Azden SMX-10 Stereo Microphone for DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras

I've had this for quite a while, probably 10+ years. It holds up! And it works. In terms of audio quality, when properly set up, this mic performs very adequately. It is a little noisy, but not terribly so. It is a dramatic upgrade to built-in camera mics. Build is solid and the fit-and-finish is quite nice. The super-common battery is a great touch. The biggest cons here are minor design issues. The biggest qualm for me is that there is no power indication of any kind, just a switch, so you can't tell a dead battery apart from a good one by looking at it. In use, this is not awful- the battery life is good and it is a nice, common battery, so you start each shoot with a new battery and check the levels. A single LED would be a tremendous improvement to this product, though, and would give me a lot more confidence that my mic was on. The pattern selection switch is buried under the windscreen, so care must be taken not to accidentally change it as you take the windscreen on and off. The shockmount is quite rigid and therefore minimally effective, though it is quite robust. The rear cable is captive, part of the unit, so if you use it a lot you need to take care of this cable- if it gets damaged in any way, the mic is junk. I would much prefer a 1/8 jack at both ends. But then again, mine has lasted a long time, so your milage may vary. There is also no factory dead cat fuzzy windscreen option that I can find, which this really needs for use outdoors in any kind of a breeze. All that said, this is about 40% of the price of a Rode VideoMicPro, so if you are buying gear out of pocket and are interested in value, this is a pretty solid choice.