Sorry, I just saw this.
Any of the Tascam or zoom recorders would work fine. There are also some Rode Shotgun mics that are good. The key is to isolate the microphone from the camera noises like focusing and such. If you are going to be stationary, keep the mic off the camera - if you going to moving, then a hot shoe mounted solution is in the cards. I have a giant Alzcan which suspends the microphone/recorder in basically big rubber bands and this isolate the focusing noises, but not the clicks changing settings, etc.
Even w/ my T3i I used a splitter coming off the recorder one to the camera and one to a set of in ear-ear buds, stepped up the gain/amplification and found out just how noisy the world really is (never mind I have no hearing in the top 5% of what most people have as an audible range and I am probably hard of hearing otherwise - or at least that is what I tell my wife....)
I did use both the recording in the Tascam as well as in the camera. Think of it as a back up audio.
I have toyed w/ the idea of getting a directional parabola (like you see on the side lines at on TV.... but my video interest got overwhelmed by work, life, etc.
As for steady cams, I have a Merlin and that works great for the t3i as long as I can set it down and relax. You just about have to double the weight of the camera/lens (the merlin weighs a bit too) to get all the balance points right, even w/ the long leaver arm. longer the leaver arm for counter balance, the less counterbalance weight, but the more the arm it self weighs. The Merlin really can't do the 5d3 and my arm/wrist hold the rig for more than a minute or two, it gets surprisingly heavy. IF IF IF I were to go into video production/enthusiasm again, I would most certainly get a glide cam type rig with the wrist/arm support.
I could see a vest model if I were going to do some nature focused production, along w/ the parabola.
Last but not least - if you are going to do any hand held. I strongly recommend a LCD viewfinder. I bought an extra extended eye cup for the T3i for like super cheap and then took it apart and screwed the LCD viewer into it. Take off the std eyecup and slip on the LCD Viewfinder - no sticky pads, magnetic snap ons, tripod mount screw models, etc. the least expensive 3x w/ a bit of dioptic adjustment and it works fantastically. no need for 5x,10x zoom for focusing using live view, and bright sunlight.. HA! gives 3 pts of contact, etc. Also if some how I whack it the 2 little screws/cheap extended eye cup will fail 1st before anything permanent in the camera, easy on/off.
I bet there is a way to hack the KAMERAR-QV-1 listed on ebay in a similar fashion so you don't have to use the tripod mount. (turn it upside down and maybe even get it to mount into the hot shoe. Then it would open down and out of the way, perhaps, not as much light blocking the viewfinder that way but if you really need close examination you keep it closed anyway.
best of luck hope you post some of the results.
update - I just looked at the TARION TR-V1 and it looks like with a cold shoe plate you could turn this upside down and mount in the hot shoe, get it to fit w/o any hacking about, oh no my GAS is coming back. D** You, now I have going to get this for the 5dIII for the glacier trip (that is what I am telling myself) for some hoped for nature vids.....
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