AT shotgun mic

these are cheap choices, this is not absolutely good choice
if you intend to have good audio the 4073 is more then enough, used 416 or Neumann 81 are more come to the good choice .
the 835 is a horrible mike
 
mics

mics

Thanks Oleg for your reply, but I can´t afford this kind of mics (600 - 1000 $). Yes I understand that these mics are better than the AT-897... the budget tell me.
 
Well, as I am sure you have read there is no good all purpose mic, and certainly no good all purpose cheap mic. That being said, the 897 is suppose to be a "better" choice of those two. I don't think the 835 is a long shotgun (lobar), their long offering in that price range is the 815.

Either way, you should avoid the tighter polar patterns if you are going to only use one mic but you will have to be extra vigilant in controlling the noise of your environment.

As Oleg said, put in the extra couple bucks and get a quality used 416 or 81; even the popular 4073 is a better investment of money.

Good luck.
 
If he doesn't have the money, he doesn't have the money.

I have an 897 and I find it to be a good mic. It's not perfect for all applications, but I have used it indoors and out, and I have never had less than acceptable results. I'm sure a 4073 would have done a better job some of the time, but the 897 did it well enough for what my budget can endure. I've heard that the 835b is not really a good mic, but I have never used one.
 
I don't like the 835, I do think the 897 is acceptable. Acceptable is not the same as great or even very good, provided you learn how to use it, it is capable of producing a result that you will not be ashamed of. A better mic would make some of your learning easier, but in the end what you get out of the mic will largely be based on your ability. Oleg or Wabbit could make the 897 sound better than I could, I can make it sound better than you can. Good audio is all about proficiency with a set of tools, not the tools themselves necessarily. What bothers me is that you haven't budgeted for wind protection or support, which I consider to be paramount. In fact, If you had an extra $600 to spend, I would advise putting that into a Rycote system instead of into the mic. Mics you'll buy and grow with, the Rycote you will use for life and will make even the 897 sound better.

I wrote this before:
Here's my thoughts on mics for low budget filmmakers. I very rarely hear bad audio on this, or other boards, that I think would be better had the filmmaker used a better mic. The reason for this is because the audio is so bad in other areas, like wind control, or mic placement for example, that the subtle differences that make one mic better than another never even come into play. I'd rather see someone use an 897 or a 4073 on a real boom pole with a Rycote system then someone use a 416 naked on a painter's pole. Audio is like a chain, actually audio chain is a common phrase. And like all bad chain analogies, it is only as good as it's weakest link. So, if you have a superb mic placed too far away from your actor, or in the path of an air duct, you're still going to get bad audio. Granted better mics will give you better off-axis rejection, but still my experience has always been that the mic is never going to give you enough to overcome the operator's shortcomings. Once you get to a point where you are getting consistently good results from an 897 then moving up to a better mic will provide you with benefits.
 
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