Just to clarify: Some people are confused about a "boom mic". The "boom" is a piece of equipment - most often a pole of some kind - that the microphone is attached to.

What you're looking for is a good shotgun mic. That in itself is a generic term that means any long barreled mic. You want a good condenser (externally powered) mic with a ?lobar? pick up pattern to put on your boom pole. Lobar pick up means the mic focuses its audio pick up to a narrow area. This is why you want to use a boom pole to get the mic as close the the actor as possible - you?ll get clean dialogue tracks with less ambient noise.

?URL="http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/"?Sennheiser?/URL? is the mic most used by professional sound recordists. They are expensive and worth it. Check out the ME-66 and the ME-67. The MKH60 is the best if you can afford it.

?url="http://www.audio-technica.com/"?Audio-Technica?/url? is cheaper. Check out the AT835B. It?s a workable mic, a little muddy and not as directional as it should be. The AT835ST is a good mic for the price, but it, too, sounds a bit muddy - the vocals don?t sound crisp enough for me.

I?ve never used ?url="http://www.azdencorp.com/"?Azden?/url? mic?s. They?re inexpensive and I don?t hear too many good things about them, but if that's all you can afford it's MUCH better than using the camera mic.

?url="http://www.rodemic.com/?pagename=Home"?Rode?/url? is an inexpensive mic - it?s okay for recording insterments but their shotgun mic?s aren?t very versatile.

A good mic is an investment. It will last longer than your camera - why skimp? A great place to check prices and purchase is ?url="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/"? B&H Photo?/url?

The further away the mic is from the actors, the higher the volume needs to be. The higher the volume, the more ?noise? you get. Your goal is to have a very high signal to noise ratio - more signal (the dialogue) less noise (the background). Even a very good, expensive Sennheiser mounted on the camera will pick up a lot of background ambiance because it?s far away from the actors.

So you need a boom pole. This can be as simple as a painters pole with a microphone shock mount on it - or a 3 or 4 section, expandable Carbon Fiber, Graphite Fiber or Aluminum boom pole. The lighter the pole the better. Expandable is also very convenient. A pole that?s a fixed six or eight feet (painters pole) can pose problems if you?re shooting in a small space like a bathroom or small apartment or if the boom operator needs to be twelve to fifteen feet away to be out the the lights.

A good Graphite, five section boom will be light, range from two feet to nine feet and cost $500 or so. A pro boom-op will invest in a good pole. No need to spend that kind of money if you?re making one or two shorts a year.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Thanks a lot! Yeah, I was looking at the ones you suggested before you posted. I think I'm gonna go with the ME66.