Using a Zoom H4N as the external mic for my Sanyo Xacti HD1000 videocam?

October 9, 2015 7:19 AM

I want to plug my Zoom H4N audio recorder into the external mic jack on my Sanyo Xacti HD-1000 camera but I don't know what connecting cable to buy

-- AND, I'm reading that you need some sort of converter to plug any external mic into that then goes into the (proprietary?) jack on the Sanyo and that Sanyo doesn't make that anymore and it's no longer available via the sites that sell camera parts??

I'm reading all kinds of forums (fora?) and am now utterly confused. I don't want the Zoom to provide me with a separate audio track that I will then have to sync up with the Sanyo's lousy audio -- I want it to be the external mic.

Any ideas? Thank you!

posted by DMelanogaster to Technology (7 answers total)

It's a (presumably standard) 2.5mm jack, so you'd just need a 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female converter. Here's one.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:14 AM on October 9, 2015

Response by poster: Sitting... So I'd plug that into the camera and then I'd need a male-to male converter, plugging one end into the item you suggest and the other end into the Zoom?

Still confused...
posted by DMelanogaster at 9:00 AM on October 9, 2015

Exactly. The linked converter converts a regular male-male 3.5mm cord (which I'd assumed you already had; if not, get one) into a 3.5mm-2.5mm cord.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:06 AM on October 9, 2015

Response by poster: I have nothing...I have lost everything...(playing violins, recording on my Zoom H5n)

One more thing: so all the people posting on fora that they can't get the part to stick into the Sanyo proprietary non-standard jack are ignoramuses?.
posted by DMelanogaster at 9:13 AM on October 9, 2015

No, it's just that 3.5mm jacks are way more common than 2.5mm, so people just assume it's 3.5mm and start scratching their heads when their bog-standard plug is a millimetre too fat to fit in the jack.

It could also be a TRS thing? Oh, yeah. Doy. The thing I linked is for phones, so it's extra fancy two-way headphones+mic. It might work, but really you'd want something with two stripes on the tip, not three. ...Probably.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:41 AM on October 9, 2015

The audio still might be lousy even if you're using the Zoom as a microphone on the Sanyo. The Sanyo may do a bad job amplifying and compressing the sound that comes from the Zoom.

If you have access to modern video editing software the software will automatically sync a high quality recording from a Zoom with the low quality recording from the camera.
posted by gregr at 4:06 PM on October 9, 2015

Response by poster: After reading about difficulties and incompatibilities with the Zoom and the camera that result in lousy sound quality, I wimped out on the Zoom and just ordered a used mic that is compatible with my camera (or so people on the internet say). Thank you all for your advice.
posted by DMelanogaster at 6:26 AM on October 10, 2015