Note: The maker supplied a review sample for evaluation, the opinion of the product is my own personal viewIn the box with the microphone is a user guide, CR2032 lithium cells and a foam covering to help reduce wind noise. Simply unscrew the back and pop the battery in, top controls are very simple off, 0dB and a gain of +10dB. Being a " mini shotgun" microphone it uses the common Cardioid or heart shape pattern this is directional microphone that is most of the sound area captured is in the forward position facing the microphone but it also extends around the sides a bit giving some minor ambient pick up. This differs quite a lot from many camera on-board/built microphones which tend to pick up a lot of ambient noise and can be rather vague; in contrast this will give more focus and is useful as a general purpose microphone where you want to concentrate the sound from one area more and it's particularly well suited to interviews. Mono tends to be preferable for speech it provides more sound focus on the speaker and voice; stereo would be the choice for music/concerts both have their own place.Build is a cut above many affordable mics out there most of the body is metal and it feels rather solid in the hand, a rubber damper is present which reduces vibrations or noise pick up from the camera. On the bottom is a plastic mount which fits a normal camera hot shoe if you have a non standard one then you can pick up a cold/hot shoe adapter and it will work just fine as long as you have of course a 3.5mm microphone input. Cable is coiled and extends roughly to 30cm max. if you want to use the microphone off camera you can pick up a 3.5mm extender lead and mount it on a flash gun stand.Performance of the microphone is good for this price point you can't really find many flaws (a touch of low frequency rumble in tricky conditions) but you might want to tweak the camera settings in addition to the +10dB gain (if you can) some models have a wind cut option and adjustable gain you should use this in addition to the foam cover to reduce wind noise or to extend reach. Depth of sound is far better than many cameras which have front facing small microphones they pick up lots of wind noise and a large spread of sound this gives not only much more fidelity but it's small enough to carry around easily in the bag. The choice of a smaller lithium cell might be less appealing but at least they are cheap and easy to find (bit early to comment on battery life) a red LED will glow if power is low on this mic you briefly see it when powering it on. I'd like a small carry bag to be included bar that this is a good little microphone that's likely to appeal to those looking to do some more serious video work without a heavy outlay.