Cheapest Lavalier mic option for A7s/FS700?

D

dmitrizigany

Veteran
Looking for a cheap but decent solution for Lavalier mics.

How's the Røde SmartLav? Seems like a neat solution. But also like a recipe for disaster as you cannot monitor the signal. And no way of knowing if the phones accidentally been shut of etc..

At this point I think I could get away with wired mics even if it wouldn't be ideal.

Also so it would be great if they worked with both the A7s and the FS700, but I guess unless I get the audio option for the A7s I'm out of luck on that front?

thanks

DZ
 
I'm a huge, huge fan of the rode lavalier & pinmic (not the smartlav). With the XLR adapter you can go directly into the FS700 (or a mixer /recorder). And you can switch to a 3.5mm adapter and go directly into the A7s (assuming you aren't using the A7s XLR adapter) as well as cheaper pocket recorders such as the zoom h1 or tascam dr-05. Or you can switch to the sennheiser locking adapter and go into a G3 wireless. And I believe they have other connectors for other wireless systems as well.

The rode also sounds very good, on par with other professional lavaliers and it sends a relatively 'hot' signal, meaning you don't have crank up the gain as high. I've used them many times paired with a small pocket recorder (tascam DR05) for a quasi wireless solution (no monitoring though) before I picked up my G3s and never had any issues with noise. They are even better wired directly into a Sound Devices mixer, though!

I've picked up 5 or 6 of them over the past few years, usually snagging them off ebay for $100 to $150 used. Audio is definitely one area where you don't want to cheap out on (it's 50% of the film/video). The Rode smart lav is geared more towards youtube bloggers who need something better than the in-camera mic. Recording into an iphone should not be thought of as a professional recording solution.

If you decided that you don't need both XLR and 3.5mm support, that opens up your options a little further. Oscar Sound Tech makes some nice lavs for cheapish. I have a couple wired for my G3s and they do quite a bit better when you need to hide them under clothing than other lavs.

Personally, I would think hard about buying some sort of dependable wireless system. A G3 or even an older G2 could go into both the A7s and FS700, regardless of the mic hooked to it. Going wired into the camera for a lavalier is a pain, and pretty much only viable in sit down interview situations. Wireless systems aren't cheap, but the investment would be small compared to a FS700 & A7s.
 
Thanks for the detailed response.

It is for mostly sit down interviews, so wired could work. It's also for YouTube/blog kinda scenario. I won't be buying them and they guy I'm working with on this don't have the money for anything expensive :(

I do want to get a proper one with good transmitter/reciever but as a one man band there is also a hundred other things I need, which means that you end up having to cheap out on things sometimes, unfortunately. But if I would need it for a decent paying job I'd rent a good one for now. But I'm helping a friend to get his video content going and it's practically a no-budget thing, at least until he knows if it's gonna work out or not. So our immediate need is the cheapest solution that will provide good enough results when we cannot use a boom/mic stand.

I'll look into the other Rødes you mentioned!
 
RODE Lav is my choice. No need for phantom power and with the option to change the connector to a lot of different ones like XLR and Lectrosonic it's a great value.
 
Another +1 for the RØDE Lavalier,

You could also use the smartLav+ with the SC3 adaptor to make it work with the A7s and standard audio recorders.
It won't work with the FS700 though since it needs plug-in power.
 
Thanks, if it works with only one camera I guess it's better if it works with the A7s, cause I'm hoping for some shoots only to bring that one. And the FS700 can always be used with other mics to pick up room sounds and what not.

will look into the Røde Lavalier, but I suspect we will have to settle for something like the SmartLav to begin with :(
 
Myself and a ton of local broadcast news use the Sony ECM-44b wired lav for most static setups... ~$150, or add a 12-25' XLR cable for a bit more
 
How exactly do you plan to use the lavalier with the A7s? Most lav cables are only 4 or 5 feet, which doesn't give any working room for an interview setup (my camera is usually anywhere from 8 to 20 feet away for most interviews). A 3.5mm extender cable could be used, but I seriously doubt that a cheap lavalier + an extender + the A7s audio preamps will sound particularly good. Most people using the 3.5mm input on DSLR as using them for hotshoe mounted shotguns like the rode videomic or for wireless, not necessarily for 3.5mm plug in lavaliers.

At least with an XLR lavalier, you could a balanced XLR cable as an extension cable and plug into the better FS700 preamps.

That being said, the ATR 3350 has a ridiculously long cable, is battery powered, sounds just ok and is like $30 bucks. So if the intent is to spend as little money as possible until you decide audio should get a bigger budget, that is a solution that could work with the A7s.
 
Strouty said:
How exactly do you plan to use the lavalier with the A7s?
Click to expand...
Good points. Guess we're stuck using a SmartLav if anything.
It's really a zero budget production. Been trying to tell my friend to wait with production until we've sorted out the technical bits. Or have a decent place to shoot where we can use the mics I have. Unfortunately he's not listening and rushing to get started. I guess the fact that if he cannot get this thing going he will have to move back to the U.S. is part of why he rushes things. Understandably a scary threat, so I feel with him ;)
So was trying to research if there were any decent solutions on a shoe string budget to get us started at least.
 
A very good but cheap lav mic is the Giant Squid omnidirectional. Been using it for weddings etc. There are some reviews on youtube etc, check it out!
 
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