Spacewig is exactly right as usual about shotgun mics, hyper and super cardioids picking up noise from the rear. Many of these mics are basically modified figure-of-eight patterns, so they have a narrow view from the front and back, with the back attenuated but still present. They also have real nulls on the sides, which is really handy sometimes if you are micing two things that are close together but you want some separation.

One way to use these of course is to make sure that there is no sound coming from back end, and you can sometimes point the front down and the back "off into space", for example in a Cathedral or auditorium with a very high ceiling.

The AKG 414, especially with the Audio Upgrades mod, is a good sounding mic but as paulhouston mentions it is heavy for video work, and for pure audio work it is on the bright side.

It turns out that Vitaliy was correct. I guess the battery in my iRig Pre was just dying when I tested the CM20C, and I forgot that there is an internal battery in the Sennheiser ME80 (amazing to think how old that battery is) that must have kicked in when the phantom power from the iRig Pre got too low. There was only about 8V going to the CM20C.

I put in a new 9V battery, and VOILA! about 47V coming from the iRig Pre, and nice quality sound coming from the CM20C.

My only complaint is that the side rejection of the mic seems quite minimal, more like a cardioid pattern than a super-cardioid... Still a good sounding mic! :) Oh, and just for reference, to me it initially seems like the sound quality is very similar to the Sennheiser ME80, but the ME80 has a bit more side rejection.

Wow, that will keep my busy for a while -- Thanks!!! :-)

Hey, I just uploaded a quick sample of the iSK CM-20C. What you guys think.. I am not expert on sound.

It sounds good to me; I like the pickup of her voice. The rejection's not too high but I actually like that. The room acoustics blend well with the backdrop IMHO.

To me it sounds bright and also there is some high frequency hash in the electronics. An unmodded Oktava would sound better.

I have 2 x CM20C ... they sounds good.
I find that when boomed, you cannot move it very fast ... poor shock mounting. Static mounted I'll use them ... mostly I stick with NT55 and the NT3

http://www.theelectroniccorporation.com/Home.html this guys (Vincent Thomas) is in la, has been modifying audio gear for long time, and he is known for good work..I bought a stereo pair of modded mxl ua-1 mics, 135$ each mic plus shipping,they are condenser mics, so they do need phantom power, I have basically just used them to record guitars, but they sounds very nice for the price,they are very directional (forward) ,no extra features (like pad etc) to me they are on par if not better than the AT4050 mic (costing 3 times more), He informed me that few film students have used this latest one on sets.

I bought a CM20C, and tried recording a voice over in one of our dubbing suites. It's a great sounding mic, but what's amazing is the noise floor, which is subjectively comparable to an SE Electronics product costing several hundred pounds more. Astonishing value for money.

And is this the one everybody referring to (it is the cheapest one I can see online)

This one is cardioid, you need CM-20C

@IronFilm

Yep. This is that you need.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201312998375 Well drat... it has arrived. But.... they shipped the CM61, not the CM60! Messaged the seller to now send the CM60 that I want. They're totally different microphones. As the CM61 is an omni-directional microphone.