The last time I bought a shotgun mic, the ME66 was the best bang for the buck
What are the current hot mics for great sound/low price? XLR and self powered a must, as it's mostly be used going into DSLRs or Zooms.

Thanks!

I love my Rode NTG-3. It requires phantom power but that can be supplied from most recorders. I use mine with a Sound Devices MM-1 preamp and it's a killer!
About $700 Clearly aimed at the 416.

The NTG-2 is probably a better comparison to the 66 as it can use an internal battery and is quite a bit less money. A friend uses one and it sounds pretty good too.

Another vote for the NTG-3 from me too.

The last time I bought a shotgun mic, the ME66 was the best bang for the buck
What are the current hot mics for great sound/low price? XLR and self powered a must, as it's mostly be used going into DSLRs or Zooms.

Thanks!
The ME66 sound a bit ... coarse. A better sounding mic for less money is the Rode NTG-2. Or for not too much more money, the NTG-3 is an excellent choice, as others have already said.

I spent the bucks and got myself the Rode NTG-3. Absolutely love it, and being a mic it will last me for just about forever ... so it's worth it getting a good one.

As for standalone audio recorders, I've recently got myself a Zoom H1 and it's amazingly good for the price that you pay.

Andrew

Dylan:

I have the ME66 and the NTG-2, both bought along the way. In the DV Charity Challenge last year, I won the NTG-3.... definitely another class, in my opinion.

The NTG3 is that much better than the NTG2 as well, not just the ME66?

I remember monitoring the audio (I was recording with the NTG-3) when shooting some talk on a street. A car went past and I was thinking "damn the bass tones of the car exhaust sounds good ... absolute movie quality".

One of those moments you don't quite tell clients about. :-)

Andrew

The NTG3 is that much better than the NTG2 as well, not just the ME66?

Yes, in my opinion.

My unscientific analysis, is that the the ME66 is a great mic, but seems to give a harsher tone, the NTG2, is as good, with a different less harsh sound, and th NTG3 seems to cover the sound spectrum cleanly without imparting its own charactersitic to the sound capture itself. In other words, it seems to do the best job of capturing the sound that is there.

I do understand that there have been issues with the NTG3 in cold weather recording. So that is something to think about.

My thoughts.... Rather than going through the cycle of buying a mic, only to be replaced with yet another mic, and then another.
Buy once and be done with it.
Get an MKH 50 & MKH 60 and you have the bread and butter of pro audio.

With the Rode NTG-3 you get a 10 year warranty. That's peace of mind for you.

Andrew

The last time I bought a shotgun mic, the ME66 was the best bang for the buck
What are the current hot mics for great sound/low price? XLR and self powered a must, as it's mostly be used going into DSLRs or Zooms.

Thanks!

Did the topic go astray as compared to what was originally asked? If I understand the originalquestion above correctly, phantom power is not preferred, having the battery inside the microphone is. Yes, no?

Concerning shotgun microphones that run off of battery power - nothing has changed in the past five years. The "best" options are still the ME66 (which is noisy and brash sounding in my opinion), and the NTG2 (which is okay, but leaves a bit to be desired).

The bottom line is that if you want to get better sound with a shotgun mic than you can with an ME66, you need to move on to phantom powered mics. The best way to do this is to get a Sound Devices mixer (the best "low priced" option I would go with would be the Sound Devices MM-1), and a good shotgun.

Personally, I would much rather have a Sanken CS-1 (or preferably a CS3e - but they're expensive) over any of the Rode mics.