The Rode video mic came up in my searches too. I shied away from it because of the price. It’s a shame the HF R10 doesn’t have any type of already built in hot/cold shoe mounts. Would a Bescor VB-50 Universal Shoe Mount Adapter Bracket work for this camera for the Rode mic? Reading the description it seems like it could work with the Vixia. I’m only asking since you already have three years experience with Vixia cameras and because I only want to be sure. So far though, it seems as if I’m going to have to start saving a bit.