Tascam TM-2X Stereo X-Y Microphone for DSLR Cameras ,Black

I intended to use my Nikon D5300 for video as well as still shots. In particular, I wanted to use it to take video of live music shows. However, my initial efforts using the camera's built-in stereo microphones were in a word, dismal. The microphones in the camera had a very narrow frequency range with a noticeable notch in the middle, as well as virtually nonexistent stereo separation. I knew I needed to do better. I did quite a bit of research, initially thinking I would go with a shotgun stereo mic, but after reading multiple reviews, decided to go with this Tascam mic. I already had a handheld Tascam digital recorder with very similar mics that made exceptional recordings. I had read several reviews complaining about the plastic shoes on this mic breaking. I figured I would do my best not to bash the mic when mounted (primarily on tripods when taking video) so that this would not be an issue. The mic arrived, I noticed the box looked like it had been opened before. However, the mic inside was fully packaged. I unpacked it, and first looked at the boom/extension. When I picked it up, the shoe fell off of it. Looking closer, the piece of plastic connecting the shoe to the rest of the boom was in fact broken. I figured I would use the mic to do testing, and when I picked it up, the shoe fell of it as well! It too had been broken. Obviously someone had broken the shoes on both the boom and the mic, then returned it - it had been refurbished (i.e. repackaged) and shipped out to me (by Amazon) as new! I was extremely unimpressed with this. To Amazon's credit, they had a replacement (new, this time) unit in my hands two days later, and paid for the return of the broken unit. I then got to use the new mic for the first time that weekend. The results: spectacular! The difference in sound between the on-camera mics and this external mic are like night and day. The on-camera mics sound muddy and tonally narrow, with limited dynamics. The Tascam mic produces excellent sound, quite flat and with very good dynamics. The stereo imaging was excellent, and there was no evidence of overmodulation, despite the high SPL at the event. My tests in a quiet room with these mics on my D5300 did produce an audible noise floor in the form of hiss, at probably -30dB. Some other reviews attribute this to the mics, however I tried plugging the mics into my Tascam recorder, and the hiss was not evident. Therefore I attribute the hiss to the preamp and/or phantom power supply inside the D5300, not the microphones themselves. When recording any kind of decent audio levels the hiss is not evident however. With the boom installed, the sounds of autofocus motors in the lens are barely audible in recordings, and then only when the surrounding area is extremely quiet. Again, when recording any kind of audio level, autofocus motor noise will not be an issue. Overall I am very pleased with the sound of these mics. I will continue to be vigilant in handling the mics when mounted to the camera to try to avoid the shoe breakage issue that is so clearly a problem with them. That said, the manner in which I saw them broken could very likely be easily fixed with application of some epoxy.

The sound quality is very nice. Although there is a slightly audible hiss when compared to the internal mic of my DSLR. This may be from the internal hardware of camera and not the Tascam mic. But what I really like are the switches which allow you to tailor the sound to your liking. Specifically there are 2 switches - A sensitivity switch (high or low) and a filter switch (flat or low cut). The sensitivity switch, when set to LOW, seems to cut the gain of the mics so the result is a softer, more subdued sound. This is used when you are recording an overly loud source such as live music from a close distance. The filter switch, when set to LOW CUT, seems to reduce the gain of some lower frequencies, an effect that I feel deadens the sound a bit. This, according to the brief manual, was designed to filter out background sounds in your recordings such as fans or other humming devices. The extension arm is light plastic and will not take too much abuse. It would have been nice if they had made the hot-shoe connector out of metal but this too is plastic. The X-Y pattern mics may be angled freely up or down and the included dead cat wind screen is a nice bonus. What's even nicer is that this mic DOESN'T NEED BATTERIES. For the price this mic is really nice!

