A lavalier microphone is arguably the simplest type of mic that you can use for vlogging or shooting video with a dialogue. You simply plug it into your camera, clip it on your shirt, jumper or jacket and you’re ready to go. There’s no need to worry about whether the wireless signal is strong enough or if you’re too far from the mic, because it’s clipped to you.
Deity’s V.Lav is a little more complex than some other lavalier mics because it uses two small batteries to power the microprocessor while it’s adapting the mic to your camera. But Deity supplies two batteries in the box and they last for over 800 hours, that’s more than a month of use.
It’s usually recommended that a mic cable is unravelled before you use it because keeping it bunched or tangled can result in interference. I’ve had cheap, nasty mics that don’t even like the cable crossing itself at one point. The cable with the Deity V.Lav feels better than the cable on the average cheap mic from Amazon though. It doesn’t kink too readily and it doesn’t feel like it will snap after a short amount of use.
More significantly, when I used the V.Lav with the cable bunched up in my hand as I walked with the camera, there was no interference, just natural and rounded sound. I couldn’t detect any hum or hiss.
As I walked down a gravel drive, the mic picked up enough ambient sound to set the scene, but my voice was still clear. Similarly, when recording with someone else talking in the background and with a hard drive fan whirring next to me, the focus of the audio was still my voice.
A cable length of 5m is about the sweet spot for connecting to a camera. You have enough scope to move away from the camera, but not so much that the cable gets in the way or continually tangles.
