I'm coming from a photography background, so what I know about sound and video recording can be counted on the fingers of one foot. However, I did try filming some clips from a loud concert with an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and the external
Olympus ME-51S microphone, with predictably poor and distorted results:
http://youtu.be/Pdcf7-rDSxE . I then bought an Olympus E-PM1 and
Sound Professionals battery box. Results were a bit better, although still not great:
http://youtu.be/lr6xF8a6OKU . I then bought some
Sound Professionals SP-CMC-8 mics., and tried them out with the battery box recently at a quieter concert, sitting towards the back. The recording of the first song I recorded was better quality than with the Olympus mic., but surprisingly quiet, and other songs I recorded later got progressively quiet, which I can only presume was due to the battery in the battery box gradually running down? That's odd, as Sound Professionals claim a 30- to 50-hour battery life, and yet I can't have used it for more than two hours in total.
I've ordered a Church Audio Ugly ll pre-amp which should arrive soon, and I might even get a recorder and sync sound and video in post eventually, although I imagine it would be very awkward for one individual to to simultaneously record sound and video at once!?