Zoom North America has officially announced the release of their brand new H5 Hand Recorder. With many features you will find on the flagship H6 microphone but for more than $100 less, the H5 employs a system of interchangeable input capsules, allowing the best microphone to be used for every recording situation. The H5 is currently available for pre-order for only $269.99. The new H5 Hand Recorder will be fully compatible with all Zoom input capsules and it will also come with a brand new X/Y stereo capsule, featuring extended signal capacity of up to 140 dB SPL. On top of that, there will be shockmounted microphones to help reduce handling noise. This will come in handy when you are running the product on top of your DSLR in handheld mode or even slight movements on tripods.
"Our products are constantly evolving to meet the needs of the creators who use them," said Scott Goodman, Zoom North America CEO. "The H5 continues that tradition, providing everything needed to do professional-quality multitrack recording in the field and capture pristine audio for video, broadcast and podcast."
With the H5 Handy Recorder, users will now be able to use four tracks of simultaneous recording directly to an SD card of up to 32 gigabytes. There will be a wide selection of MP3 and BWF-compliant WAV file formats, including 24-bit / 96k high-resolution audio. With an option adapter, the H5 can be mounted directly to your DSLR or camcorder, like previous models. It just requires you to use 2 AA batteries for power. The alkaline battery life is estimated to be more than 15 hours. "Dual XLR/TRS combo jacks enable the connection of external microphones or line-level devices. Each input has its own dedicated gain control and pad, as well as phantom power in three different voltages."
Some additional features of the H5 Handy Recorder included a stereo Line Out for connection to camcorders; a headphone jack and built-in speaker; onboard effects, metronome and chromatic tuner; adjustable playback speed and pitch correction; and Pre-record, Auto-record and Backup-record functions. There will be a USB port that enables data transfer to and from editing software. This will allow the H5 to act as a true multichannel audio interface for any computer or even iPad.
You can Pre-Order a Zoom H5 Handy Recorder and get more information about it now at B&H's official product listing page HERE
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Pretty cool. Good price on that. The high SPL mics are interesting. Looks a bit fragile tho.
Never saw the point of putting one of those things on top of the camera. I just put my external recorder closer to the sound source, or tap off a board if there is one, and just sync up with PluralEyes.
I don't really get the big protective bar across the sturdy-looking level controls, while those mics just float out there unprotected. My DR-40 has those nice little bars to protect the microphones; I don't see why that would be so difficult to implement.
I think it's more techy decorative than functional. I would say the same for the Tascam. The Tascam design is inherently stronger I think, I have a DR-07mkII, which doesn't have the bars but I've never had any issues with the mics, even when they're in A-B position.
It's the mount design for the replaceable mics that looks fragile to me. In real-world use it may be perfectly fine however.
Yeah, it's really hard to tell from the few photos how well that connection will hold up. I can't tell if those claws are plastic or metal, or how much (if any) play there will be up and down. I just mentioned the DR-40 because those bars give me a little more confidence when I'm tossing the recorder in a gear bag; I don't worry about those little microphones getting bumped the wrong way since they're not exposed. This H5 design would make me much more nervous if it were floating around in a run bag.
I just ran across this article about a PSP case that fits the DR-07. Looks totally cool, so I ordered one. Not sure if the DR-40 would fit in it, but check it out:http://tinyurl.com/npeesz8
The bars are to prevent accidental movement of the level controls. A common complaint from H6 users.
As for the connection of the mic modules, I have no complaints after my H6 with shotgun fell from about 8ft in the air - landing on the front of the mic after my boom operator tripped. Scuffed up the front of the mic nicely - but it still works and didn't snap off of the recorder (to be honest - I was expecting the worst when I saw him trip....). I'm not sure it will handle repeated abuse like that - maybe I was just lucky, but it handled it this once without resulting in my tears.
I can see myself getting one of these H5's for sure, since I was contemplating a second H6 already.
Cool, thanks for the input. You just see that one prominent point of failure and have to wonder.