Zoom Q3 vs Zoom H2 – Unboxed Review

The Zoom Q3 is just a tad bigger than the Zoom H2 and packs in some decent video

With itchy impatient hands I finally got my anxiously awaited package from Sweetwater – the Zoom Q3 video recorder…

Yes, this is the one that has bitchin’ sound and video in a really portable and easy to use format.

For an audio drama guy, it seemed a no-brainer; I live and die by my Zoom H2 but have often thought it would be fun to be able to capture a little bit of video, too… everything from behind-the-scenes footage of FinalRune shows to how-tos on various pieces of recording equipment.

I’ve yet to get my teeth into the product but thought I’d share some initial thoughts upon looking at the product, especially compared to the Zoom H2 since I use the H2 extensively. I kind of thought the Q3 was going to be H2 + video but it isn’t, exactly.

A few observations:

Sound quality seems to be about the same. The H2 has a lot more options. The Q3 has a way bigger screen and is more friendly.
Video (to me) seems just dandy. Obviously I have a strong bias to good audio. The picture is as good as I’m going to need it and I’m really excited about the possibilities once I start putting this thing to work.
The Q3 SD card door is flimsy and will eventually break off. They clearly did not design it for people who are going to be hot-swapping SD cards in the field. Um, hello?

The Zoom Q3 doesn’t come with a tripod, but the one from the Zoom H2 works like a charm

Accessories for the Q3 are really basic. I was kind of hoping for more from a $250 device. You get a wind screen, some RCA cables, and a 2GB SD card. No AC adapter, no tripod, no handhold (I haven’t tested handling noise but it’s terrible on the H2). As you can see, the mic stands from the H2 work fine with the Q3.
A really disappointing oversight is that you can’t use the Q3 as an audio or video interface. What the heck, Samson? One of the most powerful features of the Zoom H2 is that you can use it as a field recorder OR audio interface depending on your need. I was really hoping to be able to use the Q3 for talking on Skype, but now it seems I will need to jerry-rig something using the RCA cables. I hope they are able to add this feature on with a firmware update. Just foolish

Overall I’m really excited about the recorder and, as I said, can’t wait to put it to work. I wish it was about $50 cheaper and that I could use it for Skype, but having the capability to capture video and decent sound in such an easy format is priority #1 for me.

Here's Some Video Taken with the Zoom Q3:

More on the live video from Halloween 2009 page

Note: I highly recommend Sweetwater for purchasing this and all audio equipment! And no, they don't pay me to say that.

Posted in Gear, Radio Drama Articles | 22 Comments »

22 Comments »

Hey there,
I have a H2 and recently a Q3 too: that thing opens up a lot of fun applications which surface i m just starting to scratch. Promising indeed.

Just a little question:
When listening back to a recording with headset straight off the device, i m having a loud background noise, a hum:

Do you have that too ?
Or is it just mine ?

Thanks for sharing thoughts.
LH

Comment by LeHublot — November 24, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
Thanks for the comment!

Yeah, lots of fun to be had with the Q3. I’m trying to figure out how to rig it up as a webcam, lots of video taken of the Halloween show, too, which I hope to share with the world soon.

I don’t really get any ‘hum’ to speak of, everything sounds good. Are you sure it’s not just your headset?

Fred

Comment by Fred — November 24, 2009 @ 9:34 pm
Hi Fred,
We are trying to decide which one to get…an H2 or Q3??? What is your recommendation? We think it would be cool to have the video option, but also just want to use it as an audio recorder…Can you just use the audio on the Q3 without the video? What is the sound comparison between the two as far as you can tell? Thanks! Wendy

Comment by Wendy — January 10, 2010 @ 5:00 pm
Wendy,

The Q3 has an audio-only mode that will make it behave like the H2. Side-by-side, the audio quality is about the same, and they’re both some pretty kickin’ recorders.

The one feature the H2 has which I miss on the Q3 is the ability to plug it into your computer via USB and use it as a laptop (or Skype) microphone.

If you’re not planning on needing to use this feature, I would say, hands-down the Q3 is the way to go. For very little extra money you get some really nice video capability.

For some example footage shot with the Q3, see our recent footage from our Halloween show: http://www.youtube.com/finalrune

Comment by Fred — January 10, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
Hi Fred,

I’m also deciding between H2 and Q3. One thing that I think H2 can do is acting as a monitor without recording. i.e. feeding whatever it picks up from the mic to the Line Out at real-time. Can Q3 do the same? (Besides, I believe H2 can do auto start but Q3 can’t. Am I right?)

Comment by John — January 18, 2010 @ 8:24 pm
If you want to record great audio on HD video run your H2 into an Aiptek 720 HD camcorder. It has an external mic input that allows you to combine the two for the best of both worlds. You can grab an Aiptek 720 at Target for 99 bucks.

Comment by bill whitley — January 19, 2010 @ 2:12 am
@John – I’ve have to play around with the Q3. If I remember right, it has a line-in feed but not mic in. I’ll see about the autostart/live feed feature. Curious – what kind of application are you using that you need that feature?

@bill – Great suggestion. I was doing something similar, albeit with a bigger camera, by plugging in my H2 to a Panasonic GS300. However, I found that I wanted something that was a plug-and-play, no-brainer unit and having the Q3 works better for me in that regard – fewer parts!

Comment by Fred — January 20, 2010 @ 9:40 am
@Fred: I think you misread what I said. What I wanted is to use Q3 sometimes just as a condenser mic to record into another recording device. I know Q3 has a headphone jack. So the question is: can you monitor the audio through the headphone without recording, *before* you press the record button? Thanks.

