I use Sony EX1 and PD170 camcorders. Both of these have XLR sockets at the front/top just underneath the main rubber mount for the mic. The shortest standard high street options I found were either 1M, or expensive patch cables at 0.3M, or paying someone way too much to make up the desired length. A 1m cable is unwieldly and needs to be coiled up, either getting in the way of a hand on the zoom rocker or worse, tapping against the mic. A 0.3M patch cable is too short to reach the back of longer mics.
The 0.5m cable supplied is actually just over 53cm/0.53m measured from tip to tip of the plugs, possibly because XLR plugs lose a few millimetres when plugged in. They've used robust moulded strain relief to protect the typical failure spot at the back of the plugs, so without pressuring the reliefs, estimate on approximately 40cm of flexible cable. I've attached a Senheiser K6/ME66 and a really long K7 to the mounts on both cams and by minor adjustment of cable route and mic position, it was tidy and worked a treat. It's a well made cable and was a fair price. I'm very pleased with it, have used it on every shoot since and expect to buy another sometime soon.