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Wireless Mics / Best alternative for remote location
I have been asked to record 2 people at a very, remote wilderness site. I have Canon 5D II and Marantz 660 but only have lavaliers with xlr cables. The age of my equipment tells you I have not been doing this regularly. Would love to purchase wireless system with 2 omni lavaliers that could record to the Marantz or its own smaller recording device. Is it possible to get a quality system for less than $1200. Any suggestions on what to purchase/how to approach this? Thanks!
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3 Replies
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[Deb Lawton] “Is it possible to get a quality system for less than $1200. Any suggestions on what to purchase/how to approach this? Thanks!”
Yes. If you want new, you could buy a pair of Sennheiser G4s:
A pair of used G3s might be a more economical choice.
An even more economical choice might be to rent the G4s.
Whichever way you go, make sure you get the Sennheiser mic-to-XLR cable to connect the receiver to your recorder.
Be sure to get radios in a legal frequency band for the physical location where you will use them. And an appropriate amount of batteries. I think you get around 8 hours of continuous “up time” from four AA alkaline batteries (two in transmitter, two in receiver). The G3s are somewhat sensitive to the quality of rechargeable batteries — the Panasonic eneloop pro batteries are reported to work well with the G3s, but I don’t know how much recording time you can get from a single charge.
Beyond Sennheiser, since you’ll be in the wilderness and not in a wi-fi jungle like a big city, you might get away with one of the new-ish wi-fi radios, like Rode is selling. There are others; I can’t vouch for the quality of any of the wi-fi mics because I’ve never used them. Ty, OTOH, has tested out at least one that he liked — Electro-Voice? IDK. Ty?
Finally, if you decide to go the Sennheiser route, you can obtain a decent improvement in sound quality by replacing the “kit mic” (me-2?) with something better, like the Oscar SoundTech OST-802. I’ve got a pair of OST-802s I use with my G3s and they work a treat for me. As always, YMMV.
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Do you REALLY need WIRELESS microphones? Are the subjects going to be waling around in the wilderness, or will they be in fixed positions (per shot)?
Remember the axiom: “A $30 cable is better than a $3000 wireless system.”
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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder. -
Hello Deb and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.
As Bruce mentions, I’ve had good luck with the Audio-Technica System 10.
https://tyfordaudiovideo.blogspot.com/2015/01/audio-technica-system-10-update-more.html
And as Richard mentions, do you really need wireless?
Regards,
Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum, LeaderWant better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
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