In a pinch, you can clip the earbuds off an iPhone headset to get a quick and dirty lav mic. Add a safety pin with a little hot glue and camouflage it with a smattering of sharpie and you’re good to go. If you’re curious about the quality of the audio produced with such a setup, check out the above video from maker Levi Allen, where he runs through a build while capturing the audio with his iPhone. It won’t win any awards, however it’ll get the job done. I’d still hunt for a local camera shop to get a proper lav before I’d cannibalized a working headset, but I’ve found that there’s usually a crappy pair in a junk drawer somewhere with a shorted-out left earbud for projects like this. [via cheesycam]