Originally Posted by MYFIGO

The mic is built in and the recorder picks up very well.

Some people like to listen to the earphones while recording as it does help you hear what is going on. I found it distracting and think I would hear more without them.

I think you can hear things any time of day. One consideration would be outside noise such as traffic. Even though it was night time, we had plane and vehicle traffic noise. I'm sure it was less than in the day time. There was a lot of insect noise at night as well.