I am looking for a new shotgun microphone to use in one of my REALLY low budget shorts I am going to shoot. Since I am not planning on making anything major major yet, I am looking at these two shotgun mics to use. Yes, one is much cheaper than the other, but quality-wise, which would you suggest?

I have the ATR-55. It's pretty inexpensive and you, uh, get what you pay for. If you want to see it in action I used it for my short Rock This, for which I got heavy criticism for not having the best sound that I could have had. The ATR-55 is way better than an in-camera mic, and it gets the job done, but there are certainly better microphones out there.

Here's the link to Rock This:

Rock This

Hope that helped.

--Alan

------------------
http://www.alandenton.com
------------------

Hmmmm. Sony and AT are pretty sub-par shotgun brands. I think you'd be better off with a cheap Sennheiser or maybe even an Azden.

_________________________

How much would one of those usually go for?

If you'll allow me to weigh my opinion, I think the Sennheiser makes the most versatile top end consumer super cardioid mic with the k6 module and the me66 (street price of $400). But AT has always made some of the best mics. It's tough to beat the AT4073a for general dialogue. The AT 4051 is great for tight interiors where echo might be a problem. And the newer 3000 series from AT is very promising because it is so darn cheap. The 3031 is only 200 bucks and is supposed to be the equivalent (in terms of application) to the 4051. So, I think the Audio Technica name is a trustworthy one, but I've never used any of their consumer mics. Sennheiser is also very good (and sometimes better), but their pro mics are more expensive (starting around 1100 bucks). If you plan to do more research, and perhaps you should, I've also heard good things about the AT815b and AT835b as cheaper mics with decent quality. Finally, these articles are always worth a read if you're new to location sound:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/review_shotgun_mics.html
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/location_sound.html

best luck
joren