Zoom Q4n Handy Video Recorder

This might get long to read, so just letting you know right now. First, let me say that THIS little camera is the best investment I have made for capturing video. From the picture quality to the sound quality, it's the best! At first I was looking to buy a camera that I could take pictures and record video with, like you can do with most new digital cameras. Then I saw the Zoom Q4n. Easy to use, and you can get many accessories for mounting or use on a tripod or even mount on instruments. Plus I want to tell you in advance that the Zoom Q4n does NOT come with an extra battery or charger OR SD Card!, but you can connect the cord to recharge the battery to the camera while you are using it! My point is, get an extra battery and charger too! You can pause/play for about an hours worth of charge. I have done a continues recording, without stopping and I had more then an hours worth of battery life left, so stop/start uses more power. Now with me, and it has happened with others, where they download the videos to their computers and there is picture but no sound! This has happened to me, but when I moved my files to iTunes, I got both sound and picture. Now you can play your videos right form the Q4n to your TV via the HDMI adapter, but you have to get one, because it does not come with this model!! Or just get video editing software and there should not be any sound or video issues. Every video that I have done with this camera is now on YouTube, and many that I have shown this camera to say that it's too bad that I am not getting a commission, because I just sold them on buying a Zoom Q4n. Here is a link to one of my videos that I did on the side of a stage at The Rock Yard in Indio, CA a few months ago, with the band Rok Of Ages [...] ... So to sum it all up on the Plus side. The Zoom Q4n, it's small, lite, easy to use, has it's own mics, lots of accessories that can used with it, great sound and picture. Now this is not a really a big down side, but it does NOT come with an SD card! And there are a lot of things you need to buy on your own. I love it, and you will too..

This camera was far below what I was hoping for. I read the instructions, tried every setting I could, but the sound was still muffled and the picture was always fuzzy with a circular look to it. It most definitely was not what I was expecting. Plus, I had to sign for it's arrival which meant I had to rearrange my day to be home because I don't live in an area that I could pick it up and then I had to pay for the return shipping. Overall, I was not very pleased with this purchase.

I was actually surprised how good the audio and video is on thins camera! I have been shooting video in my basement of me playing drums up close. The wide angle and 1080p picture is very clear and uncolored. The sound is amazing. The only thing I wish it had was a limiter, although it has only clipped once. The concert setting for mike sensitivity is excellent. There is no inherent adjustment of the levels going up and down, it just sounds perfectly natural. Well, I guess the only other thing that is a like-to-have would be a remote to turn it on and off. All in all, I am extremely happy with this camera!

Very impressed by the audio quality. Great camera for live music. I purchased to make videos of my band. Works phenomenally well in clubs and bars. Very satisfied.

Only dislike is the zoom feature is mostly wide angle.

I really wanted to give this a better review but I have been using the camera alot lately and there are just too many things that frustrate me about it.The good things: the sound quality is good, as you would expect from any Zoom product. Also it has the nice feature of allowing you to record just audio. But that's about it as far as I can tell.The bad: the video quality is horrible, the zoom function is basically useless, and the battery life is very short.For video quality: it says that it can record high HD but it really isn't. Because of the huge size of files for each "better" quality setting you use, there's not much point for me to use the HD 1080 resolution, which isn't great anyway. So I've mostly been using the regular 1080p definition, but if you compare it to any other standard video definition, the 1080p on the Q4n is literally not even as good as a regular 720p definition--I would say it almost is, but that's only if you are recording from very very close. You can imagine how bad the 720p definition on this camera is (that's what I started with when I first got the camera), especially when filming from a distance. Also, just a 4 minute (!) clip using the 1080p setting with not much activity going on in the video creates a file of around a 500mb size...that's right.As for the zoom function, it only goes to 1.5x distance, and even when I used that, it barely made a difference, so it basically is useless.Finally, the battery is horrible. It lasts only around an hour, and now a little bit even less, even though I've only been using the Q4n for less than a month.So this is my review for the Q4n video recorder, and it has only been a few weeks since I got it, so things might get even worse later on.

Video is great audio is AMAZING! Highly recommend for anyone that needs to record their live shows. The ability to monitor your sound levels while in a loud environment as well as record great video is a two fer combo that you should not pass up it you are a live performer. If you are wanting to see how bad/good you did for the night or just want to put together a small music video this is definitely a great camera for that. With the wide angle lens you can even record band practice in a small room and get everyone in the picture, with the right positioning of the camera, of course. Highly recommend to anyone in the music industry!