As we were setting up yesterday to film my Canon C300 review with the Canon XF100 I had problems with my RODE subminiature microphones.

I plugged the first lapel mic into my XLR cable only to get a buzzing noise…mains hum. Since this was the first time using the Canon XF100 I sat down to go over the audio settings in the menu, after exhausting all my options in the menu I changed the XLR cable, no joy.

Finally in desperation I changed over to my second RODE lapel mic…same old mains hum. My third option was to test another make of mic so I connected my Sennheiser lapel mic and…noise gone !

I am rather disappointed in the RODE mics as I had put a lot of faith in them, I have since emailed RODE …as yet no reply. If anyone else has had similar problems please get in touch. (hdwarrior@me.com)

Firstly I have no connections with RODE as a company and I bought my own mic system due to the quality of previous RODE products I already own.

I have a project that needs two identical lapel microphones, now the cheaper option was to buy another Sennheiser or AKG but to be honest I have not been very impressed with either lapel microphone.

Recently I have been buying into the RODE brand of microphones and after watching the “look around the RODE factory” video recently I was further convinced this was the road to go down.

First thing that strikes you is the sheer size of the RODE lapel mic, it’s by all accounts subminiature measuring 12mm x 4mm. The best news is the fact that it screws off the cable, this is very refreshing as 99% of the lapel marketplace are bonded on to the cable making it impossible to replace.

Secondly and just as important to me is the type of cable used, it’s a 1.5mm thin Kevlar reinforced low noise cable, and I can vouch for the low noise I used this mic for my studio inserts for the Panasonic AC160 review.

The third best part about the RODE system is the variety of end connectors you can get for this lapel microphone, I use phantom powered XLR connectors on the whole hard wired to the camcorder.

On the occasion when I need to use a radio transmitter I have the Sennheiser 3.5 mini jack connector and there is a further 6 connectors for various makers transmitters which is in my opinion very forward thinking indeed.

A truly modular system and extension cables as well, yes you can extend your mic cable with a 3 metre Micon cable for a further £27.

The microphone is an omni-directional polar pattern 60Hz to 18KHz and a sound pressure level of 94dB. I can hold my hand up and tell you that I am delighted with my two microphones, they come in an anti-trauma waterproof case and as you can see wind puffs are also part of the kit.

For £150 per microphone kit the RODE system is the best on the sub-miniature marketplace and you will be hard pressed to find a more versatile microphone system on the marketplace.

RODE are a very impressive forward thinking microphone manufacturer and every microphone I own which is now six, the sound from all six microphones are fantastic and quality at a price guarenteed not to break the bank.