Rode Shotgun Video Mic Comparison

On this extensive comparison, photographer Max Yuryev looks at 5 different on camera shotgun microphones from Rode and do an extensive test series which has a very surprising finding.

So does the most expensive mic sounds the best? well not necessarily according to Yuryev. In his testing, the cheapest mic out of the five actually sounded the best in many of the tests which is really surprising (the Rode VideoMicro does seem to lack bass, but this is relatively easy to fix in post).

It is important to realize that there is more to some of this mics than just how they sound, some of the more advanced ones have batteries (and the new Rode VideoMic Pro Plus has some really great powering options) and different functions (including boosting the sound and adding low pass filters to reduce low-frequency sounds), but it is still pretty surprising to see the actual difference in noise rejection between these mics.

Here are all of the mics that Yuryev used in this comparison:

Rode VideoMicro – $59 on Amazon.
Rode VideoMic GO – $87 on Amazon.
Rode VideoMic – $149 on Amazon.
Rode VideoMic Pro – $229 on Amazon.
Rode VideoMic Pro Plus – $299 on Amazon.

We have already looked at the new Rode VideoMic Pro Plus a couple of times in the past (see here and here) and we received a review unit from Rode which we are currently testing and we shall publish our own findings soon.

You can check out more of videos from our photography gear guides section here on LensVid. On LensVid we also have a very extensive section devoted to sound recording for video productions which covers both equipment and techniques that you might want to check out.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.