I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the PCM-D50. It's a tank and the battery life has been excellent. As stated before, it has optical input, line input, decent internals that can adjust to true XY or wide pattern (check my archive bookmarks below for at least 2 shows using the internals outside), great menu, 4Gb onboard flash memory, uses non-proprietary battery form (AA x4) and even is a solid mp3/wav music player if you want it to be. Did I mention the headphone amp and optical/line output? I have read others post about the HR09/R09 and others but for me, the PCM-D50 was and is worth the price. I got mine from Musician's Friend with the no interest deal for 12 months, of course that was before this economic meltdown. Good luck with your search!