New Product: Rode Wireless Micro Camera Kit

There has been a flood of new wireless microphones hitting the market as of late. And Rode has added to that flood with an intriguing new product they call the RØDE Wireless Micro Camera Kit.

It’s a new version of the original Rode Wireless Micro and includes two small microphone transmitters, a newly designed camera receiver, a smartphone receiver, and a charging case along with accessories such as cables and wind muffs, etc. 

The idea is that everything is small and compact and lightweight and convenient and colorful and fun. And the Rode receiver has been completely redesigned to look and function more like the DJI microphone receiver. For example, it now has an AMOLED touch screen, and you can control many of the microphone settings directly through the menu system on this touch screen. You can even change the settings for splitting or merging the audio tracks from the two transmitters.

This is a big improvement over the Rode Wireless Go and Pro and Me series, which don’t have a touch screen on the receiver. You can make some settings changes on the receivers using the buttons and LED screen. But for many important ones, you have to plug your devices into your laptop and use the Rode app. Therefore, you can’t make changes on the fly when you are out in the world using the microphones.

There are some other interesting additions and features, such as the fact that the receiver can automatically turn on and off when you turn your camera on and off. This can preserve battery life throughout the day. Though I’m not sure if that also turns off the transmitters. I doubt that it does. The microphones also have noise cancellation options. 

Since it’s a Rode product, I assume the audio quality is good and that it performs as advertised. I like that everything is small and compact. And the addition of an AMOLED touch screen is very welcome. However, from the research I’ve done and from watching a couple of early YouTube reviews, there are some things to consider. For one, the small size means that there is no 3.5mm microphone jack. To get a 3.5mm jack, you have to jump up to the full-sized versions. There also doesn’t seem to be any internal recording for backup audio. I assume they did that to differentiate this kit from the full microphones and to bring down the price. 

Finally, some of the features are only available for iOS, basically for Apple iPhone users. That seems strange to me, but this often happens that large companies put out new features for iPhones first and then years later finally release the same features for Android phones. In this case, the microphones in this kit can be connected to an iPhone via Bluetooth, which means you don’t need to use a receiver at all. But this is only for iPhones. It won’t work for Android phones. You can also control these microphones directly from the Rode app on an iPhone. But you can’t do this from an Android phone. 

Finally, for those who value this, the audio in this kit is not 32-bit float, which is all the rage nowadays. The bigger more expensive Rode Wireless Go and Pro offer 32-bit float audio. This micro kit has standard 24-bit audio. That doesn’t matter to me, but audiophiles won’t be happy with that. 

I can see this being a very popular microphone kit for content creators. It’s simple and fun and convenient and cheaper at about $150. And it comes in three different colors. But for me, the lack of a 3.5mm jack and the lack of internal memory for backups are both dealbreakers. I would still go for the full-sized versions despite their extra weight, size, and cost.

It’s a bit of an odd move from Rode when you stop and think about it. They completely redesigned the receiver and made it much better. Yet, this new receiver design is not available for their pro systems. It’s only available on the cheaper micro system. And the charging case is strange. There is no space inside the case for the smartphone receiver. The kit comes with the camera receiver and the smartphone receiver. That’s one of the main selling points of this micro kit. Yet, there’s no room for the smartphone receiver inside the charging case. So you have to carry it around separately in another bag, which you are likely going to lose. That seems so odd to me. It’s like they designed the kit only for cameras, and then at the last minute decided to throw in the smartphone receiver as well. It’s like the smartphone receiver was an afterthought.