Portable digital recording is great — import is as simple as dragging files to your hard drive, they’re mobile, they’re non-linear, and they write to increasingly cheap storage formats like CompactFlash. But what about synchronization for video applications? I have found one portable field recorder that’s CompactFlash-based, records up to 192kHz, and optionally can be configured with a SMPTE timecode reader/generator:
This is definitely a “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it situation,” but boy, check those specs and you’ll see what a CF recorder should be.
Video pros / post production gurus out there: what are you using? Seen anyone recording audio on synced field recorders yet?
For me, the solution has been just to use a standard consumer recorder and sync manually — though I definitely don’t trust those cheap MiniDisc recorders.