I was looking at the VideoMic mono or stereo to use as a camcorder mic but then I came upon the Zoom H4 See Review Here (http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2007/02/01/review-zoom-h4-handy-recorder.html).
I called the Canadian Distributor and confirmed that this can be hooked up with the Line Out 1/98" Jack to the Mic in of a camcorder and while NOT recording with the H4, it gives a live feed for the camcorder.

From everything I have read about this and spoken to people about, it is an Excellent Quality device. The sound is great (you can hear snippits on the review site above). It also has the 1/4" and XLR inputs, records, plays uses SD card for recording, has effects... actually a great device.

Any thoughts otr does anyone have any negative comments about this setup?

You may want to re-read that review, he doesn't say its a quality device; he thinks the reliability is suspect and the interfaces are quirky and clunky.

He just loves the sheer amount of features for the price. It does look very cool, especially for putting togther little prosumer recording sessions.

It definitely looks like a handy device to have, thanks for the heads-up!

Johnr...
I did not say the perfect device. Like the HV20, it may seem not as sturdy as others but that does not make it a bad deal.
I was referring to the quality and not just in that article. I read quite a bit about it and all reviews say that it is excellent. I even read one that compared it to his VideoMic and said the quality was at least as good. If the device was great but the quality of audio wasn't, I would not even consider it.

I think you missed the reviewer's point about quality, do excerpts like this not give you pause? :


" navigation is just plain clunky. The display is too tiny and the two-handed approach gets confusing Basic recording functions operate differently depending on which mode the recorder is in. It's difficult to check levels with the mics pointed at your instrument. In addition, I consistently had problems getting enough gain with external mics. I boosted some of the examples in my DAW to bring them in line with the other audio files. The mic pres are not up to professional standards, but then, look at the price. The four-track mode is plainly weak."

Yes but nowhere does it say the sound quality was no good and you forgot to add the next 2 lines...
"As a field recorder, it's dandy for capturing tunes or environmental sounds. And it has some surprisingly sophisticated features—for less than three hundred bucks.

In spite of its quirks, the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder is a winner."

I am also not basing it on just that one review. If you are truly interested then do some research and you will find many reviews and opinions and non are bad. None show it to be perfect either but I don't expect anything to be perfect.