Just consider the use you wanna want do of with it. The Zoom H2 is the best choice for portability and price, but you won't have xlr XLR input connections. I've used H2 with a shotgun mic (rode NTG-2)Rode NTG-2), an autobuilt stereo mic with electret capsules (it provides plug-in power) and with a Rode NT4 stereo mic through its the H2's minijack input and it works pretty well.

The H2 capsules built-in microphones are good, and maybe you will never use it with need an external mic because with it miic as you can have set several configurations 90, 120 degrees, front, rear and quadriphonic... Moreover: H2 can be used as a AudiocardAudio-card, The H2 can save your audio in wav format up to 96khz-24bit and in every level of mp3 compression - no other portable recorder can do that.

This one link is in italian Italian but maybe can may be of some helpsomeone: http://www.sounday-times.com/it/arrige-aures/registratori-digitali-portatili.html.

Just consider the use you wanna do of it. Zoom H2 is the best choice for portability and price but you won't have xlr input connections. I've used H2 with a shotgun mic (rode NTG-2), an autobuilt stereo mic with electret capsules (it provides plug-in power) and with a Rode NT4 stereo mic through its minijack input and it works pretty well. H2 capsules are good and maybe you will never use it with an external mic because with it you can have several configurations 90, 120 degrees, front, rear and quadriphonic... Moreover: H2 can be used as a Audiocard, H2 can save your audio in wav format up to 96khz-24bit and in every level of mp3 compression - no other portable recorder can do that.

This one is in italian but maybe can help someone: http://www.sounday-times.com/it/arrige-aures/registratori-digitali-portatili.html