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missing headphone jack on a6300


trorvik
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I was so happy when i noticed the new a6300 had an input for external audio. But soon discovered that they have not bothered to include a headphone socket. Without any way to monitor audio much of the point in adding external audio input is gone. 

 

The a6300 is even compatible with their 600$ XLR-adapter. Do they think anyone will spend that much money if they cant monitor what they are recording? I understand that they want people to buy their a7-cameras but even the RX10 has a headphone output. I already have the a7s but for many uses that needs AF (steadicam, gimbal etc) the a6000 is a much better camera. And for video I think APS-C might be a better sensor size (smaller longer zooms but still just enough shallow depth of field).  

 

I hope they at least add audio level meters and manual control over volume. If not they should just have dropped the whole audio input. 

 

I have been searching the web for a way to add audio monitoring to the a6300 (or even a6000). I tested with my a6000 and it outputs audio via HDMI even when recording. And even when outputting audio/video through HDMI both the lcd on the camera and the viewfinder remains active. So if there is a way to use the HDMI as the headphone output it might be a solution to the problem.

 

I found this:

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132328-REG/moshi_99mo023207_hdmi_to_vga_adapter.html

 

If you connect this to the HDMI output you should in theory be able to use the headphone output of this adapter to monitor sound. The only thing I can come up with that could go wrong is if the camera dont get a "handshake" back to the HDMI port from the adapter and disable the HDMI output if it is not connected to a monitor. Any theories if this might work?

 

It is not an ideal solution but It is not that large and only 14g.   

 

Mayby someone (a kickstarter projekt mayby?) will se a market in making a dedicated very small HDMI headphone adapter that will work with the a6000/a6300 and other cameras that have audio input without headphone output. There are some panasonic cameras that suffers from the same thing as well. If you drop the VGA part and use micro hdmi it could probably be made much smaller.

 

I wish Sony could make an headphone adapter for the multi interface shoe, mayby even with a audio level control. Or even better an adapter with two 3.5mm audio inputs (left/right channel) and headphone port. Or even a wireless headset for these cameras. I havent tested yet but mayby their remote control app is able to monitor sound? It should be possible and mayby someone can write an app for audio monitoring via your mobile phone.   

 

 

  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have the A6000 and do a lot of video. The answer is YES, you can use the HDMI for audio. I have the monitor CLMV55, it has a 3,5mm headphone jack and it works when recording video with the a6000. Unfortunately I don't see a headphone jack in the XLR adapter, would have been a great way to solve the problem.

I would guess this will work the same way with the a6300, already ordered it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good to know it works with the monitor. That might be a solution but it adds quite a bit of "bulk" to an otherwise small camera if you dont need to have an external monitor (I use the viewfinder for video most of the time). 

 

I had the Sony XLR adapter until recently but sold it because I never used it. It is very big and heavy even on the a7ii or a7s, and I was afraid it was going to either break in its socket or break the multi interface shoe just by moving the camera quickly.

 

It does not have any place to mount a wireless receiver either so you have to put the camera in a cage if to have any use for the adapter except as a very huge and expensive camera mic.

 

The level dials are also small and cumbersome to get to since they face sideways and are partly covered by a plastic lid.  But the sound coming from the shotgun on it was quite nice.

 

The whole adapter is probably great on the Sony camcorders but are not really a good fit for the a7 series or the a6000 series. And with no headphone output on the XLR adapter or on the a6000 series I dont know why they bothered supporting it. If sound is important enough for you to pay 500$ for a sound adapter you also want to monitor what you are recording. The wireless URX receivers from Sony might work better since they at least have a headphone output that lets you know at least what is being sent into the camera.

 

I have figured out I will probably buy a Zoom h5. It has a camera output but also a seperate headphone output. And it has a built in mic that should be good enough to catch some atmosphere (will save you from using yet another seperate mic) so you can make a mix with that mic to the right channel and a wireless source or anything else to the left channel. But all this depends on if the a6300 is automatic gain control audio only or if I can record real usable sound with it like the a7-series. I dont trust a camera that dont have a headphone output. But as long as I have the zoom recorder always running (it has a setting to auto record things) as a backup (and higher quality version if I should need that) I can live with it.

 

The Zoom h5 is also quite big and heavy but the Sony XLR adapter actually feels worse. If the a6300 is automatic gain only I will have to sync all sound all the time and that is too much of a hassle to bother. Also hoping for a new a7iii camera under 2000$ with full sensor readout so you can actually use the video from it unlike the horrible moire from the a7ii (the old a6000 is much much better in this aspect). But what I would have liked even more was an a6400 with IBIS and headphone jack under 2000$ since I prefer aps-c.   

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Everyone

 

I brought a similar item to what Trorvik suggested ( http://www.bhphotovi...ga_adapter.html) 

 

I found that it does send the audio out which is really clear and great, only problem is in 4k mode it shuts off the camera monitor once the recording starts and in HD it does not show the screen at all.

