Zoom H2
 

I received my H2 this week ,what a great piece of Tech. Records simple and playback is great . Very user friendly
Mike Long

Mike,

I picked mine up on Sunday from B&H. Very nice.
I just made a little web page that has photos comparing the size of the H2, H4, and an iPod nano with a Micromemo attached.

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/audio/recorders.htm

Here's a quick photo comparing the size of the H2 and H4

How does it sound? Does it have the sync problems that the H4 has?

Joe

Does it work as an external audio interface too like the H4 did? As the H4 was the cheapest-greatest audio I/O in my book.

Thanks,
T

It sounds just as good if not better than the H4 does.

As for sync issues. You will always ahve sync issues with any recorder, especially in this price class. The reason being each unit and camera have different internal clocks that operate at different rates. Even expensive units have drift issues as well.

The ONLY way to guarentee perfect sync is to use the recorder and camera as a slave unit.

Another way to guarentee better sync is to at least record at the same rate as what your video is being recorded at 16/48 WAV. Recording at a lower bitrate (like MP3) and try to convert in post will not work well either. Again the reason being that your software will approximate the proper speed and length of your audio.

BTW, I just formatted and used without issue a Transcend 8GB SDHC card that I received from Newegg.

Zoom H2
 

I recorded a live concert last nite ,fantastic ,I was standing in crowd and used the REAR mic set up ,picked up band only with a little crowd noise. just a practice session . I think its what i need
Mike

Is the H2 suitable only as a voice recorder? I'm curious because there are no published specs regarding frequency response, distortion, or dynamic range.

Sounds great. It does have exactly the same synch issues, i.e., it the clock runs about 0.01% fast, yielding an audio track that lags the cam's video track by 10-12 frames per hour.

It's definitely a music recorder. But you're right--even the owners manual specs page does not go into fidelity numbers.

I used the H2 as a back up device while filming a jazz quartet from NYC. Two of the professional musicians were amazed at the fidelity listening via $150 earphones. I am pleased with its simplicity of operation. For what it is worth.
Jon

Minor Zoom H2 quibbles
 

I am very impressed with the Zoom H2. I have two minor gripes.

The 'mic active' LEDs double as overload indicators. They would be more useful if the 'mic active' LED for the front mic was located on the rear of the unit, and vice versa.

I purchased a 4 SDHC Gigabyte card for my unit. I ran a test at 96 kHz and 24 bit depth. After 1 hour, 2 minutes and 8 seconds, the recorder starts a second file. Unfortunately, this takes several seconds to accomplish.

That is precisely right if you're recording in four track mode, Bob. The maximum file size the H2 will create is 2 gigaybytes (actually 2.147 billion bytes). That number divided by 96K, divided by 3 (24 bits = 3 bytes), divided by 2 (laying down two stereo tracks) is exactly 1 hour, 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

But if we don't shoot higher than the 48Khz, 16 bit single stereo track of most camcorders we'll get two uninterrupted sessions of over six hours each on that 4 gig card! (With the power adapter, of course).

My gripe is that the H2 doesn't actually upload at USB 2.0 rates, at least with the SDHC card. Good thing the card came with a mini card reader that does transfer at USB 2.0 rates.

2 gigabytes
 

I was not using four track mode. I was only using the front mikes to create one stereo pair. But when I multiply 96000 x 24 x 3600 x 2 / 8, I get 2 gigabytes (for one stereo pair).

It occurs to me that Zoom could use the mic LEDs as is to indicate the pairs in use, but flash BOTH mic LEDs for overloads. That would probably only require a software upgrade, and it would be more useful than the current scheme.