I bought an Azden SMG 1x XLR shotgun mic to connect to the DVC 30. To connect it to the camera, I also have a 3.5mm M to XLR F adapter. I checked the manual, but it doesn't give explicit instructions on how to connect an external mic to the machine. I've also played around with some of the levels and menus options as well, but haven't been able to figure out how to definitively make sure the audio is coming through the mic.