“Hey babe, how big is this microphone?” “Hmm. I don’t know. About six inches.” Yeah, that is what I thought too. Just your average sized microphone.

My name is Matt Johnson with whoismatt.com, and this is the cute little tiny ECM-G1 microphone from Sony. I bought this microphone because one of my resolutions for this year was to film my family more, so I wanted to invest in an on camera microphone that would sound better than the in-camera microphone on my a7S III, while also hopefully being good enough to use as a shotgun microphone in a professional environment as well, like filming a wedding or vlogging myself or a YouTube video.

Well, spoiler. I am returning the G1, and in this review I want to tell you why I am shipping it back.

Also, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video is not paid or sponsored by Sony. I bought this mic from B&H with my own money, and I am returning it to B&H to get my own money back.

Size Comparison

To start this review, the first thing you are going to notice about the G1 is that this mic is tiny. I know I said that at the start of this video, but I really cannot reiterate how compact it is. I am really not sure how they could make it much smaller than this.

The compactness is very impressive, and having a relatively small microphone is important to me, because my main microphone for years has been the Rode VideoMic Pro+, which is a great microphone but is truly massive in comparison to this one. You could fit like ten of these Sony mics into one Rode VideoMic.

Now, I have nothing against the Rode VideoMic. It works great, but I have been wanting a smaller microphone. In addition, ever since Sony released the ECM-B1M, a microphone I reviewed in 2021 that included the ability to be powered by the camera’s hot shoe and have the audio interface run through that hot shoe, so I do not have to worry about my 3.5mm audio jack breaking, there have been a lot of arguments for me to switch to a Sony mic, and I intended to do exactly that.

But then the supply chain shortages happened and the ECM-B1M was not even available for purchase. Fast forward a couple of years, and not only is the B1M finally available again for 350 bucks, but in 2022 Sony also announced a midrange model, the ECM-B10 for 250 bucks, as well as this super compact option, the ECM-G1 for 150.

I figured, hey, I can save some money and get this super compact G1 for filming my family as well as potentially making some YouTube videos. Sounds awesome. It’s compact and cheap, but what else can it do?

This Is The Simplest Mic

If you remember my ECM-B1M review, that mic was stacked with features, including the ability to change the microphone recording pattern, switch how the microphone was recording and so on. It is an incredibly powerful microphone.

Well, it is no surprise that the G1 strips a lot of those features away in the name of compactness and price. But what this mic loses in features it gains in simplicity. This is easily the dead simplest microphone you will probably ever use. It is plastic, but it is well built, it comes with a dead cat, and you literally plug it into your Sony camera. As long as your camera is a newer model with the Multi Interface hot shoe, the mic just works.

There are no settings to change. Heck, you cannot even adjust the gain. That is all handled automatically in camera. Honestly, if I was a brand new filmmaker with a smaller budget and I wanted a microphone I could put on my camera and literally forget it is there and never deal with setting audio levels again, I would heavily consider buying this mic. It is fantastic for that.

Now, I will say that if you want to adjust the volume manually you can still do that, but you have to plug the included 3.5mm cable into the side of the G1 and then plug that into your camera. While that is a good workaround, at the same time I feel like one of the main draws of this microphone is the simplicity you get from being able to power and record it through the hot shoe, and if you take that away, there are a ton of other microphone options out there. So I would not buy this mic unless you are planning on using it as it is intended, recording through the hot shoe.

Audio Quality

Anyways, the mic is super compact and super easy to use, so why am I returning it? Well, we need to talk about audio quality, because that is where this mic starts to falter, and audio quality is really important.

In my testing I found the super cardioid pattern of the microphone worked very well for isolating me speaking, especially whenever I was speaking straight into it. But where I had the biggest issue comes down to the noise floor and the overall range of sound the microphone is picking up. In regards to the noise floor, I found it to be too high, where I could definitely hear a bit of a hiss when recording, especially when using headphones. On top of that, I also found the mic to be lacking in its ability to record deeper bass notes.

I recorded an audio example so you can hear those issues for yourself. It is the Sony ECM-G1 on the Sony a7S III, about two feet away from me, and while I am talking I want you to pay attention to the bass reproduction of this microphone, specifically in my voice, those deeper tones. I also want you to pay attention to the noise floor and see if you are able to pick up any hissing coming from the low end.

To be clear, I have not adjusted that audio sample in any way, it is directly from the camera. You can download the raw video clip with the ECM-G1 audio here, so you can import it into your editing software and hear how it sounds for yourself, especially whenever you play around with it and add some effects or clean up the audio.

Should You Buy It?

So should you buy the ECM-G1? Here is the answer.

If you are planning on getting this microphone for vlogging, home videos or anything like that, the audio you are going to get from this mic is still much better than what you are getting directly from the built in camera mic, and I think you will be very happy with it. But if you are planning on using this mic in a professional setting where you are recording audio for a paid gig, in that case I do not think the audio quality is quite there, and that is why I will personally be returning this microphone and ponying up another 200 of my dollars for the ECM-B1M.

I think the G1 would be fine for my family home videos, but because I want a microphone that will be usable for professional videos as well, I think that extra $200 is worth it, even if that mic is quite a bit bigger.

You can buy the Sony ECM-G1 at B&H, at Amazon, at Adorama or at Best Buy.

If you want to go deeper, I have filmmaking courses here, and here is my full list of filmmaking gear.

Thanks so much for reading. I’m Matt Johnson, the guy with the beard that is definitely bigger than this microphone. Take care and have a great day!