I run and gun, so most of the time can live without headphone monitoring. Has anyone got experience with using an XLR to 3.5mm adapter with the GH2 like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Hosa-XVS101F-Right-Angle-3-5mm/dp/B000068NZG

I was considering upgrading from a Videomic Pro to a shock mounted NTG-2.

Or save angst in the dub and hire a sound guy ;p Mixers spend more time de-noising, tidying, rescuing badly recorded audio these days than mixing hehe

We need engineer to look at DR100 preamp.

Sad thing about this units is that they are made for recording loud music.

DX-A2S was a passive device (transformer based)...no Phantom power; no pre-amps.

The Sound Devices MixPreD sounds interesting - it's twice the cost of the Beachtek but everyone seems to agree that the SD's preamps are the quietest (for the price, at least).

I'm pretty sure the best way price/performance ratio would be to use a mixer like a MixPre and a H4N but I'm planning on shooting a feature and the amount of time spent syncing up the audio without timecode from the H4N could be enormous. Even if the camera recorded sound isn't as good, there's a lot to be said for having everything already in sync. The only thing keeping me on the fence about getting an H4N is having the flexibility of recording audio without the camera when I need to for post sound design, etc.

The Beachtek DXA is a great little unit. Phantom power for my Rode mics; has AGC over-ride ...and decent pre-amps.

I used to use my Zoom H4 (or a Juicedlink) together with a 18 KHz tone via an MP3 player (to knock out AGC) until I bought a Beachtek DXA when it came out a few months ago. It's a very well designed/made compact unit...and a lot easier to assemble and use. I have one permanently mounted on my shoulder rig, and another for on tripod use.

Like the look of the Fostex - three channels is very sensible (2 for left/right, one for say a personal / gun mic). And it records. Shame it doesn't exist yet, but when it does, I bet that will be a popular one.

I take your points Vitaliy, and for example I haven't done anything with my gun mike and the GH2 because... well, the last shoot I had, I used my Canon HD camcorders. But as for noise, yes you do get a bit off the H4n's internal mikes. Have a listen to this - my voice was recorded using my Sennheiser gun mix going into the XLR on the H4n, while the harp was also simultaneously recorded in stereo using the H4n's mics. It's a very simple setup - the camera was about 15m away, and I used the GH2 as a guide for sync, and from the H4n tracks I just mixed between the two as needed: here's the result (excuse very very basic camerawork, but the point was to do a very quick video to illustrate something, and was all done in one take - although I played a couple of sections afterwards to get the additional angles):

I'm hoping the Fostex DC-R302 turns out good. Would be useful for quite a few different camera applications. http://www.lazytechguys.com/news/fostex-announces-new-professional-mixer-recorder-for-digital-slr-cameras/

Personally I'd not bother with this - despite what the reviewer says in his blog, it is still a cumbersome solution. If audio is really important, it's a lot easier to use a separate recorder like the Zoom H4n or similar, to have flexibility with microphone positioning / phantom power etc, syncing afterwards using the in-camera mic as a guide. Having used plug-in XLR adaptors right from the days of DAT and earlier, it's awkward having boxes and leads attached to other equipment (particularly something you want to move around, like a camera), and using a plug-in audio adaptor still means you're relying on the audio capabilities of the camera, which to be honest are never going to be that great for anything critical.

Depends on the scenario you'd use it for but I struggle to think of one instance where you would gain from the hassle and expense of an adaptor like this.