Making digital recordings of bells

[Alan J.Birney]

I was wondering if anyone has tried any of the newish digital 
dictaphones on the market for recording bells and if so, what the 
results are like.
I have tried a Kodak multi purpose device(camera,webcam and mp3 
player), but the results are actually worse than an analogue casette 
recorder with a built in microphone-bring back reel to reel tape 
recorders! Big and bulky, but you can get excellent results.
Alan