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The standard package includes USB and Lightning cables, a coiled, 1/8" TRS cable that fits most cameras with a mic input, a flash-shoe mount for cameras, foam windscreen, and metal plates that serve as a rather ingenious magnetic mount for iPhones and iPads. This is how it works: the iRig Mic base is magnetized and the either of the plates (large or small) will either slip inside a case or, with its adhesive backing, stick on the outside. The magnet inside the mic is surprisingly strong and held quite securely to the small plate tucked inside our iPhone 11 Pro's Apple Leather Case. And, we were quite happy to find an on- phone accessory that would likely work with our next few devices and can be shared with an iPad. Another thing you'll discover when you open the box is that the iRig Mic's quick- start guide has a level of detail that may be considered rather sparse, even by Ikea standards. Fortunately there's a link and QR code that will get you to the much more detailed, 15-page PDF edition. If you're new to the iRig ecosystem, using the controls and indicators is not instantly intuitive. One of those is the audio level indicator, which is a single four-color LED on the top of the Mic. You need to set that with the level control so it flickers between green and orange and stays out of blue (low) or red (high). This is worth paying attention to, but with it, the iRig Mic can withstand 125 dB of sound pressure; the gain control provides up to a 50 dB pad. A button labeled "Direct" takes a little more explaining but can be very useful. The iRig Mic Video has a built-in headphone jack that allows real-time monitoring of the microphone. Pressing the Direct button will light up the white LED beside it and let the microphone be recognized by your computer as both an input and output device. This lets you monitor playback tracks in real time as well as the mic input while you're recording. We tested this out with multitrack recording in both Audition and Audacity and it worked very well. Add a CR1632 button battery and plug in the analog cable and the iRig Mic becomes a microphone for your DSLR. The kit includes a flash-shoe bracket that screws into the 1/4" threaded socket on the mic's base. This is an application, however, that offers few advantages over a similarly priced analog mic specifically designed for this purpose. The first issue is that there is no vibration dampening built into the camera mount, so moving any controls on the camera, or even your hands holding it, can get picked up by the sensitive mic. For speech and general ambient recording, the sound quality was just slightly better than our camera's (a Nikon D810) built-in mic, but wasn't the quality of the analog-stereo Audio-Technica Pro-24CM we use that's in about the same price range. (To be fair, the Audio-Technica is about as useful to an iPhone as a dog collar.) Any small, desktop tripod will turn the iRig Mic Video into a compact studio mic for recording voiceovers. If your computer doesn't have USB Type-C inputs, you'll need a cable that goes from min-USB to USB-A. The Bundle version of the iRig Mic includes a small tripod that clamps to the phone with the Mic mounted above and also serves as a hand grip, Bluetooth record button, and integrated extender/selfie-stick. If you really want to keep things simple, we found that the lip that extends from the the base of the Mic will let it sit comfortably on top of a computer or laptop display, giving you a more directional option than your iMac or MacBook's built in microphone. In fact, the magnet held it quite securely to the bezel of our MacBook Air, though gravity had to do the work on our aluminum iMac. If you're using your iPhone as a video recorder and you care about the quality of your audio, IK Multimedia's iRig Mic Video is very much worth considering. It's a noticeable improvement over the phone's built-in mic. easy to set up and use, and surprisingly versatile, keeping in mind that its forte is mobile devices. Like the rest of IK Multimedia's line, it offers great quality that you don't have to be a high-priced pro to afford.