Review: Ebay cheap shotgun microphone

Without audio, you videos are nothing. That's why a good microphone is needed. Unfortunately, they can be very expensive.

Because I have a low budget, I'm always looking for cheap way to make better stuff. On Ebay, I bought a cheap shotgun microphone and now I'm gonna review it.

Out of the box
When you open the package, everything is well protected. The microphone itself is in a rubber-feeling plastic bag, surrounded by foam so it cannot be broken. the rest is not as protected as the microphone, but it's okay because it's not fragile.

How the microphone feels
When you hold it in your hands, it feel solid and durable. The outside enveloppe is made out of metal. It's very easy to unscrew the battery compartment. After almost a year and a half, the microphone doesn't have any scratches and still looks new.

Accessories
The first thing a I wanna talk about is the cable. It's really long, more than 20 feet. I has female XLR and a audio Jack ends. if you want to plug it into a minijack input, it also comes with an adapter. The windscreen that comes in the package can fall off fairly easily but if you don't move the mic around too much, it shoulds stay there. The hot shoe holder is good for quickly placing and locking the microphone, but it's not a shockmount so it will capture big bumps.

Audio quality
I found out that it's good for voiceover and as a handheld mic, but bad if you're more that 3-4 feet away from it. Here is a video where I used the mic to record my voice while I was filming:

In this example, I was about a foot away from the microphone, but I wasn't speaking loud. If you have a pretty loud voice, you can be farther away and still have clear sound. However, this microphone is pretty bad compared to the Rode VideoMic wich is 150$.

Conclusion: 3/5
Considering that you can have this microphone now for 20$, it is really good if it's your only solution. Keep in mind: most of the time it will be better than your built in microphone. On the other side, if you can invest some money, choose another one like the Rode VideoMic (150$) or the Rode NTG-1 (250$)


Links:

Rode VideoMic at B&H
Rode NTG-1 at B&H