[exabrial]

One thing he didn't differentiate on was the microphone and its appearance in video casting.

While there are many good choices, the Shure SM7B is the quintessential desk or studio microphone for recording vocals. However, it is a bulky monster and will take up a _lot_ of real estate in a video frame. If you're audio-only, that's not an issue, your vocals will sound awesome.

For video, I really think an off-camera mic on a boom stand in sound treated room is the best option for seated, stationary casting. Many hypercardioid vocal microphones most people have actually work fairly well in this setup. Treating panels doesn't even need to be expensive; this youtuber made really nice looking ones from towels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVEXp87TTrs

I don't like the sound or intrusive look of a lapel mic or the noise it picks up, for moving sequences, it's probably the best option unless you can hire a grip.

[dundercoder]

Surprisingly the monoprice 600700 pencil condenser with a hypercardiod capsule works really well for this, and it’s way cheaper than mid range shotguns.

[eropple]

I love me a good boom mic (as mentioned in my own post I have a Synco D2, which is a shockingly good Sennheiser MKH416 knockoff, sitting above my head right now) but they do have disadvantages. If you have a mechanical keyboard, it's really hard to position one 1) out of frame, and 2) so the pickup area isn't gonna be going rattle-rattle-rattle.

There's no great middle ground. I'd rather have it than a SM7B, though, that's for sure.