Update: In the video above, you can see my full review and the failure of this mic system. After I released the video, Sennheiser reached out, and I was able to speak to an engineer for over an hour, during which I learned a lot about wireless audio. We both agreed that I did nothing wrong in my test, but, with more knowledge, I would have been able to plan for and potentially have stopped this issue from happening. I will be creating a new video with this information in the near future.
For $700, the EW-DP has an amazing list of features:
- Fully digital UHF wireless microphone system for video applications
- Integrated Bluetooth for synchronization and control
- Smart notifications for troubleshooting and system guidance
- Intelligent battery management provides operating time (hours:minutes)
- Extended battery life: up to 12 hours on transmitter, 7 hours on receiver
- Magnetically stackable components for versatile mounting
- Unprecedented 134 dB input dynamic range for distortion free transmission
- Up to 56 MHz bandwidth for flexibility in any RF environment
- Exceptionally low latency (1.9 ms)
- External charging and powering via USB-C (receiver only)
- Smart Assist app for monitoring and control
Surprisingly, one of the most important features is missing, internal recording. Both Rode and DJI's mic systems come with a digital recorder inside each transmitter. This means that if there is ever a connection issue, you can always download the original audio from the mic itself. I've learned that there is currently a patent blocking Sennheiser from adding this feature.
As you would expect, the EW-DP has fantastic build quality, but it also feels abnormally large. The magnetic cheese plate is nice, but on top of my DSLR, the whole system feels huge, especially when you compare it to DJI's system.
The navigation on the EW-DP is far simpler than our G4 lav mics, but UHF mics still require time to scan frequencies to find clean channels when you move to a new shooting location. This can be slow and frustrating when smaller, cheaper 2.4 GHz mics like the DJI mics don't require any scanning or any waiting.
The Failure
In my real-world test, I took both the EW-DP and DJI Mics to Old San Juan to film a video with Patrick. I scanned the area, chose a clean channel, and synced the transmitter and receiver. The DJI Mics worked perfectly for the entire four-hour shoot. The Sennheiser EW-DP lost connection at our second location, even though I was only a few feet away from Patrick. Scanning the channels to find another clean one was slow, and then, pairing the two units failed the first time I tried for some unknown reason. This may have lasted less than three minutes, but it was still incredibly frustrating to deal with while we were trying to film.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that the DJI Mics worked the entire time, and the Sennheiser EW-DP failed at one point. This test, and the fact that Sennheiser doesn't have internal recording when DJI does, makes the EW-DP difficult to recommend. I keep reading about how DJI's mics are cheap and won't work reliably, but I've used them for months at this point, and they have never failed. At this point, DJI Mics are my favorite audio product I've ever tested.
After this review, I was able to pick the brain of a Sennheiser engineer and learned a lot about wireless audio. He was convinced that although I've had great luck with DJI's mics, they would not work reliably in many professional environments, and if I knew how to monitor UHF channels, Sennheiser's system would be more reliable with a far better range. I will be putting all of this to the test in a video in the near future.
Ironically on a audio gear video, the audio & video is off sync slightly...
Shouldn't be, the mic is hardwired into the camera.
1) unlike the g series which are analog, this is a 100% digital system. That's the D in the name. And digital systems work until they don't... so no static break-up, they just stop / drop out entirely.
2) like the g series, this is a UHF system, not a bluetooth system. That's its semi-pro advantage - It offers a lot of bandwidth to choose / find a clean frequency within; BUT you always run a new scan when you change location, you never know what RF interference there might be. You might get lucky and walk around all day and never get conflicted by other signals, but that would be well, lucky, From your description ,it seems that once you re-scanned and synced, it worked as expected.
3) The antennas - that's a good and a not so good things. Good because unlike the g series its two antennas provide, per Sennheiser, "True diversity" -for better signal lock. Not so good because this is an inexpensive pro-sumer oriented receiver and to save costs the antennas are not removable.