I have under 200 for a mic that I would like to get a lot of use out of. Both for interviews, distance, everything. What mic would you recomend for me for my strapped budget to spend a bit more on and buy?

Thank you all very much. This will be used predominately for interviews but will also be used to record a ceremony or two.

That's a very wide range of uses for one microphone and really, too little budget.

The problem is that the 2100 requires some sort of XLR adapter, either a box or cable just so you can use a decent microphone. Then you have to spend a few bucks on a microphone cable and then the microphone and a microphone holder. $200 just isn't going to get you there I think.

If I were going to pick one microphone to do everything, it would probably be my AT835B shotgun which was my first microphone and at $235, affordable. But then I had to mount it, cable it and, fortunately I didn't need an XLR adapter.

Probably the least expensive approach might be a Sennheiser wireless with the lav. You can have the interviewee wear the lav and you can have the groom wear it for ceremonies. About $300 though. But the good part is you don't need anything else.

I once did a 5 minute short with nothing but a cheap wireless lav. We'd lay the transmitter and lav on the ground and have the talent run by, hang it in a tree so we could capture a group. It worked supprisingly well.

I know this might sound a bit naff and ignorant, but does that shoe on top allow any decent mikes to be used with it?