Improvised mic bracket for S5iiX & XLR mic

[PJD]

My S5iiX is mounted inside a SmallRig cage. When my DMW-XLR1 audio adapter is mounted in the cam's hot shoe, the XLR ports on the side of the adapter can result in one of the cage's cold shoes being blocked by XLR cables plugged into the adapter. So, for example, I can't install my add-on mic & mic isolation clip in that cold shoe and also plug the mic's XLR cable into the DMW-XLR1.

To address this issue, I cut a small piece of 1/4" thick aluminum into an "L" shape, and drilled 3 holes in it so it can be bolted to the top of the cage. I spray-painted it flat black. An accessory cold shoe can be bolted to the other end of the bracket. The result is a mic isolation clip is now positioned forward of the audio adapter's XLR inputs, which are no longer blocked. In the attached photos I show my Sennheiser ME65 mic & isolation clip mounted on my camera. I don't feel the cold shoe on the top of the DMW-XLR1 itself is strong enough to hold, well, anything. My bracket is very strong, and together with the cage results in a rock-solid solution.

I selected bolts with "heads" exactly tall enough to fit between the top surface of the bracket and the underside of the audio adapter. This gives the audio adapter a bit of extra mechanical support.

Because the bracket doesn't much change the camera's overall size & weight, I plan to keep the bracket & its extra cold shoe bolted on the cage "permanently". A fun project & useful result.

 

[PJD]

Just to add: I considered making a smaller, square-shaped bracket so a cold shoe could be positioned directly in FRONT of the audio adapter, but then the XLR cable could point straight back above the EVF and bump the top of my head.

 

[PJD]

When NOT using the DMW-XLR1 audio adapter, an alternate configuration is shown in the attached photos. I put the NPF battery plate on my custom L bracket, and put the SSD on the cold shoe provided by the SmallRig furry deadcat. To add some protection for the power & USB-C cables, they are routed through a "hoop" consisting of a left-over part from a previous camera cage (it was a HDMI/USB strain relief for the Pocket 4K, but it can't be used as such with the S5iiX). I also added to the side of the cage a piece of metal left-over from a very old rig. It provides a bit of "bump" protection for the camera's HDMI/USB-C ports & cables. The cables are heavier-duty than I require, but will do for now. It only takes a few minutes to switch between different cage configs.

 

[PJD]

When NOT using the DMW-XLR1 audio adapter, an alternate configuration is shown in the attached photos. I put the NPF battery plate on my custom L bracket, and put the SSD on the cold shoe provided by the SmallRig furry deadcat. To add some protection for the power & USB-C cables, they are routed through a "hoop" consisting of a left-over part from a previous camera cage (it was a HDMI/USB strain relief for the Pocket 4K, but it can't be used as such with the S5iiX). I also added to the side of the cage a piece of metal left-over from a very old rig. It provides a bit of "bump" protection for the camera's HDMI/USB-C ports & cables. The cables are heavier-duty than I require, but will do for now. It only takes a few minutes to switch between different cage configs.

A follow-up: Yesterday, during my photo excursion with my S5iiX in the Columbia River Gorge, I used this exact configuration all day. It worked very well. I recorded 32 gigabytes of photos & video to the external CFast2 reader/writer containing a 256GB CFast2 card. A mix of 24MP & 96MP photos, and 6K h265 & ProRes 422 video (24p). 176 photos and 40 video clips. No errors or dropped frames I'm aware of.

I was very pleased my smallest external NPF battery (a 8700mAh 64.4Wh "NP-F980" type model made by Kastar) easily powered my camera all day. The NPF battery was mounted in a SmallRig battery plate on my custom L-bracket, and the 12V output of the plate connects to the camera via a Kondor Blue regulated dummy battery cable. The power level LEDs on the SmallRig NPF plate displayed "4 bars" (~90%-100% charge) at the end of the day. I had the camera's LCD closed most of the day (I used the LCD about 15% of the time). I kept the camera's power switch "on" most of the day. I have my camera's Power Save Mode set to 1-min. for both the Sleep and "Auto/LVF Monitor Off" settings. With the external CFast2 connected, the camera wakes up in about 2 seconds after half-pressing the shutter button.

My friend who was with me yesterday used his S5iiX in a more normal configuration: Internal Panasonic battery, external Samsung 5T SSD, LCD "open" most of the day, Power Save Mode at the default settings, same lens (Lumix S 20-60mm) most of the day, and was shooting at all the same locations & appox. same durations as me; similar mix of recording formats. His internal battery just barely lasted most of the day, and got down to "1-bar". He switched to a 2nd internal battery after that.

Interesting & not surprising results. It gives me an idea what to expect going forward. For example, a NPF battery of half the capacity (or less!) compared to the one I used could easily have handled a similar shooting day. Perhaps even if I'd set Power Save Mode to the defaults, and/or used the LCD more often (but I prefer using the EVF). Likewise, 2-3 Lumix DMW-BLK22 batteries could easily handle a similar shooting day without requiring add-on hardware or cables. The relatively low power consumption of the S5iiX is very impressive!