Good wireless headworn cardioid microphone?

[rwc]

I'm looking for a microphone I can wear while doing some repairs under a microscope. I would very much like for it to be wireless so I don't trip over it or get caught up while working, Iwould like it to have some decent off axis rejection so the noise of a BGA machine/air compressor/air pump in a rework station aren't as pronounced as they are now using the crap mic inside a cheap camcorder. I'm looking to cap it at $500.

I have no experience with pro-audio mics that you wear. I don't mind if you can see a boom going all around the side of my head, looking like a dork is of no concern to me. The concern is good quality & clarity of spoken word that is most likely never going to be heard on anything but crap laptop speakers.

Any suggestions on where I should start?

[Scodiddly]

Crown CM-311 is a standard for live rock&roll where a headset is needed. Good rejection, good sound.

Cheaper than Crown you could look at Shure, they make some decent headset mics in various patterns.

Cheaper than Shure you could look into the aerobics instructor headsets made by Special Projects; they are indestructible, cardioid, and sound like a tin can at the end of the string.

No experience with this line, but Microphone Madness makes some headset mics that I've seen people recommending.

[rwc]

Should I be wary of this being $250 cheaper than every other vendor?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/wireless ... 1870555867

Ah, nvm. It's a restock. I don't care, I'll happily take it for $200 less.

This is going to be a really, really dumb and unrelated question. When camcorders have microphone inputs and they have no documentation/really bad documentation in the manual, is this a line input, or a microphone input? I can't imagine a piece of shit camcorder having a built in mic preamp especially when there is no way to set gain on it.

[The Scum]

The inputs are often something like unbalanced, stereo, -10 dB interfaces.

Sometimes there's a software setting for gain, and perhaps level meters onscreen. Sometimes not. And sometimes they might have a 5V bias voltage for electret mics.

Look at the specs on the BeachTek boxes for some idea of what levels are involved...of course, the first one I pull up only says "Output Level: Nominal MIC levels."

One other mic option to look at is the AKG c-520 headset. A little lower profile than the Crown.

[Scodiddly]

If it's "for wireless" then the next question is which brand/model of wireless? Shure, Sennheiser, etc? They all use different connectors and pinouts, though in general there's only two or three different wiring setups with the (usually) 5v DC power and audio output.

[rwc]

I love this crown cm-311a I got off musiciansfriend open box for $170. Not loving the cracks in the headpiece, but for what I paid, such is life. I can't wait to use it with a real camera, it clips this piece of shit JVC everio with the gain on the mic preamp turned all the way down.