Feb 28, 2015 07:15 am A shotgun mic has a lobar pickup pattern making it extremely directional. That directionality makes it a very common mic to use on film sets to reject environmental noise. They are directed towards dialog usage but are often very flat EQ. They usually have the option to be battery powered and some systems are modular with interchangable capsules I use the Sennheiser ME66K6 and also have the ME64 capsule.
Film audio is a very different animal from studio audio you can be working in noisy environments and possibly the closest you can place the mic is 10 feet... you pretty much can't go into Guitar Center and buy anything thats going to be usable on a set.. and the employees are going to be unfamiliar with the top brands... and the price will make most people cry.
also people forget that shotgun mics dont reject wind noise at all... they get incased in 'blimps' covered with a soft and furry 'dead cat' which can then be covered with a hogs hair (furnace filter stuff) and canvas rain jacket. Compaired to smoke free studio environments, film sets beat the **** out of equipment. :)