Customer Reviews

Audio-Technica ATR-35S Lavalier Microphone

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

This mic was purchased for use with a Canon HV-20 camcorder. Primary purpose is for videotaping interviews with people who are sitting (not moving around). It comes with a 20' cable, which is more than enough for use in any room in the average size home.
Build quality: better than I expected for the price, the battery and pre-amp holder feel more like aluminum than plastic (it's hard to tell under the black paint). The mic element itself is tiny, and comes with a lapel clip and foam wind screen. The wind screen, like the mic element itself, is tiny and pretty easy to pull off, so keep an eye on it that it doesn't become lost. The battery is one of the "button" types, rather than a "AA" (which I would have preferred). One battery is supplied - I have no idea of how long it might last, so better have a spare. The mike is a condenser type, so it will not work at all if the battery is dead.

Performance: Very good! The sound quality is better than I had expected for the price of this product. Frequency response seems perfectly adequate for picking up voices - which is why you use a lavalier mike in the first place - and signal-to-noise ratio is excellent at the standard gain setting on the HV-20 camcorder. The frequency response in the user manual is 70 to 18,000 hz. This mic has an impedance of 1000 ohms, which places it a step down in performance from more expensive, professional mics which generally have 600ohm impedance (you get a better s/n ratio). I am very pleased with the results from this mic. The captured sound of a person's voice is as clear as it could be, with very little perceptible static. Using this lavalier mic also has the benefit of completely eliminating internal motor noise from the camera's tape mechanism.

SUMMARY: You can spend $200~$500 and get a wireless lavalier mic, or if you live with the 20' cable, get this one for $35. It's certainly good enough for most people's home videos, and the sound quality (for human voice) is excellent. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

NOTE: The ATR-35 is a monaural microphone: when connected to a Stereo mic input jack on a camcorder like the Canon HV-20, it will produce a signal only on the left audio channel. If this is a problem for you, an inexpensive Mono-to-Stereo adapter is available from Radio Shack (p/n 274-374, $3.99) that duplicates the output from the ATR-35 to both the left and right channels (this sounds better, at least to my ears).

This was the first mic I bought to go along with my Sony VX2100 Minidv camcorder!
The 20' cord was what attracted me first, and then the price, but when I played back some footage I was blown away with the professional sound that it produces! The quality to my ears seems equal to any interview I hear on television! It's that good!

I wear or place this about mid chest level and that seems about right, but it will pick up nicely even if placed further away. Its by far better than any camcorder mic! The 20' cord is great when your subject or yourself needs to move around to demonstrate something. Or to be stationary in a long shot!

I try intimate above, if your subject is sitting 5' to 6' from the camera lense in an interview position, this powerful little mic works equally as well. 1' or 20' makes no difference!
Bottom line; when I'm recording indoors I never use the on-board mic, I always reach for this and plug it in!

And to add stereo {rather second channel mono} to this just buy an adaptor at RS for $3. A mono to stereo adaptor.

I've been a professional television reporter/producer for four years, and I was astounded by the sound quality of this mic.

I bought it for a trip to Ethiopia to use with my personal camcorder, a 3CCD Panasonic. I was going for work, with a crew, but I wanted to shoot some travel videos of my own. On my last trip to South Africa I did the same, but the camera mic sounded lousy, especially compared to the pro-audio I was getting with the stories themselves.

That totally changed with this trip. The sound quality I have on my travel video standups with this $26 microphone is about 95% the quality I get from our professional gear. That runs $300 for a mic, $300 for the wireless transmitter, and $300 for the receiver. So $26 compared to $900+ is a fantastic deal.

The 20 feet of mic wire does get a bit tangled from time to time if you're using the mic on the run. But for the quality sound you get back from it, hassling with the wire is very much worth your while. And it's ideal if you're going to be doing sit down interviews or something where you have a stationary subject who isn't going anywhere. Keep in mind also, that the $900 wireless setup would involve strapping a receiver to my camcorder, which would be a bigger, bulkier hassle than the 20 foot cord.

