Among the various product lines that Schoeps offers is their Colette Modular system (CMC series). You buy the electronics body separate from the capsule. There are capsules with every conceivable polar pattern, including sitchable and boundary layer available in this series. The MK-41 is a hypercardioid capsule.

Shcoeps mics are highly regarded for feature film work due to their very low noise floor, wide dynamic range, very flat frequency response, very smooth and even off-axis response, and the consistency from one mic to the next is within a couple of (not even a few) dB for frequency response, phase reponse, and output level. These are characteristics that only a hand built microphone can even hope to achieve.

However, they are not the only mic in the pro's kit. Different acoustic environments call for different types of mics. Hypercardioids are a usually a good choice for indoor work, but may not be the best choice outdoors where shotgun mics are often favored.

Is there any kind of tradeoff with having a separate capsule and power supply? Strange how these mics are able to have a supercardiod pattern without a big honkin' tube in front of the diaphragm.

I think I need to do more research than buying at this moment. I want to look into the Sankens mics now. Specificaly the CS3 and CS1 that Marty mentions. Bryan's given enough reading to do for a while, thanks man. I'm leaning now towards a couple Schoeps MK41 and possibly the Sankens Marty mentions above. I do want to look at Earthworks as well. I think I can swing all that before August. I'm ordering my DVX100a next week (I'm super stoked!) so that's one thing down. Anyone see some glaring situation that the 4 mics above couldn't cover to some degree? Are lavs a must?

By the way, Marty, I really respect your advice in the way that you're not trying to sell things directly. Actually I respect everyone's advice. This forum is fantastic for all the knowledgable folks who offer their advice to fools like me. I'm definetely going to look to ATS when I finalize my desicions.

Thank you Ian, I appreciate that.

As for tradeoff's with two piece mic designs, the benefits, of course is the economy of having a choice of polar patterns available buy buying several capsules and only one body. In addition, and this is important & unique to Schoeps, is the availability of intermediate components which are installed between the body and mic capsule. The most commonly used are the very steep low cut filters and attenuators which do their thing before the signal gets to the preamp.

The Schoeps CMC in particular is known to be sensitive to moisture and high humidity environments which affect the contacts between the capsule and body. Keeping the contacts meticulously clean keeps this sensitivity to a minimum.

Schoeps also has one-piece compact mics (CCM series). A price list is available from the distributor's web site - http://Reddingaudio.com

Theoreticaly one properly boomed hypercardiod (say Mk41) is sufficient to mic a conversation of four people sitting across from one another in a booth, yes? I know I could probably look it up (I have books on filmmaking at home in fact) but I'd rather hear other peoples experience. Would it be wiser to run two mics and mix the levels in the camera (seeing as I'm planning to record this first project direct to the dvx100a)?

Outdoors I'd have to boom a couple people with say a medium shotgun to help cut down on extraneous noises and deal with a loss of sound quality, no?

I'd say you're on the right track.

You could cover all four people provided they are not more than a couple of feet apart and are all talking toward the middle.

If the "booth" you mean is a typical restaurant booth, then you'll be fine.