Having poor audio quality is one of the fastest ways to lose your online video audience, even when your videos are off-the-cuff in nature. This is one of the few times audio trumps video. People will watch mediocre video if the audio quality is passable. But most will not watch a fantastic video for very long if the audio quality is poor.
So, don't make that mistake with your videos. Invest in a pair of high-quality wireless lavalier mics. Consider the following:
Lav mics offer the flexibility to fine tune audio quality by easily adjusting the distance from the mic to the speaker's mouth
Distance away from the phone's camera becomes a non-issue in most instances...important if the person being videotaped is walking or moving around a lot
Background noises are somewhat minimized in many instances...important if you're at an expo filled with many people, for example (if background noise is considerable, consider a sports broadcaster headset...works really well in that scenario)
Allows the person being videotaped to look more natural...sometimes a handheld mic might seem awkward, and a headphone mic might seem out-of-place in certain scenarios
No matter how good lavalier mics are, remember, the wind is NOT your friend when recording outdoors. Record outdoors only on non-windy, dry days if at all possible. Always keep extra batteries for the mics on hand, just in case. Our team is trying out the new Smart Mic wireless mic by ENC (with adapters for film cameras and mixers). We'll let you know how they fare in a future post.