More and more of you are adding travel videos to your trip collections as phones of the past 2 years have made major jumps in video quality. As cameras and mobiles get better at taking video, they still suck at audio. The small microphones in cameras (and particularly phones) are designed to pick up sound from sources that are especially close up, without much protection from ambient noise. (Try having a call outside, the slightest breeze can ruin a conversation.) For video with any kind of intelligible speaking in it, a microphone can go a long way.
The Rode VideoMicro is a compact, durable microphone under $60 that dramatically improves audio in any video. It’s compatible with cameras and phones (that still have a headphone jack). You can watch my full review of the Rode VideoMicro in the video above.