I've searched the forum and seen a lot of posts mentioning Audio-Technica AT835ST as a good shotgun-style stereo mic. Why not a slightly longer AT815ST? It supposed to provide more directional pickup and with a longer tube, a better separation between the M and S pickups.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

I'm not familiar with this specific mic, but generally a long shotgun is not good for tight shooting. It's more for outdoor use. A long time ago I used a Shure long shotgun mic. It was a great mic, but in a boomy room if I got it in tight enough to minimize the boominess, I'd get other problems. It always wanted to be 3 or 4 feet away, whereas normally you use a shotgun within 18" or less. They have their uses, for when you can't get in as close as you'd like, and for outdoor use.

Longer, therefore more likely to get into the image if mounted on the camcorder could be one reason.

Bill, Don:

Thank you for your input.

Having considered what you said and after reading several reviews on the web, I decided to go with AT835ST. I tested it out and it sounds very good to my ears. I will be recording with it tonight.

I know a couple of soundmen who really like the AT shotguns. I shot one show where sound from one was intercut with similar location interviews done with the MKH60 and nobody could tell the difference.

Just finished capturing the HDV footage and watched about 10 minutes of it. I am very satisfied with how the sound came out. For me, the AT835ST is a keeper.

On another note, I finally setup the workflow I wanted - no extra wires, no re-capture or re-encoding in order to watch the raw captured footage.

The video goes from the computer to Playstation 3 and then directly to 65" Mitsubishi HDTV via 1080i analog component connection. Just capture to the computer, and use the same source for raw footage preview and for editing.