To anyone with experience with this, appreciate any insights. Window shopping for now...

Looking to keep costs down as much as possible (hopefully $200ish or less new) but just short of buying something which will sound bad and/or not hold up (so attaching a cheapie mic to a cell phone is not an option). It doesn't have to be the most amazing/etc ever, just respectable and versatile to record diff kinds of sounds (animals/birds, weather, etc).

Zoom and Tascam have several all-in-one models under $200; the Sony PCM-A10 is more.

I have the Zoom H6 which is a bit out of your price range.

The H4 "essential", however is $199 and IMO, it probably your best bet. I really like the Zoom onboard mics for 'capture'. Which would be sound effects, ambiences, live music etc. The reason the H4 is my suggestion is that it's apparently their cheapest model that has additional XLR jacks. So you can add a studio mic or a shotgun or whatever if you want to. All 4 can record at once, so you can use the onboard for ambient pair and the 2 XLRs for spot mics etc.

Of course you don't have to, and the onboard mics are fine. For animals, birds, weather they are probably better than a lot of your studio gear. I recently used mind to record industrial stuff - big air handlers at the hospital, construction machinery, the New York State Thruway.

Excellent, thanks - yeah I like the XLR option, though if the onboard mics are solid, probably don't need...I won't be doing anything complicated. I wonder if the H1 in fact would be good enough (are the onboard the same or similar quality)?

I have always assumed those built in "exposed" X-Y mics that you see on all the models were the same. They certainly all have the same form-factor. That's what you see on the H1 but also on the H4 and H6. The H2 has 3 mics under a grill, and while it is not removable, you can set them for varying widths of stereo and so on. They say 9 patterns.

The H1 has the 'typical' Zoom XY and no external.

On some of the larger models, you can "pop in" a module for a different pair - like a M-S or a shotgun. I even have a module that gives me two more XLR inputs with phantom instead of the built in pair.



Here is a live recording on an H2.

I used multiple TASCAM DR-40X's for years with my TV production, editing and radio classes. They always worked extremely well. Students beat the crap out of them in a variety of situations from local sound gathering to slamming around in camera bags for five-week study abroad classes, and no problems. XLR inputs for external mics. Some features can be less than intuitive to operate, but once they find all the functions, students used them easily. $180 .