Superlux E531

On paper it looked good - a powered condenser M/S stereo microphone. It has a solid, chunky metal build which also makes it a bit heavy. Which is nice, unless you want to have this on a camera that's on a gimbal stabilizer - this will make the balance very top-heavy.

When I installed the battery and plugged it in however, I ran into problems. Switching it on, it only seemed to turn on momentarily (or maybe the LED is meant to only light up for a moment). Just touching the power switch would trigger very loud crackly noises (bad contact?). The gain on this mic is incredibly low - the recording device (camera, external recorder) has to compensate and add a lot of gain, which then leads to noise. It's hard to tell if my specimen is defective of if this is how it is meant to be.

Not recommended. Very reasonable price though.