We Test a $2 Microphone

Posted May 30, 2018

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We love our OSMO?

And who does not?

The OSMO has proven to be one of those game-changing pieces of tech that can really improve the quality of your video shooting without getting in the way.

It comes from DJI, the same people, I am pretty sure, who made the microphone we are about to field test. I was up at the DJI offices a few weeks ago for a Hasselblad class.

They clearly only deal with the very best of the best, and I have made an appointment to go and do a whole story on their run of gear -and trust me, they have some amazing tech - particiualry in the drone deparment. Here's a link to their site. Check it out!

Last week, Lisa came across a small article that said that OSMO was offering a FREE microphone that plugs righ tinto the OSMO to give you even better sound.

One of the very few (very few indeed) problems with working with the OSMO is that it is not very well designed to accomodate audio enhancement for the smart phone.

We do a lot of iPhone shooting, and while we can adapt our iPhoneX to Sennheiser radio mics or wired lavs, it is clunky when you are working OSMO. The whole point of OSMO mounting is to simplify life.

There are countless 'professional' mounts and brackets on the market today for iPhone and smart phone video. Most of them strike me as just plain dumb. They are big and bulky and hard to manage. A few look like you are walking around with a dinner tray or a picture frame in front of your face, with a phone mounted in the middle of it.

I don't get it.

Years and years ago, when we were just starting the VJ thing, a guy sent me a 'bracket' for small, hand held video cameras. The thing sat on your shoulder and you screwed the camcorder into it so it looked like and felt like a big, professional, shoulder mounted camera. All the disadvantages with none of the advantages.

In all this time, not much has changed.

Thus, when we read about the potential of the DJI FM-15 FlexiMic for Osmo Gimbal Camera, ($2), we were all in favor of getting one.

We love cheap, small and simple to use.

So we took the DJI FM-15 Flex Mic out for a test spin on the difficult streets of New York (and the elevators - or lifts, as we say in the UK) in our own building.

Now, as you will soon see, this is NOT a 'professional' audio lab, scopes and gear plugged in kind of test. This is just an unboxing of a piece of kit and using it just the way we would normall use it. Plut it in and see how it performs.

Now, if you have used this thing, (or if you have used some other plug in mic on your OSMO), lemme know! I am not making a case for or against this thing. Just sharing what happened to me this morning. Your mileage may vary.

You can see the results for yourself.

If you have a piece of gear you would like us to test out, give us a shout.