Would recording my audio from my H2 into an old camcorder provide the same audio?

[wildside50]

I have a Zoom H2 that I use for audio, and I connect it to my HV30 with a 6 ft mini-stereo cable. I am satisfied with the audio quality resulting, but I feel tethered to my camera by the 6 ft cable (I don't want to go much longer for fear of too much interference).

But I can buy a cheap old mini-DV camcorder (Canon model ZR45 MC). Should the audio quality recorded to a mini-DV tape in this camera using the same H2 and cable setup be identical as recording to the HV30, or might there be a difference?

[cornreaper]

Why not just use the H2 by itself? It seems like an unnecessary extra step to pipe it into a camera. You're also significantly degrading your audio quality with a digital-analog-digital conversion, plus you're limited to 16-bit/48kHz with miniDV.

[wildside50]

It is the only way I have found to achieve a desirable audio level. The H2, at high gain, and pumped up to 120 is still not as loud, and to my ears sounds worse.

[Bif]

Keep the audio recording level on the H2 a bit "conservative", I don't run mine at full gain. If I can keep it within a 3 - 4 feet of my "talent" I use the midrange (on the 3 position switch on the side), run the gain up to 100 or so. If I have to position it a few feet further away, I'll use the high range and still try not go run the gain up past 100 or so.

When ready to edit I open the audio from the H2 in Audacity (a free audio editor) and bring the volume up in that program, it's usually enough for me. Then I select the segments needed one at a time and export each as a WAV file with a filename that tells me what video segment it goes with. The WAV file gets "drag 'n drop" into the sound effects (or voiceover) track on the timeline and then dragged back and forth until it "synchs" with the audio from the camera.

I generally get clean audio this way.

[wildside50]

Maybe I should've been more clear --

I would still want to record the audio by connecting the H2 to the HV30 75%+ of the time, to avoid having to sync (I find it a real PITA). So the other times when I wanted to record at a greater distance, it'd be nice to have audio that sort of matches what I'm used to (not to mention the added benefit of having some crappy SD video to go along with my audio to help me sync more easily, but that's jsut my personal problem with syncing and sucking at it).

I will try your setting and see how I like it, but I still suck at syncing (bad planning mostly).