Is this a lav microphone, or hair bead?
 

Eagle-eyed fans of Lost are trying to determine if the end of a lavalier microphone was visible hanging from over the ear of a cast member in a close-up, or whether it's a hair bead.

Give it a look. Have you ever seen a lav that looks like this (or, conversely, a jewelry accessory)?

It's definitely a mic.

I just tested 16 different models of wired lavaliers so I have seen and been handling most of the mics out there. The ones that I have seen that have a hard windscreen shaped like that, if memory serves were the Sennheiser MKE-2 Gold, the DPA 4071 and the Sanken COS-11X (see attached images from my article).
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/3749/1206298988.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/3749/1206299054.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/3749/1206299109.jpg

Since Lost is a television show, I would be willing to bet it is the Sanken dressed with some tubes to look like an earring. Most professional sound mixers in television and film seem to primarily use the Sanken. Very clever rig.

Dan

Looks like we have a match. Nice work. Thanks!

I JUST finished this episode 2 minutes ago and was wondering the same thing! And then to stumble onto this thread moments later...I wonder why they didn't reshoot it...it was pretty obvious.

You really think they should reshoot that? I'm sure most people wouldn't have caught that at all. Very nice rig job though.

Some years ago when my kids were young we were watching a low budget Kid's Sci Fi movie on video. I forget the name.

What I clearly remember is a scene where Richard Moll (playing a bad guy) steps out of a very shiny old black Lincoln Continental from the 60's (the ones with the suicide doors).

As he steps out of the car they cut to a close up shot of his feet coming out of the car and hitting the ground. When he closes the door you can clearly see the entire film crew, camera, mic boom, etc reflected in the shiny black door!

I remember thinking at the time that this must really be a low budget film if they didn't bother to fix something that obvious.

I really hope that poor mic was painted by props b/c it looks like it's had a rough life!

(and yeah my vote is for the Sanken COS-11X)