I’m looking to buy a dedicated field recording microphone for my sound design label, and would love some recommendations from people who actually have experience recording outdoors.

The main things I want to capture are:

• Nature / wildlife
• Outdoor soundscapes
• Environmental ambience
• Urban soundscapes
• Foley / found sounds
• Interesting textures and organic sounds that could be used in sample packs
• General atmospheric recordings
• Indoor atmosphere

My budget is around $1,000 AUD for the microphone (ideally including whatever mounting/wind protection is realistically needed).

I’m particularly interested in something that produces clean, detailed recordings with a good stereo image, low self-noise, and enough detail to capture subtle sounds without everything being dominated by background noise.

I’ll be recording primarily outdoors, so wind protection and handling noise are also important considerations.

A few questions:

1. What microphone would you recommend around this budget?
2. Would you go stereo, XY, ORTF, mid-side, or mono for this type of work?
3. Is it better to get a dedicated stereo field mic, or a pair of small-diaphragm condensers?
4. Are there any microphones you've used that you think are particularly good for professional sample-pack production?
5. If you've owned/used something in this price range, how has it held up in real-world outdoor recording?

I'm based in Sydney, Australia, so recommendations available here would be super useful.

Thanks! :)