Amateur Photographer verdict
While the tiny, easily hidden mic units are the stars of the show here, the Hollyland Lark M2S has other attractions too. Audio quality is great, and the kit works with cameras, phones, and computers- Exceptionally small mic
- Great audio quality
- Clever fluffy windshield fitting
- Excellent battery life
- Very useful range
- instruction manual could be better
Following my amazement last year at Hollyland’s Lark M2 system with its clever magnetic transmitting microphones the size of a 10p piece, the company has recently introduced something altogether smaller in the Hollyland Lark M2S.
Hollyland Lark M2S at a glance:
- $149 / £140 for combo kit
- Tiny clip-on microphones
- Mic transmitters weigh 7g
- Receivers for camera, phone and computers
- Charging case for 20 hours of recording
- Wireless range of 300m
- hollyland.com
The Hollyland Lark M2S Combo kit I have for review compromises a receiver (RX) unit that sits in a hot/cold shoe and plugs into your camera’s mic port, as well as a receiver that plugs into the USB-C or Lightning port of your phone, tablet or computer. Alongside these receivers are the reason the system caught my eye – a pair of tiny microphone/transmitter (TX) units that can be easily hidden somewhere in the clothes of the subject so they are hardly visible.
Each transmitter weighs just 7g and the mic section measures just 6.3mm in diameter. The idea is that the back part of the mic unit slips behind the material of your shirt, and the front pick-up area grips the other side facing outwards to collect your voice.
The mic units have a single button that deals with power, noise reduction and pairing. So long as you can remember ‘one press for…’ etc, it is simple to use. The mics also have a fluffy windshield that cleverly slips over the mic and which won’t fall off by accident.
The camera RX unit is very slightly more complicated. It has a volume dial that doubles for noise reduction and switches between stereo and mono modes. There’s a power/pairing/mute and volume lock button on the side, a pair of lights to tell us that the mics are connected, a USB-C port for firmware updates, and a 3.5mm jack so we can connect it to the camera’s mic port.
Both mics and both receivers slot neatly into the charging case which recharges them all to give us 20 hours of recording in total, and 9 hours of life between visits to the charging case.
Hollyland claims we can record from a distance of 300m, and I found so long as there wasn’t anything between the mic and the receiver this was true, but as soon as there’s a body or a wall in the way that distance is reduced. Most will rarely need a range of more than 10m though.
Sound quality is really very good, and the noise cancellation feature works well in normal situations to reduce traffic and environmental distractions – I had to stand next to a spinning washing machine to get any distortion on my voice. The system does well to isolate the closest voice, and to enhance nicely it while cutting out the background noise so you can sound as though you are in a studio.
Hollyland Lark M2S: Our verdict
This is a very neat and capable package, and despite the tiny size of the mic units, the sound it produces is excellent. It’s incredibly flexible too, allowing us to send audio into cameras, phones and computers for recording or streaming.
Obviously voice is a priority here, and the Hollyland Lark M2S does that really very well indeed. But I also found these useful to hang in a tree when filming birds with a long lens, so I could pick up clear chirpy audio from very close by.
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