Wind kills the audio of video recorded in the field. Fitting most microphones plus windshield quickly to a phone in a case is a pain. Some sort of clamp with a cold shoe mount is needed together with wires to reach the Lightning, or USB-C socket. Three leads/adapters may be needed to get from the microphone to the socket (e.g. TRS-TRS, TRS to TRRS and TRRS to Lightning). In a simple set up these leads get in the way of the hands. The type of microphone that overcomes these problems is one that plugs directly into the Lightning socket or the USB-C socket on the latest iPhones. However, there is a snag. Major manufacturers like Røde have made the stem from the body to the plug such that it fits an iPhone without a case but not when a cases from most manufacturers is fitted; the stem is simply too short. Since, when on the move, a protective case seems the norm, the Røde VideoMic Me-L (Lightning) or Røde VideoMic Me-C seems out of the question. However, there is a way to plug the microphone directly into phone. That is by using a docking extender. The ones I bought (they come in packs of two) are shown as suitable for attaching the Shure MV88 microphone to an iPhone within a case. Similar extenders are available for USB-C sockets. A slide-on clip is supplied with the microphone and I have this pushed on to make contact with the docking extender. Whether that helps stabilise the linkage I do not know but it may help a little.
I was pleased with the firm push-in attachment the VideoMic Me-L made with the extender and the extender with my iPhone 14 Pro. There was however one irritation. The occasion I use this microphone is in wind, i.e. with the furry windshield, a.k.a ‘dead cat’ or in this small version ‘dead kitten’. But inserting microphone+extender with the windshield already in place was tricky because the long hairs could easily get dragged between the contacts of plug and socket. To overcome this I glued (cyanoacrylate ‘superglue’) a small strip of styrene plastic (approximately 0.8 mm thick) to the docking extender. That keeps the fur out of the way when the microphone is plugged in. The styrene strip slides over the edge of the phone case.
I have tried the docking extender in a number of different i-Phone cases and it works with them all.
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| The complete set-up. The iPhone is in a Peak Design Mobile Everyday case with Mobile Tripod attached |
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| With modified docking extender |
The docking extenders (pack of 2) I bought for my iPhone 14 Pro are on Amazon as:
i-Phone Docking Extender Adapter Converter. i-Phone Extension Adapter Connector… The pack is labelled Male i-OS to Female i-OS
Similar extenders are also available for phones with USB-C sockets, e.g. iPhone 15 and Røde VideoMic Me-C
