Need advice about wireless lavelier microphone system

[MarkerDave]

I'm want to improve the audio quality of my videos and for that I'm looking for a good wireless lavelier system. The two systems that come up quite often are the DJI mic and Rode wireless Go 2, currently i'm leaning towards getting the DJI mic.
I have tried to do some research on these two systems but I keep finding somewhat conflicting reviews and experiences. One person thinks the DJI mic is great and the other hates it and says you should just spend 1K on a different system so I'm curios what your experience is with these systems And what other options are there that are in the same price range.

 

I have put some of the pro's and con's that are important to me together for both systems that I could find from searching the internet.

DJI mic
Pro's
- Supposedly Easy to use, you don't need special app to set things up
- No app needed to transfer the audio from transmitter to computer
- can record backup locally
- receiver records directly to camera video
- long battery life when used with the battery case

- price around 300 euro

con's
- external lavalier mic can cause humming/buzzing (something with trrs and trs??)
- 2.4Ghz, shares bandwidth with lots of other devices which could lower signal quality

Rode wireless go 2
 pro's
 - can record backup track localy
 - receiver records directly to camera video
 - should work fine with external lavalier mic

 - price less then 300 euro

 con's
 - needs special app to access audio and setup everything
 - 2.4Ghz, shares bandwidth with lots of other devices which could lower signal quality
 - less total battery life, does not come with a battery case

 

[Evident]

At my job, one of the mics we use for run and gun "dangerous to gear" shoots is the RODE Wireless Go 2 set. I haven't used the DJI mics but it is something that I wanted to try out if I got the chance to see how they stack up. I can give you my extended thoughts on using RODE's system though for about 2+ years.

Your pros are all certainly valid when it comes to connectivity and actual transmitter functions. Having the backup track record locally is very helpful and has actually saved us a couple of times when either the signal cuts out (more about this later) or when one time the cable we were using connecting the receiver to the camera was messed up and crackling. It can record up to 7 hours on the system before rolling over automatically to the oldest recording, which will easily be more than your battery life.
Speaking of battery life, that's been a big con for us when it comes to long days. A big factor that separates these from more *traditional* wireless lav systems is the integrated battery. What this means is that when it dies, you can't just do a quick battery swap on your talent and keep going. On long shoots, it has meant buying a second set that we can use to swap out while the others charge which is significantly more expensive than a set of AAs like you'd use in something more standard like the Sennheiser G3s. They do take USB C for charging and can charge pretty quickly (a couple of hours of life from 20-30 minutes of charge) but they last in total about 4-5 hours from my experience. I know they sell 3rd party cases that you can get for charging but we do not have any of those so I can't comment on any reliability or preferred ones.
The price and the form factor are some of the reasons we actually got these mics. We only use them with external lavs, but having the body be a small, light, and THIN square is a huge plus when you need to just pin it to the back of someone or a non-traditional mounting option. As I mentioned, having a two-transmitter one-receiver package go for sub $300 where I am means that if one of these were to die by being crushed or submerged or shocked, it's not as painful as some of our more expensive mics.
Since I talked about external lav mic use, I should mention the wireless capabilities because they can be connected in not the best way... Unlike other mic systems, this does use 2.4 GHz for wireless transmission compared to RF. What this means is if you're in an area with a lot of devices like a factory or somewhere with a ton of interference, you can have sync or connection issues. The local recording can help in these situations UNLESS the lav you are using acts almost like an antenna for interference. We couldn't nail down what was causing it exactly, but a couple of times it has happened where depending on where we would mount our mic, a buzzing interference would occur in our recordings. As well, the units are not shielded at all for power interference so keep it at least 4-5 inches away from any battery or power cables/phones because interference will be picked up by those as well.
On a more positive note, you mentioned the device needing an app to access the audio and set everything up. This is annoying and it means it's only a matter of time until these devices won't work because the software isn't updated or something.. I hate that, but I will say the software is not the worst that I have seen when it comes to dumb proprietary configuration setups. It works pretty well and allows you to configure and download all of the stored tracks on the mics/update the firmware. If you don't want to use this software, you can still use the mics like "normal" (dumb lav's maybe?) transmitter/receiver mics.
Other than all of that, we had one unit die from a power surge while charging from a storm so that sucked, but other than what I mentioned I've had a pretty good experience with them and continue to actively use them for projects that need that set it and forget it setup.

 

If you have any follow up questions, I'd be happy to answer them! Hope it helps