Feb 1, 2010
I am interested in getting into journalism reporting for my website. I only have a regular camcorder and really would like to use a wireless microphone just like the reality shows. What other equipment such as adapter do I need? Most importantly how do you set one of these things up? I am soooo new to these high tech equipment.
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so… it is a “Lavaliere” mic… also known as a “Lav” (not “lava”). Using an external mic with a camcorder means your camcorder needs an audio-in jack. This can be a 1/8″ (or 3.5 mm) jack or perhaps a manufacturer’s proprietary hot shoe will allow for special mic connections. Since you did not tell us what manufacturer/model camcorder you have, there are too many variables to know if your camcorder can use anything other than the built-in mics.
A wireless lav mic connects with a thin wire to the body pack worn by the person being mic’d. The body pack connects wirelessly to a base station. The base station connects to the camcorder.
On the TV reality shows, they typically do not record directly into a camcorder – they record into a field audio recorder and transfer the audio to the video later.
No matter… There are some cases where the audi is recorded to the camcorder. There are two main ways the wireless base station connects to the camcorder and it depends on the type of equipment you get.
1) The base station uses 1/8″ (3.5 mm) connector to plug directly into the camcorder.http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-EW122PG…http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-audio/c…http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-PRO…
The difference in price reflects the difference in quality, frequency used, antenna diversity and audio characteristics.
The other method uses XLR connection – and the base stations are generally not battery powered, so much less portablehttp://www.zzounds.com/item–SHUPGX1493. To connect this to your camcorder, you either need the camcorder to have XLR mic-in jacks (pro-grade) or if the camcorder has 1/8″ (3.5mm) audio in, you can use an XLR adapter (like those from BeachTek or juicedLink).
Best are full diversity, UHF units. Next best are full diversity, VHF units. Do not use FM, 800-2400-5400 MHz units – yes, they will be cheap, but will have a tendency to pick up interference because those are shared bands.