 

I was wondering if i need to change any settings to allow this to work?

 

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Thanks for the feedback. 

Does this mean that the audio output of it is loud enough to listen to in a normal headphone (headphone level)?

 

Which exact item did you buy? Do you have a link?

 

I have found some on ebay that goes directly from micro HDMI which sounds great so you wount need an extra cable/adapter. 

 

The a6300 is from what I have read not able to have the LCD on the camera active while recording to an external device via HDMI. This is probably why it turns off the LCD when you start recording.

 

In 1080p I have read that the LCD will work even when recording. I have not tested on my a6300, but tested this on the old a6000. I connected the camera to a TV via HDMI. The default setting of the a6000 was however to not have the LCD active at the same time as the HDMI output. But after adjusting a setting in one of the menus you could have both active at the same time. I suspect this is what is happening to you when you are in HD mode.

I cant remember what the setting was called. I think it might have been something like turning off the "auto" function or something else in the HDMi options.

I am sure you will find it if you search the menus and look for it. Let me know if you are able to make it work. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I took a chance and bought an micro hdmi to VHA adapter with 3.5mm audio output. It cost only 10$ so worth a try.

It was this:

 

https://www.123elektronikk.no/hdmi-til-vga-konverter/micro-hdmi-vga-adapter-m-lyd-svart.asp

 

I have seen similar ones everywhere on ebay with different labels. 

 

The problem with this exact adapter is that it will only work when connected to an item with an active VGA port. So unless you want to carry a huge TV or monitor with you it will not work for monitoring sound. When it is plugged in to a VGA port it works fine in 1080p mode. The screen and viewfinder on the camera is still active even when recording and there is sound coming out of it to a headphone. In 4k mode it will turn off the lcd and viewfinder on the camera like with any external recorder that you could use to record the signal. There is probably not a workaround for that problem.

 

The sound out of it in 1080p is an OK level for listening to the audio. It would be nice if it was a little bit louder. but you could absolutely live with it. And it weighs almost nothing so you could just have it hanging from the camera. 

 

So if someone finds an adapter that does not require it to be connected to an active VGA port to be turned on you might make it work if you only need to record in 1080p. My guess is that there is a bigger chance that the adapters that go from normal HDMI to VGA wount require this (they might turn on just from inserting a HDMI cable in them). 

 

But there is another problem.....the sound you are hearing from the HDMI output are delayed a bit. About the same as if you put the monitor sound you are listening to on the a7 cameras in the "rec" mode. If you try to do an interview with this on and dont have soundproof headphones you will hear the people speaking in real time while listening to the same with a bit delay in the headphones. A kind of echo effect. Some people dont mind this but personally i find it very distracting in the long run. So because of this I have given up on the whole "sound from HDMI output" project.

 

The last few weeks I have just been listening to the headphone output from the Sennheiser wireless receiver. And trusted that as long as the meters on the camera corresponds to what I am hearing I feel quite confindent that the audio will turn out OK. The sound quality of the a6300 is great. Wonder it it has the same pre-amp that the a7 cameras have.  

 

Tomorrow there will be a bigger problem since I have to record two Senneheiser wireless receivers at once. I use a cheap beachtek adapter that will direct one receiver to the left channel and one to the right (normally I put the Rode Videomic Pro to the right). The problem will be monitoring the sound from both receivers. But found out that I will work OK if you put one headset in each of the receivers headphone outputs. And then use just one earbud from each. So you CAN make the a6300 work for recording sound if you really want to, but it is a bit of a hassle. The AF performance of the camera almost makes it worth it. This is the first camera I have ever tried that you can completely trust with AF. Find it hard to return to my a7s even though I should because I find it gives you nicer images. 

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Trovik, I'm glad you've done such thorough audio research on this problem. I'm hoping someone at Sony see's posts like this and realizes they should never release a camera geared to video without a headphone jack. 

 

I'm also looking for that perfect solution. I want to keep my setup as light as possible, but this one is so tricky. I keep hearing people say there is a Sony hot shoe adapter for this, but I'm not sure they mean. I've watched videos with both of the hot shoe XLR adapters, and saw no headphone jack for monitoring. There is a bluetooth lav set that I think could work, but it's not really convenient to carry all of that around.

 

The only convenient method I ever had was using a Shure VP83 shotgun mic. To my understanding it's the only mic out there that also has a headphone jack. The problem, though, is it's a little heavy, presses against your head when mounted on the hot shoe, and doesn't quite have the battery life of some other microphones. It was a pretty solid mic though.

 

I really wish Sony would just come out with an easy solution to this. I've always thought it'd be great if they could just release a mic that's like the Rode Videomic Pro, but could send audio through the Sony hot shoe system, had a headphone jack, and could automatically turn on/off with the camera. Until then, I'll have to stick with trusting the audio bars. 

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