Zoom H2 Errors

[Dana Salsbury]

When I mic a pastor with the Zoom I make sure the meter is running. Far too often when I pget it back one of two things has happened:

1. It is zero'd out and didn't record anything, as if I hadn't hit record (which I know isn't true)
2. It says 'card full' even though it was a 15 minute speech on a fresh 4gb card.

I'm going to try formatting the sd cards in the Zooms themselves...any other thoughts?

[Andy Wilkinson]

I've had point 1 occur to me on at least 1 occasion, maybe twice - thought I must be going senile (I'm much too young for that!) as I was ABSOLUTELY sure I'd set it to record and seen the continuous red LED before placing it carefully in position. Now I know this has happened to someone else I'll watch this more carefully.

[Tim Ribich]

Originally Posted by Andy Wilkinson

... I was ABSOLUTELY sure I'd set it to record and seen the continuous red LED before placing it carefully in position.

I loaned my H2 to a friend to record a Xmas choir performance. When he brought it back for me to download the files it was obvious something was not right as the files on the card were very small. Turned out he didn't understand my instructions and thought that "flashing red" meant it was recording. Hopefully by next Xmas his wife will have forgiven him... ;-).

Andy: I assumed you've tried the obvious (over/above checking to make sure it's in record mode) such as bad sd card? I'd definitely format in the Zoom itself. I've had issues when not doing this.

[Dana Salsbury]

Yeah, it' just silly to have to hit it twice. I just make sure the meter is running...but...I think alot of people are blaming themselves when it's software related. I've come to believe that I HAVE to format EACH time IN the Zoom, and not on my comp. I believe that is the solution to both probs.

[Tom Hardwick]

Nice machine the H2, but I'd have expected it to keep sync with my camcorders at least as well as my ancient Minidisc. It doesn't.

[Dana Salsbury]

I used to have to re-sync when I used mini-dv, but now that I'm filming to SD cards I don't ever have to (for what it's worth).

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Tom Hardwick

Nice machine the H2, but I'd have expected it to keep sync with my camcorders at least as well as my ancient Minidisc. It doesn't.

With a file-based recorder like the Zoom you're recording with one sample clock and playing back with another. If there is any discrepency between the two clock rates, the playback length will be diifferent from the original recording time. When you ingested your minidisc recording you were playing it back on the same platform that you used to make the original recording. As a result, a recording that took 5 minutes 37 seconds and 17 frames to make is going to play back at very close to the same duration.

[Jay Massengill]

The Zoom H4 and H2 are sensitive to specific card types, speeds and capacities. And they definitely should be formatted in the Zoom, and I don't delete or add files using the computer either. I do all file operations inside the Zoom.
I experienced similar problems as described by the OP using high speed (but not SDHC) cards. I dropped back to 2Gb non-HC 50x to 60x speed and had no more "lost" recordings.
I have experienced a couple of odd drop-outs during the first minute of the first recording after a formatting inside the Zoom with one specific brand of card (Corsair). So now I always record about 2 minutes of nothing important after formatting and I leave that file on the card to occupy that space in memory.

[Dana Salsbury]

Very interesting Jay, although I don't get the two minute thing. I think we had the most problems using 8gb Class-4 SDHC cards. Now we use 4GB Class-2 SDHC cards. 4gb is more than enough to hold a wedding and ceremony. We used rechargables and record all night continuously, with both the batteries and the card holding up.

Another issue I'm having is that the Zoom cannot remember the settings I plug in after I turn it off. I thought th firmware update would fix it, but no dice.

[Jay Massengill]

My old H4 remembers the settings that are stored on the memory card from the last recording. If I put in a different card or a formatted card, it goes back to the previous settings on the newly installed card or it goes back to the default settings with a formatted card. I don't know about the other models.

[Dana Salsbury]

FYI: We've filmed several weddings since my last post. By formatting the cards *in the Zoom* we have enjoyed perfect sound without error.