@Bill: But I think Aiptek’s mic in is mono? I read people suggesting Kodak Zi8 because its mic in is stereo.

Comment by John — January 20, 2010 @ 5:43 pm
@John – Ahhh I get it. Thought you wanted line-in to monitor, not line-out to monitor.

I’ll have to play around with it, quite honestly. The headphone out says headphone/line, so I assume you can monitor in real-time the same as you would with headphones, but I haven’t tested it.

There doesn’t seem to be a software setting to adjust the levels of the out (headphone vs. line) so I’m curious to see how loud the monitor will be. Again, I’ll give a shot when I’m in the radio station and let you know how it goes

Comment by Fred — January 20, 2010 @ 10:59 pm
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Pingback by Video from Live Halloween Show Now Available — January 22, 2010 @ 7:19 pm
The H2 has better audio quality in my opinion. I have made a lot of live recordings with the H2 and Q3. The recordings made with the Q3 are lacking in bass – it’s hard to hear the bass guitar. The Q3 is a brighter sound, but in my opinion, worse than the H2 overall. Kinda surprising..but that’s how i hear it! There’s a guy who works in my local music store (where I bought my Q3) and he agrees with me.

Comment by paul — February 2, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
Thanks for the input, Paul. I haven’t compared the two devices seriously side-by-side like that – basically I use the H2 for all of my podcasting, light-duty field recording, and general all purpose device, while the Q3 is almost exclusively for the YouTube-type vids you see me include in the site. BUT for someone considering the Q3 over the H2 I see why this is an important question.

Like I mentioned in my write-up, the big disappointment for me is that the Q3 DOESN’T hook up as a USB a/v interface with the computer. I’ll test some more to get my own opinion on sound quality between the two devices.

Comment by Fred — February 2, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
Been using my Q3 for about a month now, all my bandmates have H2s. One thing to note, the Q3 actually uses the mics from Zoom’s H4 product, which are slightly inferior to the H2. That being said, the audio quality is still amazing, especially for something that is this easy to use. I wish it had some with the extras that the H2 got, like the mini tripod and screw in mic stand attachment.

Main reason I came to comment here today though is that I recently discovered there’s a firmware update, 2.01, that enhances the video capture quality in low light considerably. It can be downloaded from here, http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/download/software/q3.php is also now has a setting for high light concert situations too. It’s almost like a new product in the automatic video setting now, it picks up A LOT more in low light.

Comment by Patrick — February 3, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
Wow, awesome, Patrick, thanks for the tip! Will definitely check out, that’s a great improvement.

Comment by Fred — February 3, 2010 @ 2:09 pm
Hi, I am interested in this as a gift for my boyfriend – he is a concert junkie – so he will primarily use this to record the concerts and tranfer to cd – which would you recommend? Thanks

Comment by Lorie — February 17, 2010 @ 11:43 am
[...] Articles Zoom Q3 vs Zoom H2 – Unboxed Review [...]

Pingback by Video Footage of Halloween 2009 Live Radio Drama in Portland, Maine — February 18, 2010 @ 11:47 am
Lorie,

Unequivocally yes! That’s exactly what this recorder was made for. I think your boyfriend will be very happy with the gift, and gawrsh, he’s lucky!

Fred

Comment by Fred — February 18, 2010 @ 11:13 pm
Just wondering if the Q3 can record audio using the line-in facility that is available on the H2?

Shanti

Comment by Shanti — February 21, 2010 @ 10:33 pm
@Shanti, unfortunately no. You can listen back on headphones or line, but NOT record a separate audio device. That said, the line in on the H2 isn’t exceptional so I don’t like to use it that much (I have a different CF recorder I use that sounds much better).

Comment by Fred — February 23, 2010 @ 9:24 am
Hi Fred,

I eventually bought a Q3! The condenser mics are amazing. It can pick up the softest whisperings from a distance. Vocal and high end are superb. But it seems the low end is a bit weak. I used it to record our church band’s practice session, with low-cut filter off. The bass drum was very soft. Maybe I’m too used to exaggerated bass from all those consumer 5.1 sound systems. LOL.

By the way, I need some help. I wanted to upload the clips onto youtube. But a 2 minutes mov clip takes 90MB space on the HDD and youtube estimated it would take an hour to upload! It seems different audio quality settings Q3 doesn’t make a big different in the file size. Am I right? How did you upload your vids? Did you re-encode them before uploading them? What software did you use? I’m using Windows XP. Thanks.

Comment by John — February 28, 2010 @ 3:51 am
John,

Great! So glad you like it – I think you’re right, the low-end isn’t going to rock your subs, but overall it records pretty truthfully, and certainly better than anything other camera you can fit in your pocket!

RE: YouTube, yeah, the full-res .MOV files off the camera are pretty big. Luckily, I can use Wifi at the local college with a VERY fast connection. Even so, I usually upload something smaller.

I usually like to add intro caption, extro w/ website link, etc. The software I’ve found easiest to use and most powerful is Sony Vegas ($100 for the pro version that comes with 1000+ effects AND production music!) – I then export my finished, titled product as a WMV file which is usually about 27MB for a five minute clip instead of 250MB or so!!!

Comment by Fred — February 28, 2010 @ 10:23 am
I should mention, the video that the Wall Street Journal used in their article on FinalRune uses video captured using the Zoom Q3! http://on.wsj.com/9Fha9j

Comment by Fred — February 28, 2010 @ 10:37 am