We're recording interviews in a reasonably quiet room using a Sony HDR-CX500E. While the picture quality is acceptable, the audio quality isn't. We're using Sony's own shotgun microphone, but it's picking up a lot of background noise, and the voices sound thin.
Unfortunately, this camera doesn't have a 3.5mm microphone jack, only Sony's proprietary shoe (Advanced Interface Shoe, or AIS). As far as I can tell, only Sony makes microphones for this, and it only makes small shotgun-like microphones.
What options should I look at? Did I miss a good microphone that works with AIS and the HDR-CX500E? Or is it my best option to record audio separately, maybe with a USB microphone, and synchronize it with the video afterwards?