I never mentioned the BOYA BY-MM1 I got as always thought @ £25 it was over priced and over sized for voice-ai.
In terms of what people spend and what they will source I thought I should mention especially with the IQaudio Codec Zero that has a mic in as well as the usual stereo mems.
The https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BOYA-BY-MM1-3-5mm-Cardioid-Microphone-Mic-for-Canon-Nikon-Sony-iPhone-12-Samsung/352855894740 is good enough that I never disassembled in my quest for WTF is and how does a shotgun mic work.
A cheaper useless china clone and an XLR studio mic where used for that and still left my understanding vague.
I was impressed with the Boya just not my USB soundcards and the AGC they supply.
Its actually not that big and the shoe fitting means its quite easy to mount on something and I picked it after a few youtube vids suggested it was the best budget shotgun mic for cameras.
It doesn’t need a battery like some others and its relatively small.
All the decent sounds cards I have focussed on are stereo line in and my cheapo AGC ones always have a fair bit of noise but you could use.
The announcement of that https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/iqaudio-codec-zero/ made me notice its got a external mic input unlike other cards and presuming the Dialog Semiconductor DA7212 codec has a much better AGC and noise than my sound cards.
I have a hunch that that pairing would make an excellent far field pairing 3-5m range the IQaudio Codec Zero seems to be sold out every where so not sure when or if I will be able to tell you.
@JGKK Mentioned it and when I was looking I noticed the Boya has dropped in price and that also pretty sure these are the same https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Andoer-Directional-Condenser-Microphone-Mic-3-5mm-Plug-for-iPhone-Samsung-F6J2/392864217682 and £10 cheaper than the one I got a couple of month ago.
When someone manages to get one post about the AGC of the IQaudio Codec Zero so maybe @£15 with the £20 Codec Zero for some its not so overpriced or oversized.