Features:

  • 10dB sensitivity enhancement and 200Hz low-frequency attenuation; to meet the different field Co-use. Use standard universal connector specifications, can be simply fixed the camera.
  • Product Features: Specially designed for the camera and high-sensitivity condenser microphone to enhance the quality of the recording.
  • Set tone governing the selection of alloy materials design, sturdy solid, and can effectively shield electromagnetic interference.
  • Heart-shaped single-point pickup features can effectively reduce the noise of the surrounding environment to be picked up.
  • Shock-resistant structural design, to reduce the mechanical noise of the camera and other vibration noise. Package Contents: 1* SGC-598 Microphone 1* Windscreen 1* English User's Manual
I never realized how important audio was until I tried this mic!

I recently rebooted my YouTube channel which was dormant for nearly 5 years. After rewatching some of my old videos I realized that I needed to upgrade my setup if I wanted to remain relevant and stay up to date. I have this paired this with my Canon t6i and am super pleased with the outcome. The production quality is 10 fold what it use to be. Definitely a must have for any outdoor shooting!

Comparable with a Rode Pro, for "hundreds" less...

I produce Interview style videos for a living. I use a Professional field recorder with matched stereo microphones for my primary audio track. Recently I decided to add a "camera mount" shotgun microphone as a safety, aka a scratch track. The "on camera" microphone was useless, so why not? There is nothing more frustrating than shooting a set, then finding out your memory card or drive failed and you have no audio. So, I tried 1/2 a dozen different microphones ranging from a $30 "cheapie" all the way up to the $230+ Rode Pro. So, the final decision was between the Rode Pro, and an inexpensive TAKSTAR (A brand I'd never heard of before). Evidently, the people behind TAKSTAR manufacture 99% of the shotgun camera microphones "for" brand name manufacturers like Opteka, Azden, AT and (you guessed it) Rode. To my complete surprise, the TAKSTAR SGC-597 performed 99% as well as the Rode Pro, both indoors and outdoors. In fact, when editing audio in Post the TAKSTAR track was easier to work, with since it had a more neutral range. The Rode has a very heavy mid-range push (their "trademark" sound) which is fine for family videos or making your voice sound better on amateur documentaries, but very annoying to work with in a professional audio editor. It was so inexpensive I picked up a second one as a spare (just in case) and plan to use them on all future shoots. The audio ended up being so good, I found I can easily use it as primary audio if my main system fails someday. Sure it will take a few hours to tweak/EQ, but it's a viable backup track, for practically free. My verdict, if you want an inexpensive, great sounding shotgun, this is the way to go. It's easy to use, has great sound, decent line level, and it's well built. It also uses AA batteries.

And STILL the best value mic.

See my other two reviews of this same mic. There is a reason I keep purchasing them (and it IS NOT because my previous ones broke). They are all still functioning flawlessly. As I said before - best value mic for the budget DSLR shooter. Whenever I add a new camera to my arsenal, I automatically buy a new SGC-598 to go with it.

Glad I listened to all of the reviews

I am used to using a lapel mic for all of my videos, but needed something for when I am just shooting the kids. The built in camera mic or never good, so did some looking and cane across this. The reviews were really good on this, and the price was a fraction of what some of the others were, so I have it a shot. First off, it's extremely easy to hook up and get running. It only takes a single AA battery to power it which I love. The controls are very easy to figure out, and pit stays nice and sturdy on the camera. It also looks and feels professional, so that is great as well. As for sound, it's a bit high end, but all in all very good. If you adjust the Mic setting correctly on the camera, you will have no issues. I'm glad I listened to the reviews here, because I got a great mic at a great price! Fyi, I'm using this on the Canon t6i

Skip the Rode mics, this is a great value

At first I was considering a Rode mic, but decided to go for this one since it's literally $200 cheaper. Very glad I saved myself that money because this microphone works just as well as the Rode. If you're using it with a DSLR (which I assume most everyone is since not many camcorders have hotshoe mounts) you'll need to go into your audio settings and turn down the on-board audio amplifier. They don't play well with external microphones and tend to amplify ambient sounds. Set that to 25-30% to get rid of any hissing sounds, and turn on the +10dB switch. With those settings, the audio is perfectly clear, no hissing, and keeps surrounding noise at a minimum. I used it for a video this morning, and stopped talking for a passing car in the background; however, while editing I realized I could've just kept going because the car didn't get picked up at all. Very impressed for the price.

