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The hiss is manageable. The motor noise isn't. Sonic Foundry's Noise Reduction plugin can pull out the hiss with almost no discernable loss in audio quality if it becomes a problem. Once you run an EQ and Compressor over it, the sound becomes very polished and substantial.
I thought of another little positive with the Sony D8s:
Last night, I was videotaping a large public event - walking around shooting this-and-that, interviewing people, etc. I was using my D8 with a shotgun mic and an on-camera light.
It occurred to me that if I bought one of the miniDV cams in my end of the price spectrum, I probably wouldn't have been able to have the mic and light on the camera (I was using an extension handle)...the bodies of the miniDV cams are just too small.