Tom Willett
Member
If you look at microphones at Amazon or elsewhere, you will find some amazing values I have used many mics over the past 50 years. My favorite for most purposes is the Shure SM57, which is what the President of the United States uses for his press conferences. That is true of all presidents since the 1960s. That mic costs $99. It is used in most professional recording studios for instruments and amplifiers and often for background singing groups. If you find a Shure SM57 brand new mic for less than $99, it is probably a fake. Be careful if you choose that mic. There are some mics in the $10-20 range which are very good. The Pyle and Nady brand mics do a very good job. I also like the Behringer mics. One Behringer package has three mics with mic stand attachments and a carrying case for about$40. Another Behringer mic for about $25 is the XM8500 which has a great sound. The video cameras I use have a mic plug in, 3.5mm, which accepts any of these mics if you use an adapter from an XLR cord that ends with a quarter inch phone plug to a male 3.5mm. Search for mic cord XLR to 3.5mm adapter. The mics do not need an amplifier or mixer to be plugged into the camera. It eliminates camera sounds and it gets the mic to the source. The same mic can be plugged into a computer if you have a mic input and the 3.5mm adapter.
