how to triage this situation?

Do you need to hide the lav? If you need a hidden mic (dramatic piece) than an ENG dynamic mic is out of the question.

If you don't need to hide the lav (documentary, industrial, news type) than the mic can indeed be clipped half way up the shirt (experiment-it might be better a little closer) and do a good job. A wire going under the shirt with only the lav showing is quite acceptable for many types of work (just look at newscasters).
 
Hey powerdog... you need to make another post... you're at the sign of the beast.

Seriously if you get a B6 you can hide the lav in plain site. It's tiny... it's almost as small as if you cut the mic off the end of a wire and called the end the mic. Even if the lav isn't hidden at all... depending on the shirt you'd never see it. (with the wire running inside of course)
 
Well, let me quickly add a 667th post! What about those headmounted mics that look like a lav at the end of a curved wire. They hang over the ear. I'd think those would be even better....or not?
 
not too sure really... I think the thing with those mics is that most are pre-EQ'd for specific jobs, like speeches and singing. I wouldnt ever use one unless the shoot called for a headmounted mic as a prop...

Most of the time, you're gonna see that mic very clearly.

Although, that reminds me of this thing I did the other day that worked nicely. I took some of that wire-wrap stuff (like they use to tie up hi-fi cables - thin wire in a plastic sleeve), and wrapped it gently around the last bit of wire nearest the lav. It makes a nifty little gooseneck that you can use to position the lav nicely.

I used it as a gooseneck to get the mic to sit nicely between, um, a womans cleavage, and her shirt - using the middle part of the bra to hold the cable. Awesome under clothes rig - no rustle, cuz the mic wasnt touching anything but air!
 
If it matters, I don't care if the mic is seen. Tho smaller (like the one I described or a lav) is definitely better than a big ENG mic.
 
I guess thats usually the case, but the eng mic WILL sound better guaranteed. A lav is more of a convention for film/video than a headset mic tho, so that would be my choice.
 
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