I've been doing research on the iRiver, and stumbled on this bad boy:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main.html

Couldn't something like this replace UHF microphones all-together? This looks like a great full-proof alternative in my opinion actually. Think it would be hard to sync this type of audio with video files? I'm seriously considering going to these all together... they seem perfect for event/wedding videography w/o all of the headache associated with UHF transmitters and receivers. Used in conjunction with an iRiver being a backup, I think this is the way to go vs. UHF.

What do you all think?

I really like the price on that compared with other field recorders. I really like the size as well it would save some room in my gear bag thats for sure. It is very interesting, can't wait to hear from someone who has used it on their shoot.

Great recorder...keeps amazing synch ever over long record times of hour or more...excellent value for the price

Great recorder...keeps amazing synch ever over long record times of hour or more...excellent value for the price

Hey Mark,

So I'm assuming you use these often? Any other issues? I want to use these for weddings so I want to make sure my clients get what they deserve.

Let me know!

Well at over $450 street price I'll stick with my iRivers for now. Or take that money and apply it to a senn G2.

The compact flash has merit though.

The m-Audio has several advantages over an iRiver. A couple of the biggest ... First, it provides phantom power so the range of professional quality mics you can use with it is much wider. And it can record using the DV standard sample rate of 48kHz as opposed to the audio standard rate of 44.1 kHz sampling only on the iRiver. That means maintaining sync is easier since you don't need to resample the audio file when importing it into the timeline. The iRiver certainly has it beat for cost but when you look at the long-term payback I think that advantage pretty well disappears. What's a couple hundred dollars when the overall cost of your "kit" is in the several kilobucks range. We're talking about a pretty small percentage difference to get a big jump in quality and flexibility.

how is the pre on this baby? I have heard only negative things, but word from real world users is always better than what mags have to say.

how is the pre on this baby? I have heard only negative things, but word from real world users is always better than what mags have to say.

I don't have one myself yet and have heard mixed comments. It appears the negatives from some of the earlier reviewers are getting sorted out as firmware revisions are released. I understand some of our compatriots here on the boards have 'em on order and I'm looking forward to hearing their comments.

Pretty good review of the Microtrack here:
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/11/30/m-audio-microtrack-review.html?page=1

I had the same idea - Ordered one from B&H Photo yesterday.

I haven't tried it out yet, but based one of the online reviews, the audio sounded fine to me. I plan to use it with a small Mackie board to have a backup audio feed while filming weddings. If you're handy in Premiere Pro, it seems that the audio synch would be a piece of cake.