My one and only issue is that there's no battery light. My camcorder does not allow me to monitor sound in the field, so if my battery dies or the mic is not turned on, I'd get no sound at all. If you can, record a mic check, play it back, and you're good to go. And keep an extra battery or two on hand. That way if the mic is accidentally left on and stored, you have an immediate backup.

Length:: 0:16 Mins

I shoot video for my production company which is automotive based. As far as a corded Lavalier it is top notch. Mine recorded mono, so on my stereo productions it played from one speaker, and from final cut I had to render as mono. Sounds quality is great, would recommend taping the wind screen to the mic itself as it fell off numerous times. Overall I would recommend this product if wireless is not an option.

I ordered this after reading the glowing reviews here, and I'm extremely glad I listened. This thing is awesome. I hooked it up immediately, fired up Audacity, and did the "Testing, testing, one two three four" thing--then listened to the playback.
The playback has no fuzz, no background hum, no flaws whatsoever. The clarity is astounding--it sounds like I was in a professional recording studio instead of hunched over my laptop. This is one excellent microphone. I don't know how to describe it; it's like the audio equivalent of HDTV.

What can I say? This thing is a jewel. If you ever think you'll need a microphone, even one to just play around with, get it. Get one before they're all gone!

Length:: 2:59 Mins

Great mic for video, at a very affordable price! HIGHLY recommend!

I'm including some samples in the video. I've heard the videos sometimes don't go up very easily, so we'll see :) I went ahead and put several minutes so that you can really get a feel for the audio.

On the first use, I was extremely disappointed. Like nearly all 1 and 2-star reviews posted here, my voice was very faint, there was "noise", etc. First I tried importing to Vegas, then plugged the camera directly into my HT, and verified audio was awful. Then I tried changing the audio settings within my camera (Elura 100), tried without the mono-to-stereo adapter...nada. Then I googled around and found a video that compared this mic with three others, and it sounded fantastic, so I assumed either the battery was almost dead, it wasn't a good choice for my camera, or the mic was defective. After a little more searching, I found a forum post somewhere from someone who was having the same issue with this same mic...the reply to the post had the correct answer...

I put the blasted battery in backward. There's a "graphic" inside the switch component showing the correct battery orientation, but it's very difficult to notice.

Now it sounds fantastic. For quality vs price, it deserves 5 stars, but I'm knocking off one star due to complete lack of written documentation from A-T, which probably would have avoided this whole scenario.

This affordable microphone was the perfect complement to my Olympus WS-300 digital audio recorder. I took it with me on an overseas reporting trip, and it functioned very well. I used it in settings both crowded and noisy, and quiet and solitary. The mike handled everything well.

The clip is sturdy and never caused problems during my two-week journey, in which I used the device nearly every day for several hours a day. The wind guard (small round styrofoam-type covering) worked well in dampening extraneous noise. And it picked up the primary speaker's voice easily. When I worked with a translator, I clipped the mike to his lapel and it was able to clearly record his voice. The interview subject was more difficult to hear, but that's to be expected.

The extremely long cord is a positive for people using video equipment who want to stand a long distance away from the subject. Otherwise, I suggest you keep the wire tied up with a rubber band or with the provided twisty-ties.

I can't comment on the battery life of the small watch-type battery that's included. I also purchased a cheaper lavalier mike (no wind protection, short wire) but I recommend paying a little extra for this higher-quality gear. It's well worth your money, and the sound quality is very noticeable compared to my built-in Olympus mike. (Keep in mind that this is a monaural mike, so you don't get stereo sound.)

Length:: 1:11 Mins

Audio-Technica ATR-35S Lavalier Microphone Do you want to hear how this microphone sounds with a web-quality presentation? Watch this review!

I used the microphone to do a "talking head" style video. The microphone provided dramatically better audio than the built-in microphone on my Sony TRV17. I bought a "mono to stereo adaptor" but didn't need it with my TRV17.