Best Cheap Mic! Comparisons to other mics

Important notice: I didn't realize how much white noise/hiss this mic when set on +10 db setting created when I wrote this review. The review is only with the mic set to 0 ( NOT +10db ). The audio levels should be good enough at 0db. I use Parametric EQ in post production to get better quality audio gain than simply raising the volume. Just make sure to have the camera's audio gain set to the highest level that you can set it at without getting hiss. I have compared this mic to 6 other mics and this was the best! I have also listened to comparisons online between various Rode mics and the Takstar 598 and the Takstar 598 sounded better to me than the Rode mics, including the Rode VideoMicro, which is actually a fantastic mic with excellent sound quality and convience of small size and no batteries, however the room echo (which is very hard to fix in post) is really bad with the Rode VideoMicro and was much less, barely there in fact, with the Takstar scg-598, so naturally I recommend the Takstar over the Rode VideoMicro. Originally I thought the Takstar scg-598 and scg-698 sounded very similiar on my Nikon d500, but after listening and analyzing little bit more, I came to the conclusion that the sound quality of the scg-598 is better. Also, I couldn't use the +20db on the scg-698 mic when I used it with my Sony RX10 because it was too loud and introduced hissing but I wanted some gain for more juice which didn't happen with the 0db setting obviously. The scg-598 +10db is perfect for the RX10, audio gain levels without any hiss. The Takstar scg-598 and the Senal scs-98 had the lowest hissing noise compared to all other mics and any hissing from these two mics completely went away when I lowered the camera's preamps to appropriate levels. However, the $200 Senal scs-98, produced very low sound compared to the scg-598, even with the +10 db boost. I also tried the Comica cvm-vm10ii mic that plugs into the camera and works without batteries. The sound was good but I had to lower the preamps because of the hissing and then it became too low. The Boya by-vm600 had terrible hissing even with the preamps lowered, it was simply unusable. The Saranomic SR-M3 also had bad hissing on the RX10 and distorted sound on my Nikon cameras. Interestingly enough, the sound of the Saranomic mic sounded quite good on the RX10 (but still unusable because of the noise). The Rode VideoMicro, has great sound quality, but as mentioned above, the room echo is bad. The build quality of the Takstar scg-598 is not solid, it's basically a lot of plastic, but for the excellent sound quality for this price it's a good deal regardless of the build. The dynamic range of this mic is not the greatest, but for what I record, weddings, stage productions, events, and video productions, i really don't need a lot of DR, only full, healthy levels and sound clarity. The Senal scs-598, for example, has a lot of dynamic range, but the sound is muddy compared to the scg-595 ( and also scg-698) and not full of juice compared to the Takstar sgc-598. It's hard to edit low audio, it's much better to have less DR than low audio levels when editing. As long as the high pitch is not clipped or distorted, which doesn't happen with this mic, then the sound is perfectly usable. I really recommend this microphone over other cheap microphones and over the more expensive Rode and Senal microphones.

Great entry-level shotgun microphone for DLSR cameras used in YouTube videos

I've had this for a month and have been very pleased so far. I'm a DLSR photography enthusiast and have only recently started using my Canon EOS 6D for YouTube videos. I didn't realize how awful the tinny sound was until I took my first video with the DLSR and attempted to process/edit it. This microphone works very well to improve the sound of my DLSR videos and to minimize background noise. The hotshoe attachment was also an important factor for me (I dislike the ugly wires of the lapel mikes). Having said this, my subject is never more than 10 feet away from me, so this works great for what I intend to use it for. You do need a battery for this to work. Remember to turn it on (I've forgotten once... and only once). Otherwise, an awesome product for the price!

Beats the competition hands down!

First off, I have an undergrad degree in music and sound production was a large part of my education. I am also employed as a music/media associate so that being said audio is very important to me and is crucial to my job. I'm not just filming home videos! All I have to say is this mic rocks! I first purchased the Rode Video Micro for my Nikon D3300 but it was pretty much useless because of the DSLR hiss. My style of shooting is generally interview/announcement videos so the hiss was pretty unbearable. However, this TAKSTAR saved my life and sounds excellent compared to the Rode and it's only half of the price! I also use this in conjunction with the Mii0 A1 headphone amplifier to get an even clearer sound. You can get this mic and the Mii0 A1 for the same price as the Rode Video Micro and be far better off. I would highly suggest this combo!

AKSTAR SGC-598 almost preforms as well as my Sennheiser ME67/K6 which costs several hundred dollars more.

I am an award winning special effects filmmaker and used many shotgun microphones but never used one this inexpensive. After I tested the TAKSTAR SGC-598 I was so amazed how good this mic performs that I bought another one. The TAKSTAR SGC-598 almost preforms as well as my Sennheiser ME67/K6 which costs several hundred dollars more.

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