I am running this mic on my Sony HDR-XR 500, HDR XR-500V and HDR-CX700 cameras. Amazing difference in sound quality, especially at the football games! On the weekends I video for the drill team at the nearby high school. At the stadium, I use the mic set on the Low sensitivity. In the gym for the pep rally, I set the mic on the High Sensitivity. Works like a dream. Have not had a need for the boom arm yet, but it looks like it wouldn't take much to break it. I would definitely like TASCAM to build a better arm! Trying to think of a way to reinforce it before I have to use it. The design of the arm makes it entirely too easy to be mistaken for a grab handle!! The shock mount head and dead cat are incredible!! The shock mount actually works. I shot a pep rally in the gym and the students are going crazy, jumping on the bleachers. The Optical Image Stabilization is doing its job on the camera... the mic head, you can see it bouncing in the shock mount doing its job too, so as to not transfer all the impact sound into the mic. Just make sure the mic is pointed at where you want it to be when inside the deadcat outside, when you take it out of your bag. Dec 2014 Update: Mic continues to work like a champ!! If you ignore the bad zoom and some rolling shutter artifacts at the start of the video (had the wrong lens with me the day i shot this, plus the IS was enabled on the lens) here is some video I shot this past weekend in an EXTREMELY LOUD Texas HS 6A Div1 Football playoff game. https://vimeo.com/113819280 - Overall the sound quality of the mic is really good. HUGE improvement over the built-in mic. Much more compact than the Rode mic that my son uses on his camera. - The deadcat is really effective at killing the wind noise. On that same Vimeo stream, its a windy day, with the wind coming from behind me, but whipping around in the stadium. Interesting items noticed: - Had it hooked up to my HD Camcorder, which was mounted on a Manfrotto Tripod, with a Manfrotto fluid pan head on it, with a remote zoom switch on the control arm. (am NOT touching the camera to zoom, but using the on-arm remote zoom switch). - Had my headphones hooked up to the camera as well, so I could hear what the camera was hearing... - I could hear a slight thud through the mic as I gently grabbed the control arm of the tripod. - Hearing that, let me to some "thumping" experiments -- thumped the arm, could hear it -- mounted the mic on the "boom arm" that it comes with, the thumping was noticeably louder -- took the boom off, and unplugged the Tascam... thumps were louder on in-camera mic -- decided to go with the Tascam hooked up like regular. - the "shock mount" on the mic actually works very well. If you look at this video https://vimeo.com/107761350 the Tascam is mounted directly to the top of the camcorder (no boom arm). When the students get into their jumping and going crazy, the bleachers were physically bouncing. I looked up to see what the mic was doing... while the image stabilization was taking care of the camera, the shock mount was taking care of the mic. You could physically see it jiggling with the bleacher bounces, but the movement did not translate into recorded noise. Very nice to see it worked. Enjoy. Just remember, when using the deadcat... remember to check the angle on the mics before you start recording!

Tried this microphone first with a pro JVC camcorder but it didn’t work in the aux mike input as the camera doesn’t sent phantom power over the 3.5 stereo connection only the XLR connectors. So I tried it on my Panasonic GH Lumix cameras, GH2, GH3 and GH4 where the microphone did work. The sound is better than the on-camera microphones so that’s good for getting decent room sound at concerts just in case you might need it. But that’s where the poor customer support comes in. On all the GH cameras, the right channel is lower than the left for no obvious reason. My Rode camera microphones don’t have this problem. Two inquiries to Tascam customer support have resulted in an acknowledgment that I’ve sent an inquiry but no follow up has resulted. All I would like to know is if the audio level discrepancy is a defect in this particular unit or something between the microphone and the GH camera series that can only be fixed in post. If I don’t hear this week, back it goes.

I acquired this as a REPLACEMENT for my Rode Stereo microphone. The selector latch broke, and the battery compartment door also broke. But the kicker was that the compartment door for the battery fell off and got lost. The purpose of the needing the microphone is to record my daughter’s performances and her prescreen videos for college applications. This is a microphone system that connects to the hot shoe. The plug goes into the audio input, and there are two sensitivity: High and Low. A cover allows for wind reduction in outdoor performances. An additional attachment sets the microphone apart from the camera body. This decreases the chance of recording sounds from the lens motor. The advantages over my Rode are that there is a smaller profile, two microphone heads and no requirement for additional batteries. The microphone is lightweight and compact. Sound quality is excellent. Using this on my Canon 80D, I am able to fine tune audio recording sensitivity, additional wind reduction, audio recording levels, and also monitor sound quality through a set of audio headphones. Overall, I’m very pleased.

