Comments on: [Fstoppers Review] The Best Portable Audio Recorder For DSLR Video

By: PatrickLieberkind

PatrickLieberkind — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:27:00 +0000

Great Comparison between the recorders! But I have an NTG-1 mic which needs an additional power supply. I believe it’s Phantom Power. You mentioned that the Olympus recorder didn’t give phantom power, so does that mean that the H4N and the Tascam does give phantom? If so that would be fantastic!

By: bauranda

bauranda — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:39:00 +0000

“I was even shocked to see that our friend Peter Hurley plugs his Sennheiser G3 Wireless Mic directly into his iPhone for really good audio for his in studio videos.” Can you tell me, how this is working. Any extra gear needed? Thx.

By: emgab

emgab — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 08:27:00 +0000

Thanks for this impressive comparision and your recommendation –
The H4n is performing great with extraordinary sound quality in mid- and high level environments – but however, if you need something to be used in low level environments as well, the H4n is not excelling there as the Mic preAmps are noisy from -30 dB down to earht .. i use very low noise Mics with phantom powering (Sennheiser/AT) but need lots of work to keep the noise level down. Currently looking into R-26 from Edirol . has anybody out there experience with that device – would love to hear about.
kind regards, Mike

By: Noah Schäfer

Noah Schäfer — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:14:00 +0000

Being fairly new at DSLR film making, I read everything I could find before choosing a new microphone and audio recorder for my projects. I settled on a combination of a rode ntg-2 microphone an a zoom h4n recorder when being presented with the opportunity af making a video of a concert last october. I set the zoom h4n to 4chan recording with the ntg-2 on one xlr input and the mixer on the other. The result was simply astonishing – crystal clear stage sound from both the ntg-2 an the mixer with a good ambient from the h4n internal mics.

As to the size of the zoom audio recorder:
Good equipment has its size. While on location I carry two bodys and five lenses, 5 speedlite an various accessories in a lowepro magnum 650 aw (with a second bag for the elinchrom flashes), including the zoom audio recorder and the rode mic – and the latter two are negligible when it comes to size and weight.

By: James

James — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:21:00 +0000

Jeez !!! no video review ??? that’s a hell of a lot text to read guys !!

By: Patrick Hall

Patrick Hall — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Well this test was only for the units priced around $300.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:24:00 +0000

“People might disagree with me but this is too large for me to personally keep in my bag. It might make sense for a musician but not for a photographer”
Yes I do disagree with you, because a photographer doesn’t need to record audio, but a videographer does and the size is fine. As a videographer, strobes are to big to personally keep in my bag. I’m trying to get my G3 to work with my iPhone though, and no luck.

By: Marcus Michaels

Marcus Michaels — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:49:00 +0000

You should get the Zoom H1 involved in one of these tests at one point. Less than £100, very light and uses the same microphones as the H4n.

By: B_Y_O

B_Y_O — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:32:00 +0000

I use the H4 for short film work as it gives me a great sound for very little money. You can plug in an XLR cable, a nice shotgun mike and get an excellent sound straight out of the unit and then do some more work in post.

As to only being able to monitor the sound directly out of the unit… This makes perfect sense if you have a sound operator and you want to double your sound and film (that is record the image and sound seperately). They’re taking care of the sound so you trust them to monitor the output and then there’ s no need for any other mike. I haven’t tried it for anything else, so that suits me at the moment. However, I can see it being very painful if I was trying to record sound and operate the camera at the same time…

By: Patrick Hall

Patrick Hall — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:09:00 +0000

isn’t it awesome now having DSLRs that record audio really well straight into the camera? The D800 and D4 are amazing and might make external recording a thing of the past.