Okay folks, if you’re out looking for a late Christmas gift to get me (you are, aren’t you?) here’s my top pick – Zoom’s new Q3HD Handy video recorder.
It looks at first glance pretty much like all the other small video recorders out there – Flip Mino, Sony Bloggie, Toshiba Camileo – but this one’s different – it does high-def sound as well as pictures. Zoom are well-known for their quality protable audio recorders – lots of musicians use them to record gigs and they are popular with videographers and fusioneers as well.
The Zoom Q3HD blends the two genres – it records video in HD at 1080p or 720p, but also has two decent quality built-in microphones and the ability to record audio at up to 96kHz/24-bit quality – that’s recording studio mastering quality, and more than twice as good as the sound on a CD.
Very cool. It’s compatible with both Mac and Windows and costs around £200 or US $300. Downsides? No professional microphone sockets, and it only comes in silver.
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2 Comments at "Zoom’s New Recorder"
Color me skeptical. I’ve owned three different ZOOM products over the years: a guitar effects processor, a PS-02 recorder, and a H4 recorder. The PS-02 quit working entirely after one year and one of the microphone gain switches on the H4 failed after just a couple months. ZOOM packs a lot of features into their wares for little dinero but, after two bad experiences, I’m hesitant to ever try another ZOOM product. Hope others’ experiences with ZOOM have been better than mine.
Wow, that looks amazing! I have a ZoomH2, which I mainly bought for doing fusion, but have used a lot more for recording live shows (it’s amazing how many musicians have not only allowed me to do so, but been happy to have me do it!). The quality of the recording is excellent. It’s like listening to a concert. The only thing missing from the ZOOMH2 was of course the ability to do video or stills. I bet I have loads of musician friends who would be interested in this!
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