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Brandon Watts at Lockergnome writes about microphones for podcasting:

Many of the elite podcasters may try to convince you that you need to setup a home studio to really make podcasting work for you. They’ll suggest condenser mic’s, mixers, and other tools that will cost more than you bargained for. I’m here to tell you that you don’t need a supreme studio to take part in the podcasting festivities.

This may well be the case, but unfortunately the reviews of equipment that I’ve seen are extremely subjective, if not completely wishy-washy. And that includes this article.

For example, almost all (at least 90%) of the microphone “reviews” that I have read go something like I had an old (usually built-in or webcam) mic and it was crap. I just bought this one and it’s great! But without knowing a little more about things like the amount and type of ambient noise in the user’s environment and the way the mic is used (into a desktop PC?, a laptop?, an MP3 recorder?, a minidisc? a tapedeck? a camcorder?) whether it needs “phantom power", whether it needs a pre-amp, whether it has any form of “noise cancelling", whether it needs soundcard “mic power", whether it has a pop filter or wind shield, whether it is omnidirectional or has some directionality, what sort of connection or cable it uses, etc. etc. it’s really hard to tell if the mic under consideration would be any use to me, or to anyone else.

Lets consider two genuine requirements:

• My generic Windows 2000 PC and my server/firewall have fairly noisy case fans, and my room overlooks an occasionally busy road. Can anyone recommend a cheap and effective mic that will cut out this background noise.
• My portable MP3 recorder has a “line in” mini-jack , but no “mic in". Currently I use a small-but-irritating mixer as a preamp. Can anyone recommend a cheap and effective mic that will produce a “line level” signal I can use directly into my MP3 recorder for interviews and “sound seeing"?

One of the main reasons audio pros recommend some of the expensive microphones is that the manufacturers provide lots of detailled technical information. Most people recommending low-budget alternatives don’t even provide any recorded samples, let alone frequency response plots and impedance tables.

I certainly don’t wish to “dis” Brandon’s recommendations. I’d dearly love to cut through the “mine’s more expensive than yours” one-upmanship, and go for the cheap-and-cheerful alternative. It’s just that (particularly when buying on-line) details make the difference.

Read more at Podcast Microphone Suggestion (Gnewbie Gnook)