Ext Mic audio on 5D MkII

[rastAsia]

Have been using ML2.3 on the 550d / T2i fine, thanks to the amazing community of people making ML such a gem! But yesterday I got stalled with non-working Ext Mic on the 5DMII with ML2.3.. I saw some other user having similar issue but without follow ups if they've solved this similar problem.. hoping its a sheer simple settings error which I'd normally be able to sort out, but not this one.

The same mics works on external flash recorder. Røde SVM and Sennheiser G3 Lav on Roland R26 works well, batteries all new.. There's signal from the internal mic but nothing when switched to the ext mic source in the 5DMII.

If anyone have had the same issue with the 5DMII on ML2.3 please let me know. Just hoping its not a hardware problem.

Best regards from Holland!

[Malcolm Debono]

What's your setup like? (as in, which mic are you trying to connect and what cables are you using)

[Lumiére]

I have mentioned this audio issue elsewhere in the forum. After some days of testings and various experiences the best settings I found as follows. First I only connected wired lav mikes to my 60D so all tests are done with AT3350. But will work with every mike depending on that specific mike's signal output strength. As recommended in ML manual lowering the digital gains to "0" and analog gain max "32"dB doesn't work. The input level is too weak and too much background hiss. With my lavs  digital gain "6" and analog gain at "29" gave me the best result. Audio level is between -12 / -24 dB area which is good enough. There is still some hiss but that much is acceptable and  can be easily removable in the post. So my suggestion is to play with both digital and analog gains , do many different recordings and find out the best matching point in terms of audio level and minimum background hiss depending on your external mike's signal. Digital gain up to "12" dB works OK. With or without ML you are still using the camera preamps and DSLR preamps are not strong enough for a pro work. ML does not power up the preamps and kill the background hiss, this is not possible. However, unless there is an urgent need to record sound in camera I would always use a portable recorder. I hope this  may be some help to everyone having audio problems.