After doing a little looking around for an audio recording device to compliment my photography kit, I decided to go with the Zoom H4n. After holding a few peer products and visiting Best Buy and Guitar Center enough times that they know who I am, I chose to go with the one product that I had not put a finger on. I just couldn’t resist testing out the audio recorder that many online folks that I read quite a bit were justifiably applauding. If there’s anything the Internet is good for, it’s reading other people’s opinions, and photography and electronic equipment is not the least bit absent of users’ attitudes toward and perspectives on gear. This is a good thing, of course. If there’s enough users screaming adoration for a particular product, it might be worth checking out! Then again, we know the other side to this as well.

That being said, there are plenty of great reviews about the Zoom H4n out there, and if you’re in the market for a higher-end audio recorder, then more than likely, you’ve heard about it as well. This review notes those features that I really enjoy (that I’ve experienced since I received it three weeks ago) and find extremely useful for my work.

First off, I’ve used the H4n’s little brother, the H2, in a few situations in the past, and the first thing you notice when holding the H4n is how much more solid the casing feels. The aluminum body surrounded by a nice rubberized enclosure feels like it could take a drop or two, and that’s at minimum some comfort when doing a lot of work in the field versus the studio. The H4n is also quite a bit heavier than its predecessors. However much larger it is, it still fits nicely with all the other gear.

The device itself is a little smaller than an extended Canon 580EX speedlite, and it comes along with a usable, plastic protective case. The case makes it nice to just slide in a slot in my camera backpack (Lowepro Photo Trekker AW II). I haven’t had to switch to my shoulder bag yet, but I anticipate it fitting in just as well.

The layout of the buttons is simple and super easy to navigate. I value usability, and if it’s just straight recording you want to do with this thing, then you won’t have any problem with it right out of the box. Scrolling the menus is intuitive, and all of the input and output controls on the surface are obvious from the get go. The amber backlit LCD isn’t too harsh on the eyes as well.

In terms of audio, I’m very pleased! I spent the better part of the past three weeks just recording the sounds of nature, and clarity is what I got! The onboard stereo microphones are pretty outstanding, and being able to control the input volume on the fly is a nice feature. The upgraded preamp in the H4n does its job, and recordings sound substantially better on laptops, desktops, and satellite speakers than the H2 and H4. When recording in stereo, switching from the onboard microphones to the XLR and 1/4″ jacks located at the bottom of the device is done with a touch of a button. I ran phantom power from the device to an Azden shotgun mic plugged in to one channel, and although it increased the battery usage, you cannot hear the effect in the recordings.

For a straight out of the device example, the following clip exhibits the quality of the onboard microphones (I record everything in WAV, 48kHz/24-bit format, although it does record in MP3 as well, and higher and lower frequencies and bit-rates):

You can also check out other stereo examples in the video photo essay I posted a few days ago. The diesel engine at the beginning is a great example of the clarity I mentioned earlier.

I haven’t had a great deal of time to play with the multi-track functionality of the H4n, but in what little time I have, I was very impressed. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in a recording studio, and you expect a little device like this to pale extremely in light of huge mixer boards, pro-grade preamps, Pro-Tools, and other proprietary studio recording gear. That wasn’t the case with the H4n, and Zoom, being a company focused quite a bit on the music industry, didn’t skimp on capabilities for the money. I sat down with an acoustic guitar yesterday to test this feature out, and easily recorded a couple quick clips. Although the multi-track function isn’t as intuitive as the default stereo recording (which if you’re a photographer or videographer, you’ll use more anyways), a little manual reading will set you straight.

Here is the first clip I recorded, and besides a little levels and EQ tweaking in the included Cubase software, it’s just the recorder, guitar, and rusty fingers:

Below is the second clip, and for what it’s worth, this was the first time I had used the Cubase software, and its layout is fairly simple as well. Exporting in the format you want requires a bit of work, but other than that, I’ll probably continue to use it on at least the multi-track work:

I can’t go without mentioning that all the recordings I’ve created have also been with the addition of a Redhead windscreen. The H4n comes with a standard windscreen, but it’s thin, and just can’t cut it, especially in the strong winds of the southern plains. This is possibly the best video example of how good the Redhead works: http://www.redheadwindscreens.com/. This is a necessary addition to the H4n in my opinion, so if you’re getting ready to purchase the recorder, just throw down for a screen as well. They’re not especially cheap, but they do what they’re made for. Period.

A useful review can’t go without noting any weaknesses of the product. For what I’m using the H4n mostly for (photo-essay recording, ambient sounds, interviews), I can’t fault it too much. I’m really precarious about the whereabouts of the onboard microphones, though. They are placed at the top of the device, external of any protective chassis. If you were to drop this recorder, you’ll just need to pray that it falls on any side but the top. It looks like Zoom has figured this out for the H1, which is the newer, very little brother to the H4n and H2. I’m being fairly picky with this next one, but I wish the battery door was hinged to the device instead of separable. It’ll be my luck that while I’m changing batteries, I’ll drop it in a field of Johnson grass, never to be seen again. But again, that’s being awfully picky. However, if this is all I have to complain about for my use of the H4n, I think I’m settled alright.

All in all, the Zoom H4n is a solid working, impressively quite, functional, and flexible recording device. I barely scratched the surface of what it can do in terms of recording, but I don’t have a big need for some of the recording capabilities (like the computed guitar effects and metronome). What I wanted was a recorder that was easily portable yet with audio that was simply put: professional. That’s what I got, and for $300.00, you’re pressed to find another that is this capable.