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1288805024&sr=1-1

To connect a mic that has an XLR plug, I've used these to convert XLR to 1/8" dual mono:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...&sku=133646&is=REG&si=rev#anchorToReadReviews
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?ci=4172&N=4289288135&Ns=p_PRICE_2|0

If the sound source is relatively loud and your mic outputs a stronger than average signal level (more than the camera's preamp can handle cleanly), I've used an inline pad/attenuator, such as one of these:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/287412-REG/Remote_Audio_CAFPTPAD_Stereo_1_8_Mini_Output.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/68600-REG/Shure_A15AS.html

A few GH1 & GH2 audio caveats:

As you may know, _monitoring_ audio from a _GH1_ can only be done via its built-in speaker or USB/AV cable during playback (not recording).

I've used these adapter cables together with the special USB/AV cable that came with my GH1 to monitor audio playback directly thru my Sennheiser HD280 (64 ohm) headphones:
http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-404...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1288805975&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Dual-RCA...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1288806235&sr=1-15

The GH2 allegedly outputs live audio during recording through its HDMI connection, but I don't know if this has been confirmed. If your external HDMI monitor doesn't have a headphone output jack (most don't), you could theoretically use one of these HDMI converters to drive some headphones directly (requires an appropriate DC power source, too):
http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-Ypbpr-Co...5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1288806475&sr=1-5

Boring!!!

Once again, it would have been so trivially easy & inexpensive for Panasonic to have provided a headphone jack on the GH2, but whatever. ;-)

I await absolute confirmation as to whether or not the GH2 outputs live audio from its USB/AV connector during recording. If so, then the passive cable adapters listed above should work with headphones.

Remember: Recording audio without live monitoring is a disaster waiting to happen. Adapter cables are notoriously flakey, and if you use multiple adapters in combination, odds of failure greatly increase. Only record audio w/o live monitoring if it's OK to re-shoot a clip -- when you inevitably determined after the fact that the previous take was ruined by a bad connection. You've been warned. :-)

YMMV.
 
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A better solution would be to use an external microphone amplifier with built in phones out for monitoring like Beachtek DXA-SLR or Juicedlink DT454. An added value is phanthom power for professional microphones.
 
harryharry said:
A better solution would be to use an external microphone amplifier with built in phones out for monitoring like Beachtek DXA-SLR or Juicedlink DT454. An added value is phanthom power for professional microphones.
Click to expand...

Using an external mic preamp/mixer with headphone output may improve sound quality because the preamp/mixer has better circuitry than what's built-into the camera, _but_ it only allows live monitoring of everything _except_ the sonic quality/reliability of the connection from the preamp/mixer to the camera. So, it's an improvement, but unfortunately not "ideal". Sigh.
 
Peter J. DeCrescenzo said:
To connect 1 or 2 mono mics with 1/8" (3.5mm) plugs, I've used these together with my GH1:
you could theoretically use one of these HDMI converters to drive some headphones directly (requires an appropriate DC power source, too):
http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-Ypbpr-Co...5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1288806475&sr=1-5
Click to expand...

What about something like this, if HDMI monitoring wasn't needed too.
http://etradehouse.com/code/ui/main/product_info.aspx?prdid=HV3R-1M&catid=282&prd_id=13092
 
itimjim said:
What about something like this, if HDMI monitoring wasn't needed too.
http://etradehouse.com/code/ui/main/product_info.aspx?prdid=HV3R-1M&catid=282&prd_id=13092
Click to expand...

I've seen these HDMI-to-RCA adapter cables mentioned before, but I don't think they convert digital HDMI audio to analog audio (such as to drive headphones or other analog audio gear.) Or am I mistaken?

Do some HDMI devices output analog audio signals out through their HDMI connectors? Hmm ... I should go look up "HDMI" on the Wikipedia ... nope, don't see mention of support for analog audio via HDMI; it's all-digital.

So, no, I don't think that cable will do what we want.

Question: What _is_ that cable for?
 
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