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Condoms and microphones.


sergiofucchi

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Most of us use condoms in heavy rain, or similar splashing. Some people also seal the condom around a mic to dunk them underwater, or if the mic *may* end up overboard.

People with humidity-susceptible mics (Schoeps etc) may use it this way, but you want to make sure you don't seal humidity in there, then go out in the sun.

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I concur John. If your gonna be in the elements don't use a Schoeps use an MKH 416 in a zeppelin in a rain man. I might rescue tape the connectors but covering a mic with plastic just isn't great. Now I use unlubricated condoms to protect transmitters on actors all the time.

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Sound quality is a significant point. Test it first. Stretching the condom would probably help, but still. I used a CUB-01 this way, but didn't have a stretched condom and the sound was a bit muddied. I was using it go get the physical sounds of the boat (quad + double rowing shells), and not dialog.

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Most of the times when there's rain/water/boating- there is always heavy loud background noise involved, hence degrading sound is not something u worry about but achieving intelligible dialog. I have used condoms many times for a number of years to protect my boom mic and lavs. I've successfully shielded from water trams & countryman lavs that were completely submerged using off the shelf condoms. A cheap and reliable method if u manage to figure it out

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Here in Italy I have trouble to find non-lubricated condoms. They seems impossible to find. ???

Int he US one major brand sells them, so *most* drug stores have them, but not always. Do you guys have something like Amazon? The US Amazon store sells some sort of bulk bags of non-lubed condoms pretty cheap. I know the testing for condoms in the US and Europe is different, so there there are different brands in different parts of the world.

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I've used the fingers from latex gloves on lav mics before. Just close up the end with a zip tie. Not waterproof, but water and wind resistant. Actually, the entire glove fits a Lectro SM with the antenna nicely.

Mark O.

This perfect because it's easy to get nitrile gloves at someplace like Home Depot.... latex allergies are common enough that it's worth having a backup plan, and the last thing you want to do is give somebody a terrible rash.

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I learned this from the old news and sports photographers probably 12 or 13 years ago when I was first starting out. Not for your every day rain as a standard camera or boom pole rain cover will work for that. But if you ever find yourself shooting a hurricane and I have you will want the extra protection. Works for the same reason I prefer a standard black garbage bag for a rain cover in the heavy stuff or if I am going to be in it all day. There is only 1 point of entry for the water which you control verses the long velcro strip preferred by most equipment bag manufactures which tends to leak over time. Not to mention all those seams where stuff was stitched on.

My personal opinion is it works well enough for that type of use and deadliest catch type stuff. I would not employ every day or even in a rainforest situation where there was a high chance of intermittent rain.... has anybody tried reversing the condom and just leaving the front end of the shotgun exposed for these types of situations?

Also if you ever find yourself in the locker-room after an alcs championship or world series it is defiantly something to consider.

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I like this question, because I was wondering the same. How do you stick B6 or COS-11 in a condom successfully? Not only does it not seem to make sense to me, from an audio point of view... but, I don't get the structure of it.

I, personally, would love to see a picture... and then I would like to test it out at home... because, conceptually, I am just not getting it.

(I can see how, if you were in a jam and had no other choice, putting one on the CMIT or any boom would be an emergency option. But, I really don't understand how you place a condom over a lav.)

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I like this question, because I was wondering the same. How do you stick B6 or COS-11 in a condom successfully? Not only does it not seem to make sense to me, from an audio point of view... but, I don't get the structure of it.

I, personally, would love to see a picture... and then I would like to test it out at home... because, conceptually, I am just not getting it.

(I can see how, if you were in a jam and had no other choice, putting one on the CMIT or any boom would be an emergency option. But, I really don't understand how you place a condom over a lav.)

I believe we were talking big mics with the rubbers. Sticks, shotguns etc... I suppose if you knew it was going in the drink you could tightly stretch and rubber band the lav head then cut the excess. In my experience it is not worth even bothering with a lav in most hurricane or deadliest catch situations.

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  • 3 years later...

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