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This short, light weight shotgun mic performs well: good off-axis rejection, strong output signal, and great for run-and-gun video because it doesn't get in the way of any other gear (or the lens, depending where you place it). The directionality of the pick-up pattern is obvious with a sound source within about 2-3 feet, which is a good interview distance. At farther distances, room "boominess" can be heard, but that is a finction of the room acoustics and not a fault of the mic. The mic is just picking up on-axis sound reflections from the hard surfaces in the room. Voices come through quite well with good tonal range. Microphone self-noise is quite minimal for a mic in this price range. As others have noted, there is no LED to indicate when the mic is switched on, but the switch is white against the black background of the mic casing, so it's pretty easy to tell the position of the switch. The mic comes with one AAA battery and a short TRS-TRS coiled cord -- just about everything to get you going.

Musical Background: