Okay, I've been searching online for all the "battery operated" condenser mics that could be used with the HV20. There are quite a few, but I narrowed it down to those that would be the most available at a store in town.

First, the RODE VideoMic $149.00 looks fantastic, the specs look good, and the features too. This is probably the mic I should get...but it doesn't appear to be a true stereo mic, but rather a mono mic with a stereo plug.

However, if I wanted to save a few bucks for right now, Audio Technica has three models:

ATR25 (stereo) $49.99 - comes with all the connection accessories for a camera.

ATR PRO24 (XY Stereo) $69.99 - I would have to buy (or make) a mic/camera mount adapter.

ATR 55 (mono) - $69.99 - comes with all the needed camera accessories.

Have any of you used any of these Audio Technica mics and could comment on their quality? They all have fairly decent frequency specs though, but it's hard to tell the quality of a mic until you actually buy it and try it...but thought I'd ask nevertheless.

The RODE mic can capture more low-end frequencies down towards 40Hz, whereas the ATR mics start to rolloff more at about 100Hz, so the RODE would tend to sound more full overall.

Anyway, I'm just thinking about an inexpensive throw-away kind of mic that would be better than in HV20's internal mics to use...and USED STRICTLY INDOORS.

Have you had a look at this thread yet? Different mics (including the ATR25, which I can recommend) are being discussed there.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=89452&highlight=atr25

I have the ATR25 and find that it does an ok job, a good deal for the price. But I only have the internal mic to compare it to. The Rode Videomic looks very good, but I do not know how mono would work for what I video tape (car meets and drives). What type of indoor footage will you be filming?

My experience with ATR25 is that you need to keep it very close to the subject to pick up a desired level of sound. After some experimentation with a homemade boompole and a Radioshack extention cable, I decided that the internal microphone does a better job without much hassle. My conclusion after reading a lot of posts in this forum is that Rode Stereo VM is a good choice (at least for my purpose) and I am planning to purchase one in the future.

I'm thinking if you are going off camera, you should be considering XLR mic system, with an XLR adapter..

My experience with ATR25 is that you need to keep it very close to the subject to pick up a desired level of sound. After some experimentation with a homemade boompole and a Radioshack extention cable, I decided that the internal microphone does a better job without much hassle. My conclusion after reading a lot of posts in this forum is that Rode Stereo VM is a good choice (at least for my purpose) and I am planning to purchase one in the future.

I finally had a chance to checkout the ATR25 this evening. I wasn't very impressed. The signal level is definitely lower than that of the in-built mic, that alone was a deal breaker for me. At least it did give me a new perspective to compare the audio of the in-built mic. The in-built mic is certainly omni-directional and pickups audio at much of the same levels from all around the camera, left/right/front/back. Whereas the ATR25 is much more directional and picks up far less of the room environment sound. And the ATR25 also continues to pickup the noise when handling the camera, and as the camera zooms from wide to tele. Overall the ATR25 is not a horrible mic by any means, it's just a completely different frequency response that sounds different (and perhaps better to some ears) but is not quite the audio flavor I'm looking for.

If anything, it showed me that the mic needs more isolation for the camera body (and ultimately shouldn't be attached to the body at all). But I'm thinking the RODE VideoMic's shock-mount may further help to isolate the mic from camera handling noise when attached. I'm going to go to Guitar Center tomorrow and see if they have one in stock. Eventually I will go with an XLR system, but I'm looking for a mic to use this weekend at a friends informal wedding reception. I told my friends I'd bring my HV20 to give it a test-spin and put together a DVD for them afterwards.

You could take a look at Sony's ECMMS908C.... (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/174982-REG/Sony_ECMMS908C_ECM_MS908C_Stereo_Mic_for.html)
I used it with a Pana GS250 and had good results.
Its not top end, but performs decent for a $80-$100 stereo mic...
And its not huge, so it fits on a small camera fairly well.

It is kinda hot....I had to get a XLR-PRO box to turn it down a bit...(the GS250 doesn't have gain controls)..

Good luck,
Bob T.

Just wondering if a audio recorder might work better ? Something like the Edirol R-09 or the Zoom H4. I could put it right near the subject or use a small mic/lavalier.