Mozegear CaPre - Great Inexpensive Sound Tool for Alexa Mini

[Stout Film]

Hi everyone,
Many Alexa Mini users wish there was some simple scratch audio on the body of the camera, or some simple way to just get some sound in there. A lot of my work these days is on cinematic documentaries with smaller crews and I've wanted this for a long time. A lot of the time I don't want a big pre-amp or mixer, or even a big microphone, just something to get audio in without significantly increasing the profile of the camera. I wanted to let everyone who is in a similar boat know about the Mozegear CaPre which I've been using and love. I do not work for Mozegear and I'm not getting paid anything to write this here or anywhere so these are my honest thoughts and experience. I'm writing because it's been a game-changer for me and it might help you make an awesome camera even better.

https://www.mozegear.com/product-page/p ... r-electret

The CaPre is very simple and extremely tiny. They achieve this by eliminating XLR and 48v phantom power, headphone jack, bass cut and limiter knobs, etc. The setup I like is with a tiny video mic like the Sennheiser MKE-400 (or a Rode video mic, or similar) that uses 1/8" (3.5mm). Mozegear also offers it with a TA3 input. I had Gotham Sound make me a cable for about $75 that went from the CaPre to the Alexa Mini (TA5 to 2pin lemo). It carries two channels from the same signal, the 2nd channel being an attenuated safety track.

On the CaPre you can switch between 40/60 gain and then there's a dial to fine tune. I set it to 60. There's a basic led meter to show you where you are peaking. I put the limiter on in the Mini's menu itself. The audio is clean, not like running a great shotgun mic into an expensive/bigger pre-amp, but totally useable. There are two basic purposes for me. The first is have a simple scratch track for syncing to another sound recording source and not needing to jam timecode. The second is just having a useable track in documentary situations to grab ambience or OTF interview bites or dialogue when I can't have a sound operator in that situation or a big clunky setup on my Mini. I just added a little piece of velcro and it sticks securely without me even noticing it in weight or bulk in any way. The MKE400 is tiny as well. The CaPre and the MKE400 take AAA batteries (2 and 1 respectively), so you are not all over the place on different things to charge. The batteries last a very long time in each.

One thing you do not get is headphone monitoring. This isn't a big deal for me because it's not at the end of the chain anyway and it's usually not my primary audio source in the first place. To monitor audio for a setup like this, I recommend just plugging headphones into your video monitor (like a smallHD 502/503). There is a very small delay to the headphones (not the recording) but it works just fine for this sort of purpose to show you are getting a clean signal. The Mini will show you meters.

It is a very simple and inexpensive unit that is a definite game changer for me with the Mini. It comes on every shoot now because it doesn't add any size to my kit. I don't know of any other unit this small. For me it is not for nearly every sound situation, but it is key to have something inexpensive and tiny to just get audio in there in the simplest way possible. Even if it were for only the benefit of a backup to a dedicated timecode system, it's worth the buy. At $269 (+ a cable) it's the cost of a tiny piece of accessory metal we spend on these cameras but for a huge benefit. I've attached some pictures so you can see the size and setup.

Happy Shooting and Happy Holidays

[Beachtek]

Let me send you our new DXA-CINE adapter for your ALEXA Mini camera. This is a very compact, light weight adapter with a built-in headphone jack for monitor the audio. It will be yours to keep for no charge. Simply email me at info@beachtek.com
Thank you! Harry Kaufmann.