I'm looking for a good but affordable shotgun mic for my GL2. I've seen the ATR-6550 which has good some pretty good reviews, especially for $50, but I know it's only an unbalanced 1/8" mic. I'm looking into getting the MA-300 shoe so I can be pretty versatile in what kinds of audio sources I can use, so I would rather get an XLR mic.

Here's another question: before I got a nicer camera, I was generally using my Avid MBox to record my audio into my computer, then putting that over the video in FCP. Anyone know how good the analog to digital audio converters are in the GL2? I'm just curious whether I'll have any kind of drop in audio quality between having my sound go into ProTools or going onto the MiniDV.

Rode NTG-2 (with battery) will serve you well. Search the Web for "Jay Rose GL2" and you'll find some information about the audio characteristics of the GL2/MA300.

Well, Rode do do another. I've been using this for the last 4 months and it's rather sweet too. See the video below. CHeck out the forma factor and those cute switches.

It's time to go Pro! Introducing the RDE VideoMic Pro (http://www.rodemic.com/vmp/)

Grazie