Not a fan of 2.8 zooms as they are heavy and expensive
Can recommend 20-60 and a third party 35mm or 50mm primes instead.
Mic wise can recommend maono wave T5.
On par with holyland mark 2 and DJI mics, but a lot cheaper.
I personally use the Maono T5 Wireless Microphone. Right now it’s $100. I don’t have a specific need for a lav mic, but it ended up replacing my Blue Yeti standing mic anyway. There are YouTube videos demoing the mic’s capabilities to see if it interests you or not.
maono and fifine are great value. pd100x or am8 perform pretty similarly.
seiren is pretty spartan when it comes to features.
hyperX is good but pricey
I vouch for maono/fifine. Gamer brands are overpriced.
Just a heads up, if the mic is an XLR jack, you'll be needing an audio interface tho. That I cant say much about it.
Have you watched the reviews/sound tests on YouTube?
I'm definitely not the right person to give any advice as I only have experiences with cheap chinese microphones. 😁
But since you said it's just for hobbies, Maono has some great choices to choose from and there are a bunch of reviews on YouTube testing & comparing them out in different condition.
You'd definitely want a mic with a gain control if you also play an instrument as mics for singing are usually only good for close-up singing.
I personally own two Maonos. 1 for singing up close, 1 for casual instrument playing.
I don't have any room treatment or whatsoever but their microphones naturally reduce background noises and I'm not interested to upgrade as I'm not willing to invest that much for a hobby.
Top External Microphones on Reddit
1
Shure
SM58
79% positive of 393 users
Indestructible live workhorse; but muffled for studio vocals.
egmw2021