As many other reviewers said, cheap plastic mount was broken out of the box. Waiting for my replacement before testing sound and then I'll update my review. UPADATE: Replacement was in perfect condition leading me to believe I could have received a used/defective one the first time around. Regardless, I cannot seem to get over how cheap and easily breakable the plastic parts are. I've returned them both and purchased a Rode VideoMic GO which is well worth the extra bit of money for a MUCH better build quality. I didn't take the time to extensively compare sound between Rode and Tascam but can tell you based on a quick listen they are very similar.

Item: Arrived quickly and well packed. Love the fact that this mic doesn't need its own battery! It uses "Plug-In Power" to draw the needed voltage directly from the camera. Just plug it in to a Plug-in Power compatible camera (must conform to JEITA standard CP-1203A). Many newer DSLRs and HD video cameras now use this protocol. The TASCAM TM-2X has a nice design, good build quality with built-in shock mount. In the box, Tascam includes a nice extension arm and a 'dead cat' furry windscreen. The price is good for this quality. I'm pleased. As usual, item arrived within 2 days in perfect condition. Sound: I use this with a Canon 70D. In side-to-side tests of the TASCAM TM-2X, the built-in Canon stereo mic, and a decent shotgun mic, I find the clarity and stereo separation of this Tascam mic to be the best. Really nice for home and amateur video. Approaches pro sound for under $100 bucks, delivered. A real value. Conclusion: I really like the small, portable nature of this mic. the fact that you get great stereo separation and full range frequency response makes this mic a great choice as a first or only outboard mic. Get it. It's really nice.

This is a microphone that I owned years ago back when I used a camcorder and was very happy with the results. The problem is that it's design or circuitry or whatever seems to be prone to noise and interference when used with a variety of other cameras. In my case I tried using it with a GoPro which almost worked wonderfully except for the crackling sound that occasionally crept into the recording. Unfortunately totally unacceptable. And it didn't work at all with my DJI Action 4. On the other hand it does sound good with my Panasonic Lumix G9 mirrorless camera. What's definitely nice about it is that quality of the actual microphones as well as the shock mount isolation and it's relatively compact dimensions given what it offers. Unfortunately it's not useful to me anymore because the cameras I want to use it with don't really work that well with it but if it does work well with the camera that you want to use it with, it's a very solid choice for a stereo microphone.

This is a great mic, and I've decided to ditch my Rode Videomic Go in place of the Tascam TM-2X. I have this mic hooked up to the Audio-In of a Lumens VCP-A50P PTZ camera, which is connected via SDI to a Blackmagic SDI-HDMI decoder, which in turn is connected to an Atem Mini Pro. Previously, my Rode Videomic would pick up all sorts of interference; flouro lights, WiFi, fans, etc., and this would come out as hissing and other audio distortions. In the same recording room, the Tascam TM-2X didn't pick up any of the interference that the Rode picked up. The Tascam is clearly better designed, yet Rode are supposedly known for making good mics (obviously not the Videomic Go).

Came in an open box and had audible defects like intermittent clicking and mid-pitch noise. Pros: Between those times it produced clear immersive sound. Cons: The support is made of thin rubber and is rather weak, the arm is 100% plastic, windscreen does not fit at all (runs very large, although it might have been switched before).

I bought this as I wanted to get a couple videos of my dogs first words as they are almost there, I can feel it! Anyway, I'm using a Nikon D5600 and the included arm fits in the shoe nicely and doesn't overhang too much. The arm is lightweight and the microphone is perfect weight for it. You can also use the microphone direct to the camera without using the arm but I'm using autofocus so the arm is the way to go for me as it is far enough away with the arm that unwanted sounds are kept to a minimum. Also comes with a little furry hat for the bi-directional microphones that seems to do it's job. The microphone heads can be moved independently of each other which makes excellent for interviews. All in all a nice little microphone with nice sound and the inclusion of the arm is a bonus that made me like my purchase even more.

It's pretty average. In fact the Sony alpha mics are about as good in my listening.

I found that directionally, the mic does very well. I created some video in a wilderness wetland and the birds were nice and clear while keeping noises from off camera reduced. It does have a wider pickup area than a shotgun mic, but it brings in subject's noises clear and the ambient noises are still heard but not distracting.