For a while, I had a podcast microphone that I used for FeatherCast, as well as several other things. It was a Samson C01U USB microphone.
When I say "I had", what I really mean is that it was attatched to my job. We obtained it to experiment with podcasting, since we were considering putting some podcasts on our website at the time.
Since I have changed employers, I no longer have that mic, and so haven't done any podcasting since then. But I'd like to get started again. Ideally, I'd like to get a mic before I go down to New Orleans for ApacheCon, so that I can do some FeatherCast interviews while I'm there.
I quite liked the C01U. It was simple - plugged directly into the USB port, and I could record directly from it with Audacity, without any additional gear. Very convenient. And it is fairly inexpensive. There are some other devices that might be nicer, like one of the many portable digital recorders that are out there, but they're a LOT more expensive, and aren't really geared to the sit-down interviews and readings that I enjoy doing
But, if anybody has a recommendation, particularly of something inexpensive and good quality, please let me know. It's been a long time since I recorded anything, and I'd really like to pick it up again.
I recently purchased a Blue Snowball microphone that I've been really pleased with. They run $100 but are worth every penny IMO. You can get an idea of the quality of it in a screencast that I put together a couple of weeks ago at
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1073-nuts-bolts-haproxy
I saw this Samson unit in the newspaper's gadget section:
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodid=1916
It's a 4-way Samson mic with built-in recorder, records straight to SD cards at however high bitrate and resolution you want, WAV or MP3. Looks like a great deal for under $200. My only hangup was the brand name (I'm not a microphone junky, so I'd never heard of Samson before). But if you had another Samson mic model and liked it, that's sufficient recommendation that I'm considering picking up the Zoom H2 myself, now.
Hmmm, looking closer, it seems the only thing it's missing as a full-fledged voice recorder is a speaker for playback (it's got a headphone jack). Unless I missed it somewhere....
Dr. B - I noticed that Samsung had a newer (and cheaper) USB mic out. Have you seen the Samsung Q1U mic? You can see it here: http://homerecording.about.com/od/microphonereviews/gr/samson_q1u.htm
If you are looking for an inexpensive USB mic, the Q1U seems to fit the bill (street price is about $49). Of course, you can still get the Samson C01U mic -- it's street price is around $79.
If you want to kick it up a notch and cost isn't an issue, you should look at the Samsung C03U -- it's similar to the mic you used to use, but has a switch on it so you can change the mic so that it record sounds in all directions or just in front and back (useful when you conduct interviews where the mic is between you and the other person). The Samsung C03U street price is only around $99 and would seem to be worth it in the long run.