Welcome to the world of low noise audio. This is where you eventually find out why brands like Sennheiser, Sound Devices, Schoeps, Sanken etc. are very hard to find at bargain prices.

Yes, expensive mics are better quality.

I believe that my shotgun is defective. The level of background noise is unaceptable. The videos in youtube using same mic do not show the same amount of noise. So I think my copy is defective.

For condenser mic I do not use external preamp. The defective mic is connected direct to camera. Other condenser mic works great.

For dynamic mics I use JuiceLink preamp with 9v battery and results are just fine!

The defective shotgun mic shows high noise in all cameras and also in zoom recorder. I just ordered another shotgun from another brand.

I tested 5 diferent condenser mics. 4 work ok. Just one is defective.

Thanks for the video.

I am starting to perceive that wireless lavalier is the way to go. There are dual lavalier systems to record two people at same time in separate L/R channels.

The shotgun on top of camera will get far away from people in some situatuons and will not solve the entire working time.

The shotgun in a boom pole will need a person to operate it and also when you do a wide angle scene there is no way for someone to operate the shotgun.

A wired lavalier can be annoying dua to wires showing in scene and walking people step on the wires, and talents locked to camera with wires, so less possible movements.

So wireless lavaliers are the way to go.

@Apefos well if you shoot alone its really good to have a dual lav.

There's other things like theres better alternatives to voice, the lavaliers appear on the shot, they can get bumped, you need to record some ambiance sound anyway etc.

So it's best to use it with at least one more sound source.

Also, if you run and gun alone it's really just somethings you could do, but if you're shooting fixed scene, you could use crane like tripods (girafas), pair of polar mics plus lavs and a recorder to great effect and sound quality for cheap and modularity, just dont use shotgun in that case. Can even trow the mixdown direct into camera and just trow everything in plural eyes after shoot.

It deppends what you shooting for, but as you talked about shotgun mic in the start and it's a piece of gear suited for some kinds of work maybe only lavs direct into camera wont get you same place.

The new cheap shotgun arrives. there is no significant hiss on it. so the old one is defective.