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"Form factor" refers to the shape and size of a mic, which matters because microphone placement is so crucial to getting good sound. A microphone's diaphragm (sometimes called element) is the wafer-thin material that actually picks up sound and converts it to electrical signal, housed inside the protective shell of the microphone.
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Large-diaphragm mics are specially attuned to subtleties such as the timbre of a human voice in a highly controlled environment. They're particularly fragile and should not be used in the field, and are usually built in a large, unwieldy housing designed for use on a floor stand with a heavy base. A The term "shotgun mic merely refers to " is broadly used to mean a long, skinny, highly directional mic of one of several different polar patterns (usually either hypercardioid, line-gradient or figure eight--more on those in a moment), just as "boom mic" merely means any mic attached to the end of a boom pole. Handheld . As dSLRs have become popular as cameras capable of gathering motion picture footage, mini shotguns have emerged that connect to the shoe mount originally developed for portable flash attachments. Handheld mics are most often used by reporters and musicians but can be well-suited for field production. Lavaliers are often used in documentary filmmaking as well as electronic news gathering because they are extremely small mics that can be clipped or pinned so unobtrusively to clothing out of the field of vision of the person wearing it.
Polar pattern When designing productions, it's particularly useful to understand what is least self-evident by looking at a mic: its polar pattern. This refers to the direction(s) around the microphone's diaphragm in which it is most sensitive to sound. An omnidirectional mic is equally sound-sensitive in all directions. Its pattern could be envisioned as a ball surrounding the mic. They are prized for being equally sensitive to the wide range of tones all across the frequency range of sound. A cardioid mic is somewhat directional, rejecting some sound from the sides and rear. Hypercardioid and supercardioid mics are more directional than cardioid mics. Line+gradient mics are even more directional than hypercardioid or supercardioid mics, achieved by housing a directional diaphragm mic element in a long perforated tube designed whose perforation is engineered to reject as much additional sound as possible from the sides. Figure eight (or "bidirectional") microphones have the unusual property of being equally sound sensitive in back as in front of the mic element. Audio-Technica provides an excellent review of polar patterns here.
Condenser mics require a very small electrical current in order to operate. This can either come from a battery inside the mic housing, or from the recording device in the form of what's called phantom power (usually marked +48V). aWARNING: condenser mics can be damaged by being connected or disconnected while phantom power to them is turned on. Depending on model of camera or audio recorder, it can be easier to turn off the entire device supplying phantom power than to search through extensive lists of menu items to turn off only phantom power. Dynamic mics require no electrical current in order to operate, so are useful for all recording devices, whether or not they supply phantom power.
a. USB: Samson C01U (operator's manual)
form factor: large-diaphragm studio mic
polar pattern: cardioid
type: condenser (power supplied via USB).
b. wired
i. Audio-Technica 815a (operator's manual), 815b (operator's manualspecification sheet), 835b (spec sheet):
form factor: shotgun
polar pattern: line+gradient
type: condenser
ii. Audio-Technica 875R (operator's manualspec sheet), Rode NTG-2 (operator's manual):
form factor: short shotgun
polar pattern: line+gradient
type: condenser
iii. Sennheiser MKE 300 (spec sheet):
form factor: mini shotgun
polar pattern: supercardioid
type: condenser
iv. Audio-Technica 804 (operator's manualspec sheet), Electrovoice 635a (operator's manual 635A (spec sheet):
form factor: handheld
polar pattern: omni
type: dynamic
ivv. Electrovoice RE50 (operator's manual/B ([spec sheet|http://www.electrovoice.com/sitefiles/downloads/RE50_B%20Engineering%20Data%20Sheet.pdf]):
form factor: handheld, internal shock mount
polar pattern: omni
type: dynamic
v vi. AudioSony ECM-Technica MS957 (operator's manual):
form factor: handheld
polar pattern: stereo
type: condenser
vii. Shure KSM 44 (spec sheet)
form factor: large-diaphragm studio--not for use outside the recording studio
polar pattern: can be switched between omni, cardioid and figure eight pattern
type: condenser
viii. Shure SM7B (spec sheet)
form factor: large-diaphragm studio
polar pattern: cardioid
type: dynamic
ix. Sony ECM-44 (spec sheet), Radio Shack 33-3028 (spec sheet):
form factor: lavalier
polar pattern: omni
type: condenser
2. Zoom H4n audio recorders (operator's manual)
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