I am looking for a good shotgun mic for interviews. I would like to feed the mic into a Zoom H4n. I have noticed that some mics are powered by both battery and or phantom power. And some only phantom power. Are the ones that are powered strictly by phantom better? I was looking at the Rode ntg-1 which is phantom only. Any suggestions? I would like to stay under $250. Thanks in advance.

Sending phantom power from the H4n will reduce the battery life of the recorder, The Rode NTG1 is phantom power only, the Rode NTG2 is both phantom / battery powered but before you get your hopes up both of those mics have a fairly low audio output level and by raising the gain in the H4n will give you lots of hiss in your recordings.... so the Rode NTG1 / 2 are a bad combination with the H4n. There many posting on forums to verify this.

My suggestion is to either go up market a bit more for the mic or the recorder. (or both)

Actually b and h is selling the tascam d 60 recode for only $100. Would that work well with the Rode ntg-1?

The Rode NTG 1 / 2 are a low output microphone and need good preamps to get the best results, a better mic like the NTG 3 or Sennheiser 416 will deliver MUCH better results.

I have never used the Tascam recorders but there are many reviews on this / and other forums.

Have a listen to the Audio Technica AT875R I always prefer it to the NTG1&2, phantom power only but a good strong signal and ideal as a general purpose short shotgun for inside and out.

I also use mine with a rode PG2 grip and a W/S softie.

...and for Black Friday deals B&H has the AT 875r on sale for $129 - just ordered one as a backup to and alternative to my AT 4053b.