The Sennheiser MKH 416 offers fantastic performance for film, radio, and television applications, and especially location shooting.

Fiber-optic microphones are robust, resistant to environmental changes in heat and moisture, and can be produced for any directionality or impedance matching. The distance between the microphone's light source and its photodetector may be up to several kilometers without need for any preamplifier or another electrical device, making fiber-optic microphones suitable for industrial and surveillance acoustic monitoring. In 1856, Italian inventor Antonio Meucci developed a dynamic microphone based on the generation of electric current by moving a coil of wire to various depths in a magnetic field. This method of modulation was also the most enduring method for the technology of the telephone as well. Speaking of his device, Meucci wrote in 1857, "It consists of a vibrating diaphragm and an electrified magnet with a spiral wire that wraps around it. The vibrating diaphragm alters the current of the magnet. These alterations of current, transmitted to the other end of the wire, create analogous vibrations of the receiving diaphragm and reproduce the word." [4]

The long rangers.

If you’re using a boom as well, you’ll likely need another set of hands to help out with the recording.

Depending on the application, measurement microphones must be tested periodically (every year or several months, typically) and after any potentially damaging event, such as being dropped (most such microphones come in foam-padded cases to reduce this risk) or exposed to sounds beyond the acceptable level. In a similar way, lavalier mics are commonly used for recording dialogue on television shows or interviews. For those on a budget, the Audio Technica AT897 gives you outstanding performance for the price. And for those that need the absolute best, it’s hard to beat the quality and features of the Schoeps CMIT5, making it our premium option for this list.

Of course, there are occasions where this slips through the net and you can find lots of videos online of boom poles and boom mics accidentally slipping into view for a split second. The sound quality is excellent, with rich tonality throughout the 40Hz-20KHz range and a flat response all the way through the speech frequencies. Impressively, there's a very low noise floor that's comparable to the Boya BY-M1 lav mic, so only the hypercritical will be concerned about the trace of mic-generated hiss that's present. Its unique construction and filtering effectively restrain interference from various sources such as radio, TV, and cellular frequencies.