What is a good low noise microphone for field recording?

This is another blog post in my everyone-asks-this-question-a-million-times-so-now-I-can-just-link-them-here series (patent pending). The problem with most such questions asked on social media is that not enough information is provided. Answers depend on the use case, available equipment, and budget.

All prices provided are for two mics, since I assume that stereo recording is desirable. 

Note that I have used very few of these mics in practice but have been aware of their performance for, in some cases, decades. Here I am compiling the expert opinions of others, based on my training as an audio engineer.

My favourite Windows utilities

Here's a quick article listing the essential applications I install with every new Windows computer. These solve some of the nagging annoyances and make life more efficient. 

The great thing about Windows is that every problem has a solution and most of them are open source. All of the solutions below are free. And none require compiling or other technical jiggery-pokery.

Easy 10-bit video support on Windows

This article will help you with the fact that many Microsoft Windows applications do not, by default, view cinema camera output, including 10-bit files and the HEVC (also known as H.265) codec. Have you ever asked yourself...

• Why won't my video application play my video files?
• Why can't I see icons for my video file in Windows Explorer?
• How can I see full technical information for my video files?

Read on for solutions, most of which are free and easy to achieve.