I have not been permitted to run cameras in several of our conservative churches any closer than from the back of the church, hence I have run the two from virtually identical distances, and the difference is startling. The Rode destroys the Sony mic. From the back of the church of course even the Rode is pretty poor, due to the distance, and I understand that. But it is 100% better than the OEM mic

Thanks Steve - and you may well have nailed it. Minidisc having to replay in real-time analogue in has seemed like a pain to me when the H2 is a file transfer from the SD card, so just maybe (fingers crossed) I can download the H2 analogue as well and keep (tighter if not perfect) sync. What a good idea.

Oh, I forgot to say. Yes, agree there'll be a audio quality loss, and especially so as I take the MD's signal from the headphone socket. But as I say, a cheap mic up close beats a posh one far away every time, so much so that I have to 'downgrade' the MD audio as it sounds so good.

Yes, I'll try that also!

What about Irivers? I've got six which I couple to Giant Squid mics (have 4 black and two white - about $us50 per recorder and mic) and at a wedding wire the groom, officiant, fathers, lecturn, and one spare for wherever - and shove an H2 up high in the middle of the church. Plus I have the camera mics with one camera having a Videomic...