In this video, we go over the Sennheiser EW 100 G3 wireless lavalier microphone.
So you're tired of using the handheld or shotgun mic for audio, and you want to up your professional shooting skills. A great way to do that is with a lavalier microphone or lav mic for short.
This is the Sennheiser EW 100 G3. It's a widespread wireless lav mic kit that you'll find in news shooting, documentary work, houses of worship, theatres, and more because it is so reliable and the quality is excellent.
To get started, you are first going to need four AA batteries. I recommend buying a set of rechargeable batteries. It's a little more money upfront, but it pays for itself with a few uses. For today, I'm just using regular batteries. You will also need a pair of headphones because recording audio without headphones is like driving while blindfolded. The results are going to hurt.
Open up both units and put your batteries inside. One unit is the transmitters, and the other is the receiver. To quickly figure out which is which, remember that the receiver unit plugs into your camera or mixer. Your transmitter is the one with the microphone. Now go ahead and turn on both devices by holding the On/off button for a few seconds.
You are going to need to make sure that the radio channels are the same. So let's get that setup. If hitting the SET button gives you a locked message, tap the arrow buttons just above. It will then say Unlock? with a question mark. Then tap the set button again, you should be through.
Using the arrow buttons, move the settings until you reach Easy Setup. That's what we want because it's so EASY! Push the set button to select that. Move the options until you get Reset List, then push SET. A STORED message will flash onscreen, letting you know you can move to the next step. Then using the arrow buttons, get to the Scan New List and push the set button.
What's happening is that the receiver is going to take a few minutes to scan the area for the best radio frequencies to use that will lower the chance of interference, that shhh sound you can hear in the background which is annoying and unprofessional.
When bank 1 or whichever bank you have set shows up on the screen, push set. Then push set again on more time, you'll see the stored message.
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Now push the ON/OFF button. Then push SET again, and this time, choose SYNC. The SYNC display message will show up. Now take your transmitter (remember, that's the one with the lav mic). Hold them against each other like this. This will pass the correct radio channel information to the transmitter so that they are entirely in sync. You'll see a checkmark next to the Sync message, letting you know you are good to go.
Now go ahead and mount your receiver to your camera or attach it to your mixer or audio recorder. Since the lav mic kit uses batteries, you'll want to make sure that you turn off any phantom power. That's the PLUS FORTY-EIGHT VOLTS that you can see on your camera. For the Canon XA-25, just set it to MIC.
Now if you haven't already done so, attach your headphones to your camera, so you can monitor the audio coming in as you shoot. Don't risk this - people can and will forgive poor visuals, but they are unforgiving when it comes to poor sound.
Now take your lav mic transmitter (that's the one with the microphone) and mic up your subject. Six inches away from the mouth or source of audio is a good rule of thumb, but you'll have to experiment to find the sweet spot. And make sure to run the cable under a shirt or hide it. Nothing screams amateur hour than seeing a dangling lavalier mic cable.
Get comfortable asking people to run the wire under their shirts or jackets. Explain to them that you want them to look their best as possible on camera, and a hanging wire is distracting. Also, it might unintentionally get caught on something, if the person is animated with their gestures or you are moving around.
And that's it!
Be very careful with these kits. They are small, fragile, and expensive. So be sure to gently wrap your cables when you finish, and not tightly coil.
Happy audio recording!
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