Once Upon A Time...

There was Time. You spent it, saved it, and had either a good one or a bad one, depending upon your character and luck. If you were employed in the camera trade you might get some of it spare after Christmas to skulk around at home and avoid housework. Then you retired, and if you were lucky time started to mean nothing. Getting up was when you woke up and your knees would work - going to bed the thing in reverse. Most days contained more time than you needed - the wise found things to fill it and the foolish just complained that they were bored. Then the pandemic stopped the commercial clock and a lot of things stopped with it. It has started again, but some things are still in limbo - small goods from small places are still an iffy proposition. But I am glad to see that at last some of the local production is ramping up to fill spots on shelves. You might not be able to buy hand-hewn Kangarooflex cameras produced in a shed in Manangatang yet, but you can find some local straps, local accessories, and Røde microphones. I own two of these - one purloined from the wife and one paid for with my own money - and I honestly cannot see any better product on the market for their niche. The bigger microphone - the Videomic Pro is powered by a 9-volt battery. Presumably this is for better performance or more ability to pick up quiet sounds; I don't know because the recordings I do are at belly dancing concerts and there is no such thing as quiet belly dancing. Artillerymen might ask them to turn up the music but no-one else does. Indeed, the big Røde has the decided advantage that it has a built-in three-position attenuator circuit that drops the level by 10 or 20 dB. Of course you can do this with the level controls in the camera as well, but sometimes you can't get to it in time when the belly dance battery sergeant holds up her hand and they all start. I was worried about that 9-volt battery for fear it would cut out mid-dance - but the same battery has gone for a year with no diminution - the mic is not a power-hog. The smaller Røde has no attenuator - and no battery either - it takes its power from something in the camera or something in itself. It still plugs into the same socket as the bigger one and so far has not been overpowered by the sound of the dancing gunners. It is much better balanced for a perch on the top of the camera's accessory shoe. Yes, I know I shouldn't, but the Røde people make a shoe doubler that lets me put a light and a mic up there. I'm careful - though if I can locate a Smallrig cage for the Fujifilm X-T2 I use, I'll encase the camera in that and bolt the rest of the goods to that. But finding small Smallrig goods in this trade climate? Good luck with that.