I bought a used AT835, it was supposed to be an AT835b. Turns out it's an AT835ST I believe. No matter how I use it, I pick up every sound in the room. I was led to believe it was directional and would only pick up the sounds it was aimed at.

Am I using it wrong? Do I need to get anothe rmicrophine? I can't afford a good one, so I'll have to settle for a bad one. But which bad one? Will no microphone accomplish this? Is that why sound stages are so quiet while their filming?

The AT835 is connected directly to the MA300 on my canon GL2 (left side).

Thanks for any help.

How many pins does the mic output have, 3 or 5?

I don't understand the question. XLR cable from the camera to the microphone.

What he meant is that a 835ST has 5 pins and a cable that splits to two 3 pin XLR connections. The cable has a red and grey 3 pin male end along with the 5 pin female end.

Yes, the ST will still pickup noise to the side. The best setting to reject side noise seems to be the L/R N setting, which is narrow. W is wide, and M/S is more omnidirectional ( I was just playing with this.) If you look at the performance diagrams, even on narrow, it will pickup to the sides and behind.

http://www.audio-technica.com/prodpro/profiles/AT835ST.html

Mine didn't come with any cables. Mine has only the XLR connector on the back. Maybe I don't have an ST at all. It says AT835 on it, and that's all. I was going by the pictures on the website to determine what it was. I couldn't find an AT835, s o I assumed that was it.

Shotgun mics don't totally reject sounds from the sides. Plus, depending on the size of the room you will get reflections from the walls and floor. What a shotgun mic does do is help you isolate sounds better. You should start by using the mic from overhead with a boom pole. You can do this cheap for the price of a painters pole from the hardware store. You will also need a clamp to fasten the mic onto the pole. This whole rig should cost you around $20-$30.00 total.

Using the mic overhead and getting as close to the source as possible without getting into the shot will help isolate the wanted sounds/voice. Try this with your shotgun and then with another mic you might have like a standard vocal mic and you will hear the difference.

Hope this helps a bit.