GEAR GROUP TEST
Saramonic’s LavMicro comes with several accessories, including a quarter-inch converter, windshield, Velcro strips and a screwdriver for accessing the included battery, but it lacks a carry case. It’s a chunky unit compared with some, and the windshield is also large – though foamnot fur, and has a cuff that makes fitting and removal very easy. It fitted snugly, with no movement when the subject walked. The LavMicro has a power pack on the cable, but it’s fairly small, has its own clip and is far enough from the mic so as to be easily concealed. On it, there’s a switch to set it between powered or passive depending on the device you’re using, and the switch is low-profile enough to avoid accidental switching-on and power wasting. Needing a screwdriver to access SARAMONIC LAVMICRO £95.99/$59.99
the LR44 battery is awkward though, and not something you’d want to do on location. The cable is a long one at 6m, so it’s primed for static interviews. Saramonic also produces a twin-head kit for this purpose (the 2M). The clip is quite large and little slippery in feel, while also lacking a proper notch to loop the cable, but you can run it through the jaws of the clip to secure. Attaching the mic to the clip is via a simple push-in connection, so it’s easy tomount inverted, though it was a bit stiff.
Sound from the LavMicro was good, with a clean, crisp tone, and no loss of coverage when facing away from the mouth or the subject’s headmoved. It also did a great job of cancelling out background noise. The large windshield coped with the fan pretty well, but it can’t compete with a furry gag. PROMOVIEMAKER RATING: 7/10 Good performance at an affordable price, but lacking in accessories and with fiddly battery access.
ACCESSORIES
FLUFFYWINDSHIELD Most lav mic windshields are simple foam not designed for breezy conditions. Move up the Beaufort scale and you get a lot of interference. If you’re shooting outside, you likely need a pro-level windjammer. These come in all shapes and sizes, but you need tomake sure the fit is snug. A pack of disposable Rycote Overcovers only costs £10.95/$12.95, lasts for ages and also prevents the mic rustling against clothing.
POCKET RECORDER A portable recorder lets your subject move around unrestricted while using a lav mic, without suffering the potential interference of wireless transmitters. The £149/$169 Olympus LS-P4 is a great example. At 75g, its tiny metal body can record in high- quality audio, at Linear PCM96kHZ at 24-bit, in FLAC, PCM, WAV or MP3 formats. It uses a 3.5mm input, has 8GB internal memory and take a microSD card up 32GB.
WIRELESS TRANSMITTER Many working videographers rely on a wireless system to connect their lav mics to the camera – the benefit being that the subject canmove about freely and you don’t need to sync the audio in editing. At £499/$599, the Sennheiser EW 112P G4 is the choice of many, with a rugged build, simple operation, range up to 100m/330ft and eight hours of operation time. It’s sold with the ME 2-II mic reviewed here.
THE VERDICT
Rode and Shure all excelling. For our money, the Rode mic seemed to hit the best combination of price, performance and accessories, so it’s our top pick.
microphones at the lower end of the price range performed pretty well in our test. Quality was generally comparable, but there was a definite lift at the top end, with the Sennheiser,
If you’re looking to replace or upgrade your lavalier mics, or add an additional one to your kit, there’s obviously plenty of choice for all budgets. It’s good to see then, that even the
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PRO MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2019
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