Shotgun Mic or Lavalier Mic: Which is Right for You?
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Once you start shooting video with your DSLR or mirrorless cameras, you start noticing things you want to change in order to capture better videos.
One major need I noticed right away for myself was the audio portion of my videos. Obviously, I needed to upgrade my microphone, which put me right in the middle of the shotgun mic vs lavalier mic debate.
No Debate Zone
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The way I see it, there really is no debate over shotgun mic vs lavalier mic. Both have valid reasons for being used in my video productions. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of each type and then make some recommendations after having the pros and cons of shotgun and lavalier mics compared.
Primarily, the audio I’m talking about is people talking. There are other factors to consider when filming events, journalism, nature, sports, and other things like these. But, if you need to record clear audio of human voices speaking such as in an interview or an instructional vlog, this may be helpful information.
Pros of Shotgun Mics
A huge plus for using a high quality shotgun mic for spoken voice video recording is that the microphone can mount directly to your camera. There is also the option with many better shotgun mics to mount on a boom, I’ll give a couple of pointers on that, too.
So, from an ease of use standpoint, a camera mounted shotgun mic is simple and can be handled by the cameraman, so one man operations like this type of microphone.
Most shotgun mics have a nicely defined area of pickup or sensitivity. It’s the pattern that is spoken of in the advertisements or spec sheets. A fairly precise and limited area pattern of what will be heard by the mic works with you mounting on camera in that you pretty much point at your subject just as you are with the lens.
This is handy if you are filming yourself, too, as many instructional YouTube vlogs are. Like a self portrait, set up and point the camera and mic at where you will be, then start shooting.
One of the other pros of shotgun mics involves mounting it on a boom. This lets you get very close to the person speaking, which combined with the limited pattern helps provide some very high quality audio.
Cons of Shotgun Mics
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That limited pickup pattern is great at eliminating much extraneous noise, but it still won’t operate like a telephoto zoom lens does. In other words, if the subject is some distance away from the camera, a shotgun mic may not pull in enough of the audio. A shotgun mic can’t “zoom in” on the sound, that would require a specialty parabolic mic.
One of the other cons of shotgun mics is that if you’re putting one on a boom to physically get closer to the subject, you will need another person to assist or you need to put it on some sort of accessory mount.
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Pros of Lavalier Mics
An important reason for using lavalier mics is to place the microphone as close to the source of the audio as possible, in our case physically attaching it to the person speaking. In addition to capturing clean audio from up close, lavaliers tend to eliminate a huge problem with many on camera style mics, wind noise.
Lavalier mics are small, so they can be attached to a necktie, scarf, collar, or shirtfront with ease. The pick up pattern tends to be wide, so precise pointing is not necessary either.
For self-shot video productions, using a lavalier means you can point the camera anywhere for filming while still picking up your speech cleanly and clearly. For recording groups of people, you get super clean sound by placing a lavalier on each speaking subject.
Cons of Lavalier Mics
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The biggest cons of lavalier mics have to do with connecting them to the video recording somehow. If you are recording audio in camera, you either need a cord stretching from the person to the camera or a wireless connection with a transmitter and receiver.
If recording self-shot videos, wired lavaliers are ok, but most videographers opt for wireless transmission. The other option requires even more work from you after the filming ends, and that’s using a separate recording device and editing in the audio feed afterwards.
Recording audio from several people at once will require investing in multiple lavalier mics since each person speaking will need to have their own mic.
Shotgun and Lavalier Mics Compared
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With pros and cons for each type of mic, choosing a shotgun mic vs lavalier mics will come down to a shoot by shoot comparison of needs.
Using the cinematography technique of storyboarding, we can usually figure that out well ahead of time. In fact, for some videography shoots, we may switch back and forth between the two types of mic.
And now, for the recommendations we promised:
Comica On-Camera Shotgun Mic
A very good example of a high quality shotgun mic for videography is the Comica On-Camera Shotgun Mic from iKan.
I like to shop iKan for a lot of my specialty videography gear since they specialize in the field and they also manufacture themselves most of the stuff they sell.
The Comica Shotgun Mic has excellent audio characteristics, is made to be rugged, and is also fairly inexpensive for a high quality external mic. It can be mounted directly to the camera, on a camera cage or other mount, or put on a boom or accessory holder.
Comica Wireless Lavalier Mic
Also from iKan is the Comica Wireless Lavalier Mic system of lavalier mics, transmitters, and receivers. These mics have excellent audio performance and the wireless function works within a range of almost 400 feet.
Lavalier mics, good examples anyways, will require a bit more monetary investment than shotgun mics, but if you need the specific characteristics of lavalier mics, then that’s just part of the equation to factor in.
Once you use these lavalier mics for your first video, you’ll probably be finding ways to include them in most of your productions involving people speaking.
The Debate Is Over
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So really, there isn’t a debate about using a shotgun mic vs lavalier mics. There are pros and cons for each design. What you do need to do is decide which type of mic will give you the performance and characteristics you require for each particle shoot. You’ll probably be using both types of mics during your varios video shoots.
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