Sony RX10 & K1M XLR adapter (1 of 3)

The weather was nice this afternoon so I took the opportunity to run a few quick tests with the Sony RX10. After a little bit of playing around in the menus I can safely say that the Sony XLR-K1M mic adapter works perfectly with the RX10 camera. Simply slide the smart adapter into the camera’s hot shoe, turn off auto gain and you start getting good clean audio from the XLR-K1M mic. Note that since the proprietary hot shoe takes up the only mount on the camera, you’ll need a flash grip to make things work. The one used for testing is only $12 on B&H.

Sony RX10 & K1M XLR adapter (3 of 3)

The Sony XLR-K1M’s included microphone is pretty decent, though not world changing. In the few tests I’ve done so far I would put it just above the audio quality of a RODE videomic pro, with a little bit better side rejection and a bit more reach. The controls on the XLR-K1M adapter cover everything you’ll need, with phantom power for both channels, 0db to -20db attenuation, low pass filters, and individual volume controls for each channel, you shouldn’t have a problem setting up audio.

Sony RX10 input jacks (1 of 1)

Audio monitoring is pretty easy with the built in headphone jack, though you’ll have to adjust the headphone output levels via the menu. The HDMI port is a micro instead of a mini which is the same size you get on a Gopro Hero 3. It’s a little more fragile but it also keeps the camera nice and compact. Basically this is a full fledged all in one video camera, with a nice built in lens, and good low light performance, that also happens to be a good point and shoot.

Sony RX10 clean HDMI out (1 of 1)

It’s pretty easy to configure a clean HDMI output on the Sony RX10, in this case I have it plugged into the SmallHD DP4 monitor. No blinking or screen dropouts and you still get full display on the cameras built in screen. Video quality on the Sony RX10 looks nice though you do lose a little bit of the shallow depth of field with the 1 inch sensor. High ISO performance is in the range of a 5d mark II body with 3200 ISO and under looking pretty decent. I’ll try and get some test clips posted sometime next week.

Sony RX10 & K1M XLR adapter (2 of 3)

I have yet to test out the wifi and remote phone apps for the Sony RX10 and I was surprised to find that the camera has a built in 3 stop ND filter which is pretty impressive for a camera this small. I’ll be playing around with the camera some more over the next week or so and posting more thoughts on the Sony RX10 and XLR-K1M audio adapter as I get used to it’s operation. So far it’s a pretty impressive camera, it would probably be perfect for ENG work and filmmakers who really need to travel light.

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