Well, I shot some stage monologues from the pit, six or seven feet away from the speaker, with the me64 on cam, and it sounds quite good...full and clear.
I'll be interested to hear recordings of dialogue or discussion next, two situations I find myself shooting often.

To anyone who has the ME66, does it come with a windscreen or do you have to buy that separately?

You have to buy one. An olson costs around $27 a cheap sennheiser $40, serious wind gear starts around $150.

One of the best you can get is the Equalizer from LightWave Systems.

I would like to add another question about the me64/66 as I am thinking about buying one of them.

I made a bad experience with a cheap mic because its output was low (in my opinion and I am deaf dumb and blind when it comes to sound).
I only got sound levels between -30-20db if the mic was on the boom and about 1 meter or 3ft above the actor. The audio level on the xl1 was just below the point where I started to pick up noise. A fine -12db reading was only possible when I put the mic as close as 1ft to the actors mouth. Their speaking volume was the one of a normal room conversation and the location itself was pretty quiet. In short signal-to-noise ratio was reallly bad and I have to re-record the dialogues now.

I think I not-knowingly might have bought an interview mic which is not suited for longer distances.

So here is the question: How far can I go away with the Sennheisers to get a level of around -12db or better in such a situation?

I use the studio1 adapter and would use the Sennheisers with external phantom power.

Cheers, Peter

Output level on a mic has nothing to do with quality. A $1300 Schoeps has a 13mv output, about the same as a $280 AT 897 (10mv). mikes like the ME66 ($400) have a 50 mv output. the Oktava which goes from 50-$200 has a 10 mv output.

The weak link is your camera preamp, or lack of them. The studio one is a passive adapter. I don't know the XL1S audio so i don't know what you have working for you on the camera end.

If you're going to be buying an adapter ewith phantom you may as well spend a few more bucks and get the Sound Devices MP1 or the Beach DXA-8. The MP1 is a basic single channel pre with a limiter and phantom. The Beach DXA-8 has 2 channels, limiters, phantom and enough preamplification to satisfy yout on camera preamps.

Do a search as very much has been written recently on this subject.