Joby Wavo Review

Joby may be infamous for their GorillaPod flexible tripod, but they also produce a range of other camera and content creation products. The Joby Wavo is a compact on-camera microphone to be a step-up from the inbuilt microphone on your smartphone or camera and is priced at around £60 to £70.

Video Review

Design

Joby Wavo

See Price on Amazon

The Wavo shares a typical design to an on-camera microphone, with a shotgun-style design that sits on top of your camera with the Wavo featuring Joby’s red and black colour scheme. The microphone has a lightweight design and plastic construction weighing in at around 40 grams, this means that the microphone won’t put any stress on the hot shoe mount of your camera – the light weight is also particularly good if you plan to use the microphone whilst vlogging as it will not add much additional weight to your setup.

The Wavo is integrated and suspended from a Rycote Duo-Lyre shock mount which will help prevent shocks or sudden movements creating any unintended noise during your audio recording. However, having the microphone joined to the shock mount does mean that it is not removable from the mount itself, unlike the Rode VideoMicro.

The microphone itself features a long tubular design with some meshing on the top and an opening at the end, I’ve not seen this approach to a microphone before as I’ve normally seen them also have a grille at the end of the microphone in addition. Luckily you can keep this covered to add some additional protection and improve your sound quality when recording outdoors thanks to the included foam windshield. The windshield is well designed for the microphone and slots comfortably and securely over the top, this will help dampen any potentially unwanted noise that could be created by wind, hence the name. I’ve chosen to leave the windshield on the microphone all the time as it will add that extra bit of protection and it means that I don’t have to worry about storing it away somewhere – it’s always on the microphone and ready to go.

As far as connectivity goes the microphone features a 3.5mm output on the back, beneath Joby’s icon (which I initially thought was a gain dial), and that’s it. The microphone is powered by your camera or smartphone through the 3.5mm cable, so there’s no need to worry about batteries or needing to charge the microphone – it’s plug and play.

Aside from the cold shoe on the bottom of the microphone that slots into your camera’s hot shoe mount, the microphone also features a ¼-inch tripod mount, giving you, some added flexibility for where you can place the microphone.

Sound Quality

The Wavo features a super-cardioid polar pattern, which means that it focuses more on the sounds that are happening in front of it, but it also picks up a little behind it as well. This microphone pickup pattern is great for vlogging or run-and-gun shooting as it means that you can be narrating behind the camera or in front of it. The microphone has a frequency response range of 35Hz to 20KHz, providing a wide scope of frequencies that it will be able to capture.

For the form factor and size, the microphone provides a good sound that is certainly a step up from a built-in microphone on a DSLR or camera, providing good clarity to vocal recordings but I imagine it would also work nicely for recording instruments if needed.

The placement of a microphone is key to getting a good recording, the microphone will sound better when you can get it closer to your sound source and I found the microphone to sound good at about an arm’s length for vlogging or for filming an event or interview – or in my case a review (although I’m making use of the tripod mount on the bottom of the microphone as my camera is across the room).

Accessories

Joby includes both TRS and TRRS cables in the box, so you’ll be able to use the microphone with both your camera and smartphone without the need to purchase a cable, although you may need to buy a headphone jack adapter for your phone if you wish to use the microphone with your phone if it doesn’t have one.

Joby also sells a few accessories for the Wavo microphone, the Wavo Windjammer is a fluffier windshield that should be more effective than the included foam windshield if you plan to record in windy environments. Additionally, Joby offers a Wavo USB Adapter for the microphone which will give you plug and play usability with the microphone and a computer as well as allow you to monitor the microphone with your headphones.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to upgrade from the built-in microphone on your camera, the Joby Wavo is a great option. The microphone is compact and lightweight, and I like how Joby has included all the cables you’d need to get up and running, regardless of whether you plan to use the microphone with your camera or smartphone.

The Joby Wavo on-camera microphone is available to purchase on Amazon.