Pro trick: you can watch movies on Flixzone. Been using them for watching lots of of movies during the lockdown.

@Gordon Payton yup, I have been watching on flixzone} for months myself :)

I find that when I’m testing microphones, how much of the self noise I hear depends hugely on which headphones I use. I have a pair with low sensitivity and a tiny bit of roll-off at the extreme ends and they make every mic sound like it has no noise. After testing with several headphones I find the Rode to be a tiny bit cleaner overall, but it is very close. I wouldn’t pick on over another based on noise performance of the microphone itself. If you are connected to something with super noisy pre-amps the Rode might have an edge due to the higher gain, but it’s hard to say for sure until someone finds that situation, and I didn’t.

@@bigtb1717 interesting, never looked at it that way. Makes total sense.

On my ath ad-700x the rode's noise sounded louder too

Yeah, he seemed like such a nice, genuine guy.

I have not updated the firmware on my VideoMic NTG. Maybe that would make a difference. The Comica has quite a bit less gain, not nearly as good of a shock mount (as you noted) and a couple less features. But it certainly didn't lack in sound quality.

Sure. Just keep in mind the need to keep it charged (thinking about family trips where you wouldn't want to get half-way through the trip and realize you don't have a charger or something. Not an issue, just something to remember) and that it's a mono, shotgun mic, so it is directional. A large benefit in many situations, but could be a detriment in some.

There's not a whole lot out there that pics up from both sides other than omni-directional mics (the Deity D4 Duo can record from front and back at the same time). Are you looking for something that you can wear on your shirt like a lapel/lavalier mic, or something more of the style like these microphones?

@@bigtb1717 yes the deity is something that I am looking for. I have a lav mic that I am very happy with. But my “shotgun mic is not the best and I have inconsistency recording videos. Sometimes there is static in the video ect. The shotgun mic I have is a 15$ vivitar shotgun mic. It’s long so I modified it to be super slim. But it goes hve a front facing mic and rear. So the audio is more consistent when flipping the camera. My brother has the rode small entry shotgun mic and every time you turn the camera away you decrease the audio level 70% and I didn’t not like that.

Is there a reason you don't just use the lav mic in those situations? Is the wire to the camera the issue?

@@bigtb1717 yes I am wired and for run and gun videos I prefer not to be wired in.

What if the lavalier wire ran under your shirt down to a little audio recorder in your pocket? Just a thought. You'd have to sync the audio in post, which isn't too difficult in most programs.

I do hear the same thing. There were situations where I thought the Rode was quieter, so it could be a bit of a gain-staging issue, but I'm not sure. As you say, the noise gets a tiny bit more noticeable at that switch to the Rode.

When I was at the desk the mics were connected to a portable audio recorder/mixer. Specifically, the Sound Devices Mix Pre 3. Outside the mics were connected directly into a Blackmagic Pocket 4K with a Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 lens.

A better wind muff could help. But in my opinion, rather than spending $40-$100+ buying a slightly better wind muff, you might be better off just using the high pass/low cut filter if you are in a situation where wind is a problem. The 75 Hz setting will get rid of slight rumble, and the 150 Hz setting will get rid of just about anything that gets past the wind muff. But if you don't want to cut out the low frequencies, a better wind muff could definitely help. I don't know which Rode windscreen you are looking at or exactly how much better it is than the included muff.

@@bigtb1717 Make sense! Thank you for the reply! I ordered Comica vm20 for ~$100 and I can find a better quality wind muff for ~$20. I wasn't looking for exactly Rode wind muff, but since you have both of the mics and they're pretty much about the same size I though that may test Rode's wind muff on Comica mic. I didn't think on the first place that you couldn't have a Rode wind muff 🤔 That's my bad, sorry! Basically the whole idea was to understand would it help to use a better wind muff on Comica. Your advice to use cut filter completely make sense! Thank you!

The Rode doesn't come with a furry wind muff. I do have a furry wind muff from Auray that I used on the Rode in this video to keep wind from ruining the audio. I can try testing that wind-muff vs. the included muff with the Comica to see if there is a significant difference.

@@bigtb1717 that would be great! 😌👍

Sorry I haven't gotten around to testing this out yet. I'll try to test it out in the next couple days and I'll report back if the Auray wind muff I have works substantially better than the included one.

I imagine you could, but I've never personally used one of those adapters. From what I've heard, they usually don't have the best audio quality. Is there a particular one you were wanting to use?

@@bigtb1717 I would be recording a classroom and need to get the teacher from under 15 feet audio wise. WIth a super cardioid if positioned correctly this should work at better distances than other mic types.

A super cardioid will not pick up as much surrounding noise, but you are still going to need a lot of gain and you will still pick up some surrounding noise if you are recording from 15 feet away. But a super cardioid would certainly be better than something like an omnidirectional mic.

Even thought nothing was said about the mic having this function, I did test it. The computer doesn't see anything when the mic is connected to a computer via USB. The mic charges, but it is not detected in any way by the computer.

@@bigtb1717 excellent, thank for the response! You never know with these, sometimes these cheaper creations have hidden features like you demoed in the smart phone connectivity ☺️ I see it can be charged and used simultaneously, would it be okay to be left plugged in (charging) to a computer while using the audio jack for an “always on” mic solution?

I don't really see an issue with that unless you truly leave it plugged in at all times. In that case, the only real issue is that it would be hard on the battery over time. Lithium batteries degrade more quickly when fully charged than when sitting at 50-80%. So if it is left plugged in at all times, the battery may degrade more quickly.