Saramonic SR-XM1 Ultra-Compact Unidirectional Microphone for DSLRs, Mirrorless Cameras, Video Cameras, Action Cameras, Recorders & More

I needed a small 90-degree offset microphone for use with a vlogging rig I’m building.I’ve seen the Saramonic name here and there when I’ve been browsing, but didn’t know much about the quality of the product line.My needs for this were limited: recording an audio track for videos, usually at a shooting distance of less than three feet.My first impressions are positive. Build-quality is high. The mic itself rotates in a 180-degree arc, providing great versatility with action cameras like the GoPro and smartphones.While I suspect a musician would want better response characteristics, for narration the response is more than adequate. Voice quality was good, nice and crisp without any buzz or hum.For the price, this is an excellent value.Jerry

I bought this thinking (by seeing a popular youtuber's review) that this was a small shot-gun style mic. But believe me, it will not make a difference which direction this mic is pointed - it will pick up everything in all directions. And that's ok, if that's what you need. In fact, that's why I kept it. It has been very useful in many situations. It will pick up the audio from the entire room for recording. Or outdoor sounds from all around. So I bought a separate directional shotgun mic later, but I'll keep the Saramonic SR-XM1 because it works very well. I use it with a GoPro Hero 8 Black - and it also works with my laptop as a great external mic for VOIP calls.

I've used this on my GoPro 8 Black as well as on my Panasonic Lumix DLSR and it works much better than the stock mic embedded into the camera. I'm using this mic for vlogging and better audio quality for videos. The swivel was so I can move it towards the sound I want to focus on rather than having a fixed mic angle.The only complaint I have is that the swivel seems poorly built. I feel that it could break at any moment. Plus you have to hold the mic at a certain place on the neck to swivel it, otherwise it starts coming apart. Since it's such a small boom mic, I try not to grab the actual mic itself to swivel but it seems that's the only real area to swivel it without the joint coming apart.

I went external mic because the internal mic on my GoPro 5black died. After watching a lot of videos and research I went this route and I’m happy I did. Sound quality is good, and build quality seems good so far. Only issue I ran to was with GoPro wifi turned on, it’ll pick up a loud clicking wave interference sound I automatically thought I bought a defect. After turning off wifi everything operates as it should. I also learned that when I put a 6ft 3.5mm extension in between the clicking noise went away even with wifi turned on. Overall great value for the money and would definitely recommend it!

Purchased two of these to use as mics in my Boya wireless setup (which is awesome, btw). I already had two EDUTIGE ETM-001 mics (seriously THE BEST 3.5mm small omnidirectional mic I've used - but they are in and out of stock, at least for the ~$30 price tag), so when I bought my second set of Boya wireless mics (to try to use a splitter to have four going at once), I decided to try out this mic.They feel like a quality piece of equipment, but as soon as plugged the first one in, it created a deafening hum that completely covered up anything being recorded. The second one has what I'd call a buzz where you could still hear what was being recorded, though it was clearly better without the mic plugged into the Boya than with it....both were unusable, and I returned them this afternoon after trying them out this morning. Very disappointing, because they felt like a well-built product when I unboxed. :(

So I bought this to use with a Gopro Hero 5. I did return it within 1 day of using it. Here are the pros and cons of this mic if you want to use it with the Hero 5.Pros:I loved how small and portable it was. Fit in my gear bag no problem. It also makes the audio sound exponentially better than the stock Gopro audio.Cons:Biggest one was that with this Mic, you CAN'T have the Gopro wireless connection on. If you do, you will have horrible clicking and crackling noise. It must be off. Which is trash because that means I can't use the capture app or have it connected to my Remo controller.Side note: Another con but this is a Gopro software issue not the mic is that if you try using Quick Capture(Where you press the record button while it's off to start recording right away instead of turning it on like normal), your first clip will have audio and every clip after that will NOT have audio. Again, this is a Gopro issue not related to the Saramonic mic. Just thought everyone should know this.So...the wireless connection issure is enough, for me, to want to return this item. But besides that, it was a good microphone.

The mic is amazing. It is connected to a Hero6 with a GoPro mic adapter. The sound is amazing. I expected something noisy or with less bandwidth but this is similar to Rode or Movo units costing more than twice what this mic costs. It is not a $300.00 mic but it sure corrects the horrible quality that the Hero series has. For outdoor work, this is the ultimate in portability. It is Omnidirectional, not a shotgun mic. It has brilliant frequency response, clarity and a low noise floor but at very close range. For a GoPro or other wide angle/close range vlogging cam, this is perfect. It is not good for nature walks or any distance over 3 feet from the mic. You can hear a big difference in sensitivity from 12" to 18" and then 24" away from a sound source. If you keep the distance constant, good, otherwise a sound leveling may be needed in post.