While I'm not sure what actually caused it, my dad lost a recording session due to dead batteries once. He was recording a gathering at home and left it on the piano and went back later (end of the night) and it was dead and had failed to record anything. I seem to think my H4 is smart enough to know it's dying and stop the recording to save it but I don't often have that problem.
He's loved it recording their church gigs and other gigs. He just sets it up and lets it run and then dumps it into the PC (Ubuntu) later on. (yeah, I've got my dad running Ubuntu) He keeps it in his gig bag wherever they go.
I'm holding out for the next version from someone that does 24/96 4-track recording. The H4 I have only does 16/44.1 in 4-track mode. What I really want is a nice 4-track that doesn't look like a toy and doesn't cost $2K. Here's to hoping Sony or someone adds to their field records, but the stereo field recorders seem to be all the rage right now in the prosumer audio recording.
Plus, Zoom has done a pretty nice job of actually coming out with firmware updates too.
Have fun with it. I'm sure you'll appreciate spending the little extra on it.
