Shure
VP83 LensHopper
Small-diaphragm condenser · Lobar (shotgun) · 50–20,000 Hz
- A camera-mount shotgun that runs 130 hours on a single AA — no phantom, no recorder, nothing to plug in.
- Above roughly 2 kHz the interference tube narrows the pattern into a forward lobe a first-order polar plot cannot draw; the diagram shows the supercardioid it behaves as lower down.
Frequency response
No response curve yet.
MicSense only draws a curve redrawn from a graph the manufacturer publishes — it never estimates one from the microphone’s class. No published graph has been redrawn for the VP83 LensHopper yet, so the numbers are in the spec table below.
Polar pattern
A shotgun’s interference tube narrows the front lobe beyond any first-order pattern; the lobe drawn here illustrates the type — it is not a measurement of this individual model.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Shure |
|---|---|
| Model | VP83 LensHopper |
| Type | Small-diaphragm condenser |
| Form factor | Shotgun |
| Polar pattern | Lobar (shotgun) (Supercardioid) |
| Frequency range | 50–20,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | 14.9 mV/Pa · -36.5 dBV/Pa |
| Max SPL | 129 dB SPL (1 % THD; 1000 Ω load) |
| Self-noise | 17.4 dB(A) |
| Impedance | 171 Ω (output) |
| Connector | XLR3M |
| Powering | Battery |
| Weight | 133 g |
Specifications: Shure datasheet · last checked 2 Oct 2026. These are the maker’s published figures for this model. A dash never means zero: “not published by the maker” means the maker’s documents give no figure; “not yet checked” means MicSense has not confirmed one yet. Spotted an error? Tell us.
MicSense notes
| Price tier | Mid |
|---|---|
| Introduced | — not recorded |
Price tier and “a rider regular” are MicSense’s own judgement, not the maker’s.
What it gets used for
- Broadcast
MicSense tags microphones by the job on a live stage, not by studio category — so you can filter for “kick in” or “monitor vocal” instead of working backwards from “large-diaphragm condenser”.
VP83 LensHopper alternatives: closest in published specs
Based on published specifications only — always listen at soundcheck. These are the microphones in the MicSense library whose datasheet figures sit closest to the Shure VP83 LensHopper’s for the same live job, with the reasons. It says nothing about how they sound.
Not compared for the Shure VP83 LensHopper: response curve not redrawn yet.
-
Shure
VP83F LensHopper
- Same job: broadcast
- Same type: condenser (small diaphragm)
- Same supercardioid pattern
- Same form: shotgun
- About the same output — within the datasheets’ tolerance
- Max SPL as high or higher (129 vs 129 dB SPL)
-
Sennheiser
MKE 600
- Same job: broadcast
- Same type: condenser (small diaphragm)
- Same supercardioid pattern
- Same form: shotgun
- About the same output — within the datasheets’ tolerance
- Max SPL as high or higher (132 vs 129 dB SPL)
-
Sennheiser
MKH 416
- Same job: broadcast
- Same type: condenser (small diaphragm)
- Same supercardioid pattern
- Same form: shotgun
- Max SPL as high or higher (130 vs 129 dB SPL)
- ≈ 5 dB more output — about 5 dB less gain
- Check: Needs phantom power — the original does not
Compare it against the alternatives.
MicSense lets you put up to four microphones side by side — spec table, overlaid response curves and polar diagrams on one screen. Free with a free Squaresmile account.