Road-ready. Briefcase-worthy.-
"No external mic jack is a deal breaker" on by brandobean
Pros: The H4n has reasonably great sound quality for the price. Since I use this for band practices and friends bands, this is a huge plus.
Cons: No external mic jack is a dealbreaker, period. You'll never record a soundboard feed of your band, and you'll never be able to step up to a better microphone (especially one placed in a better location).
Summary: The bottom line is, with the external line-in/mic jack this would be a sure buy. They probably cut the feature so as to not compete with their other audio only recorders. The video quality being only average doesn't help. As is, 3 stars.
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"Excellent sound quality, image quality acceptable." on by Guitargrinder
Pros: Superb soundquality.
Very easy to use, no manual needed.
Compact size, take it anywhere.
Robust.
Easy to use Zoom HandyShare software included.
Built in USB cable.Cons: Image quality could be improved.
Software only allows trimming of clips at beginning and ends.Summary: If you are a musician like me and you want to record your rehearsals, gigs etc in excellent sound quality, Go for it!
If you expect high image quality as well: Don't buy it and wait for a newer version with better image quality.
For us, as a band, this little thing works perfectly, we use it for rehearsals and to upload video clips to YouTube and to our site.
See and hear for yourself, here are two examples:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Rockaboveclouds#p/a/u/0/BEwHCU47veY
http://www.youtube.com/user/Rockaboveclouds#p/a/u/2/RgJ-9hGXPDE
Bottom line: This thing is for musicians! -
"Overall good digital voice/video recorder for my needs" on by gambit023
Pros: Bought the Q3 for my wife for her voice lessons. It's an improvement over the Zoom H2 for us. The video feedback on top of the great voice recordings are a plus. The auto gain feature is ok (i think it's better than the H2).
Cons: A little big. Lacking on some features that the H2 has. only has low, high, and auto gain (no mid). Not 720p.
Summary: Bottom line, it works for my wife's needs. She's a singer and needs the audio feedback when reviewing her lessons and practices more than the video. The video is definitly a plus. If there was another company out there i would consider them, but as of right now there is no other product at this price point that focuses on quality voice recordings. All other digital video/voice recorders have crappy mics and great video. The H2 I had used to distort very often whenever hitting a high and loud note on auto gain mode, the Q3 has yet to do distort on auto gain; however, sometimes the audio will sound muffled on auto gain with the Q3. I'm going to have her try the high gain and see if it'll distort. We'll see what happens.
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"Best to wait" on by caponsacchi
Pros: Possibly useful for music instructors, musicians who want to watch themselves practice, and youtube compulsives.
Cons: Youtube is moving to hi def, many buyers already have a good videocam (even a Canon Elf has HD video capability), and many have a Zoom H2. This model duplicates existing equipment, is not state of the art, and will soon be outdated.
Summary: May serve a music teacher's needs for a year or two (but at a fairly steep price). Most would do better to stick with their Zoom H2 or H4n along with their old Flip or comparable videocam. Wait for a device combining even better audio with HD and a zoom lens (even a stabilizer) for all-around spectator usefulness. No need to pretend an improved model won't be here shortly, and at a price comparable to the Q3.
Zoom Q3 user reviews
Results 1-4 of 4
Results 1-4 of 4
