If you’ve heard a movie or a TV show in the last forty years, you’ve heard the Sennheiser MKH 416. Released in 1975 and still in production, it’s the boom mic on roughly every film set in the world. ~$1,000.
The MKH 416 uses Sennheiser’s unusual RF (radio-frequency) condenser circuit, which makes it extremely resistant to humidity — important when shooting outdoors. It also has a tight lobar pickup pattern from the interference tube on the front, which rejects everything not directly in front of it.
The result: the MKH 416 hears the actor and ignores the lights, the crew, and the room.
The MKH 416 has a slight presence boost in the 4–8 kHz range that flatters spoken voice without being harsh. That’s why home voiceover artists love it too — it sounds like a movie out of the box.