Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter on YouTube recently posted an extensive microphone comparison video that included 12 microphone models from popular brands. Among the 12 were Azden’s top-level shotgun microphones, the SGM-3500 and SGM-3500L.
All the microphones were tested and compared on 3 main characteristics: Sensitivity, Off-Axis Rejection (rear and side) and Sound Quality. All the microphones were ranked based on each characteristic, and then all the rankings were combined to produce a final overall ranking.
The result was our SGM-3500L coming in 2nd place, and our SGM-3500 coming in 3rd place, behind only the venerable Sennheiser MKH 416 microphone.
Price was not considered as part of the ranking, but it’s very much worth noting that the SGM-3500L and SGM-3500 microphones come in at about half the price of the MKH 416 and come with a 10 Year Warranty (Sennheiser only offers a 1 year warranty).
Check out the video yourself!