If you aren’t careful, you could end up with a fake RØDE Microphone. If you already bought one, here’s how to tell if it is fake. If you don’t have a RØDE mic, here’s how to avoid buying a fake.

How Do You Know if Your RØDE VideoMic is Real or Fake?

The fastest way is to go to the warranty registration page at the RØDE site (link below) and enter your serial number. If RØDE tells you that you get a free two year warranty, your mic is the real deal. If it tells you the number is not good or has already been assigned, you have a fake mic.

If you have the RØDE VideoMic model, check out these real and fake side by side comparison photos.

How Do You Know if Your RØDE VideoMicro is Real or Fake?

Because the RØDE VideoMicro is so popular, compact, high quality, and reasonably priced, there are a lot of Chinese fakes out there. If you already have a VideoMicro there are some visual clues to see if your mic is real or not. They are covered in the following video. If you want to skip the video, read the list that follows.

Here’s the list of things to look for from the above video.

1. On the body of the real mic you will read:

VIDEOMICRO
MADE IN AUSTRALIA
S/N: DC 262626262626

On a fake mic the serial number line will be in the middle:

VIDEOMICRO
S/N: DC 262626262626
MADE IN AUSTRALIA

2. On the red part of the mic to camera cable you will see the word RØDE in tiny white letters. On a fake mic there will be no white letters.

3. The RØDE label on the dead cat windsock will be in the middle. On the fake mic the label will be toward the back of the windsock.

4. On the real box the label on the bottom of the box with the serial number and UPC code will be in English. On the fake box it will be in Chinese.

Buying RØDE Mics from Amazon

How do you avoid buying a fake mic from Amazon? What do you do about the Amazon warning at the RØDE site?

Allan Tépper of the ProVideo Coalition wrote to RØDE for a clarification on the RØDE warning about buying from Amazon. He received this reply:

Thanks Allan.

Amazon itself is authorised for purchases from Amazon, but other dealers ‘fulfilled by Amazon’ are not. We know the sales channel through which Amazon purchases and it is legitimate but other dealers that send their stock to Amazon and sell on their marketplace are not only grey importing (which makes it difficult to give proper support) but we’ve identified counterfeit VideoMic GOs. To tell, the user just needs to select the microphone marked as ‘sold and fulfilled by Amazon’.

Hope this helps but if you have any other questions please let me know.

Kind Regards,

Scott Emerton
Marketing Manager
RØDE Microphones

What this means if you buy from Amazon is to take careful note of who the seller is. If the sold by line at Amazon says “Sold by XYZ and fulfilled by Amazon”, don’t buy it. (“XYZ” stands for any company name.) You have no way of knowing if XYZ bought the real deal or a fake mic and XYZ may have no idea they bought fake mics in the first place. If the sold by line says “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com”, it is a legitimate RØDE product made in Australia.

As soon as you get your mic from Amazon, or any other dealer, go to the RØDE registration page and enter the serial number. If RØDE does not accept the serial number you have a fake. Contact Amazon immediately for information on returning the mic.

I bought my RØDE VideoMicro from Amazon before I knew about the fake warnings. When I got the news I checked it out. I was lucky. I got the real deal.

Authorized RØDE Dealers

RØDE has a list of authorized dealers (link below). If you don’t buy from Amazon, choose someone on the authorized list. Even if you buy from an authorized dealer, as soon as you get your mic go to the RØDE registration page and enter the serial number. If RØDE does not accept the serial number you have a fake. Contact the dealer immediately for information on returning the mic.

Links

RØDE Microphones

RØDE Serial Number Warranty Registration

RØDE authorized dealers

RØDE clarifies Amazon counterfeit microphone warning – at the ProVideo Coaltion

Real and Fake RØDE VideoMic Side by Side Photos

Series Link

This is one in a series of articles that will guide you to the best of all things photographic. The rest are here: Buyer’s Guide: Recommendations For The Best Photography Equipment, Software, Books, Magazines, DVDs, Online Photo Labs and More.