Best Shotgun Mic??? $200 Budget.
 

Hi, I am shooting with a PD100A and am wondering what the best shotgun mic for around $150 would be. I will be shooting a short in about a week, with dialogue.

any info would be great. thanks

http://www.lafcpug.org/review_shotgun_mic.html

They have a good review.... and the models reviewd there have "little brothers"... a bit cheaper...

I have the Azden SGM-2X, which I purchased for under $200, and it is quite amazing for that price range. It's pretty much like getting two mics because you can use it as normal with a boom pole, and then you can unscrew it half-way down and wow, you've got a hand-held interview mic.

The sound is great, the bass roll-off is very functional, and the battery life seems neverending. I haven't used the Audio Technica mentioned in the article here, but the Azden does work like a champ.

And, of course, what really makes the audio sound good is what you do with it in post. I find that I can make it sound very theatrical with just a little time invested in tinkering with it in Sound Forge.

I couldn't tell you if this is the best way to do it, but what I do is use the bass rolloff to get live location audio, and then in post I equalize accordingly to get the right, rich sound. I found that not using the bass rolloff on location just captures too much extraneous sound. After all, who can afford a soundstage?

May I ask where you bought the Azden SGM-2X for under $200.00?

One major reason why I didn't get the 2X was because of the length of the mic itself. At 16" long, it would have looked ridiculous on my camera and I can imagine it getting in the way during run n' gun shooting. I opted for the 1X instead. I wish there is someone out there with both mics and can do a direct comparison of these two. However, I just finished a project with decent amount of dialogue and the 1X captured them very nicely. The 2X would definitely be the focal point if you mount that broom stick on your PD-100A.