For man on the street inteviews, should I use a lav or handheld mic?
 

I'm shooting an event tomorrow and going to be interviewing random people attending it. I want two tracks of audio. One is going to be a camera mounted shotgun. For the other, I'm contemplating either asking people to attach a lav to themselves or giving them a handheld mic.

The lav will get better sound since the person wont be moving it around. But it'll take time and turn some people off to ask them to put the mic on under their clothes. The handheld is easier but if they wave it around, the sound wont be good.

Thoughts?

Re: For man on the street inteviews, should I use a lav or handheld mic?
 

A handheld reporter mic. will usually give better sound than a tie mic.

Re: For man on the street inteviews, should I use a lav or handheld mic?
 

I've done many of this type of interview and have always used a handheld. I've even been known to use a boom to hold the mic so they don't have and I can still run the camera in a 1 man operation. The lav is too much trouble for run and gun street interviews.

Re: For man on the street inteviews, should I use a lav or handheld mic?
 

I would agree, in your type of scenario, a H/H reporter's mic is your best bet. Just make sure the mic is of the omnidirectional type. An EV RE50 or Sennheiser MD46 would be a good choice. Though similar is some respects, the SM57 or 58 would NOT be a good choice.

Re: For man on the street inteviews, should I use a lav or handheld mic?
 

Yes you don't want to make it a pain for people to talk to you. And it's a pain to tether them to a lav.

Either a hand held, or something like a K-Tek Tadpole (3' pole) with a shotgun, or even a Rode VMP, would be easy to carry and hold out to them. Or with the hand held mic like the EV RE50 N/D, you quickly coach them to hold the mic to their mouths (unless you are interviewing them and holding the mic yourself). People often forget to point the mic to their mouths after about 5 seconds. Random people are so unprofessional...

Re: For man on the street inteviews, should I use a lav or handheld mic?
 

Control the situation. Have someone hold the microphone, always pointing it at the interviewee's mouth. Don't let them hold it themselves.

Re: For man on the street inteviews, should I use a lav or handheld mic?
 

NB: The MD46 is cardioid!

It's the MD42 that's omni.