Based on multiple favorable reviews on dvinfo.net and dvxuser.com, I bought myself an Oktava MK-012, a cheap multi-capsule pen-type microphone. It comes with an omnidirectional, cardoid and hypercardoid capsule, of which the latter is the most interesting for videographers. I bought this microphone primary for indoor use because I wasn’t really happy with the sound of our schools Sennheiser 416 indoor. I’ve been using it for a few movies. Here’s my verdict:
The good: it works and it hasn’t failed yet. The sound is nice and detailed but is has more bass than I would like. It sounds a lot better than the Røde Videomic. Basically, what has been said on dvinfo.net and dvxuser.com is true: it’s a good mic for its price.
The bad: The Oktava MK-012 is extremely susceptible to handling noise and wind noise. Basically you can not use this mic without good wind protection and a good shockmount, all of which will cost you more than the mic itself. I’ve been using the mic either on a mic stand or harnessed in our schools Rycote Full Windshields system (aka Rycote Zeppelin) and even than it was hard not to make any handling noise. It’s enough to touch the microphone cable with the mic standing on a mic stand to ruin the recording. Don’t even think about mounting this microphone to your camera (you wouldn’t want to do that anyway…) and don’t think you can get away without wind protection indoors unless the mic is imobile. One – admittedly close – recording of a caged bird was ruined by the wind of the birds wings flapping.