Hi!
A long time reader, first time poster here to join the parade. First thanx for the great information and discussions on this site, been helping me a lot concerning the (outdoors) recording and gear!
I got D50 as xmas present and love using it, this is really nice unit. I've yet to decide how to interface the external mics into it, but so far the internals have kept me busy enough to get things going.
I found curious behaviour in the optical output though, and wonder if anybody else has noticed the same. It seems that my D50 doesn't output sync clock in any other but Play or Play/Pause mode. Fine otherwise, but when connected into my digital tracker, it takes about 10 seconds for it to sync into the D50 clock and be able to record the signal. Having D50 in Play/Pause mode until my tracker is synced doesn't help either; when I enter the Play mode, the clock seems to reset and the tracker drops out of sync again. Same thing with FF/FR and looping actions, reset at the beginning.
Not really a big problem for me, I simply transfer from D50 into PC first, as usual. But anyways, trying straight into my tracker this way, I'll loose the 1st ten seconds in any folder I play back.
PS. Here's some interesting (or not) test results from my winter holiday in arctic; My D50 recorded and played back happily in -28 C (-18.4 F) temperature outside. I did five 10-15 minute sessions, holding D50 out in my hand, not inside the pocket. No glitches, no hiccups.