Zacuto MicroBOOM, World's First On-Camera Internally Cabled Boom Pole for Instant Interviews, Lightweight 6oz, Adjustable Length, Filmmaking & Content Creator Accessories

Nice boom. Its pretty light weight where it counts and heavy duty where it matters. The clamps are all Zacuto quality, so they are easy to use and lock up tightly. This is a solid design and will allow me additional latitude on my one man band shoots.One of my favorite things about Zacuto is that they will fix any of the mechanical parts of their products for as long as you own them. No questions asked, and if you have gorillas working on your shoots who treat gear like rocks, Zacuto will still repair the mess they've made of things. Highly recommended.

I purchased this micro boom arm based on the photos, which clearly show three extensions. However, the product I received only has two extensions. This makes it much less versatile than expected and doesn’t work as intended for my setup. The description or photos need to be updated to reflect the actual product. Definitely not worth the money if you’re looking for a fully adjustable boom arm.

Great idea, weird cable decisionA unique solution to a common problem. When doing run-and-gun documentary-style interviews as a solo shooter it's often awkward to try to attach a lav for an unplanned interview. On-camera shotguns in noisy environments can make it difficult to pick up the subject without a lot of post-processing and that's not ideal either. So what can you do when you don't have a boom operator?The Micro Boom is light enough to mount to a NATO rail onto the top of your camera and use an extremely light 3.5mm shotgun mic at the other end. The boom extends out nearly 3 feet so you have some breathing room between the camera and the subject.Keep in mind you need a NATO rail as it's not designed to attach to a cold shoe. A typical cold shoe might not be strong enough given the forward weight with full extension and 3.5mm cabled shotgun mic. In my case, I have a NATO rail handle extension on my Sony FX3 so this isn't an issue. I'd also note that to tightening the mic to boom connection you'd need a hex wrench which isn't included. I have many of them from other devices along with a hex wrench multi-tool It's just a matter of finding the correct size. I wish they had included one "just in case" though like so many other manufacturers do.The problem I have is the gender choices on the boom cable. On the mic side is a 3.5mm male TRS. You'd remove the cable that comes with your mic and insert the plug-in. This is simple enough. If you can't do that with your mic, you'd have to add an adaptor and that's a potential point of failure.On the other end is a female TRRS cable. This means having to add a cable to the camera and, in my opinion, you're adding a potential point of failure. Perhaps they reason that you may also want to use this with your smartphone which would require using a Lightning or USB-C adapter. The problem is most TRRS to Lightning or USB-C adapters are female.Granted there are varieties with and without 3.5mm connectors and there are DSLR/Mirrorless cameras and smartphones that may need one adaptor or another but I wish they offered them as options rather than forcing me to hunt them down.

It’s a nice option to have for on the street interviews if you don’t have time for lavs. Don’t expect to win any style points and good luck making your subject feel at ease with a pole waving around right above their face if you’re hand/shoulder operating the camera, BUT your audio will be that much better for it.Build quality is fine, don’t expect to mount a full sized shotgun mic on this, but it will fit the Rode Micro and mini shotguns or equivalent just fine.The major irk is that it doesn’t come with a nato rail and the rail clamp comes mounted 90 degrees off from what most people would have a nato rail oriented at on their camera rig. It’s annoying because most mirrorless/dslr cages have a single nato rail on the top running left/right for top handles but if you have a top handle attached (which you usually do) there’s no room to attach this boom, so you need to find a separate place to mount another nato rail just for this, which you now have to buy separately - or you operate without your top handle and then good luck moving your camera around easily. And if you’re at the point where you have a bunch of nato rail parts lying around I would doubt this is a tool that you would need all that often to be honest, so it seems like something that should just be included.

This is a really good idea. It's not the most complex device but it serves a need and does so effectively. Basically, it allows you to use any 3.5mm microscope (like the Rode camera mount unit I travel with) and transform it into a boom microphone. It weighs next to nothing, has an adjustable length/angle and is very simple to set up. Highly recommended!