Tech Tuesday: Zoom H4n Handy Mobile Recorder

Last January, on a film shoot for the March of Dimes, I had the opportunity to photograph and interview golf legend Arnold Palmer.

I was all set to pack my trusty Sony EX-3 Camera and load it up with a Sennheiser shotgun mic, packed a couple of Sennheiser wireless mic units with the Tram50 mic attachments, and my golf clubs and head on down to Florida to get the job done.

Only one problem, the client insisted that we don't use "big, official looking" cameras. 

I hemmed and I hawed about the value of capturing a once in a lifetime opportunity with the right equipment, but the client insisted that I use that "little camera" she saw me shooting with a few months earlier. 

The Canon Rebel T2i. 

I had been using the T2i to capture some video of a conference that I was running A/V at in Ft. Lauderdale, with the intention to create a goofy highlight video to be played on the last day. 

I was able to get my hands on a Canon 5D, so better video quality than the Rebel T2i helped calm my nerves a bit. I still had to find a proper way to record audio, as the built in mics on the 5D and the T2i suck.

A fellow videographer in Chicago, JJ Kim of Orange Video Productions, had used the Zoom H4n Handy Mobile 4-Track Recorder for a shoot he did for the March of Dimes, and we were pleased with the result.

I ordered a Zoom H4n from B&H and did some quick tests with it before I headed down to Orlando.

The Zoom H4n was perfect for what I needed. It has two microphones sticking out of the top of the device and two XLR inputs at the bottom. The H4n records to SD cards as .wav files, so drag and drop editing allowed me to edit the piece by the time my plane landed back in New York.

I was able to attach the Sennheiser shotgun to the top of the Canon 5D with a shock mount and ran a 5 foot XLR cable into the H4n, which was comfortably resting in my back pocket.

The whole setup was awkward and, without a proper slate, it took me a little while to match up the audio to the video, but that's not the Zoom H4n's fault.

B&H lists the Zoom H4n at $299.00, a little pricey but worth it in the end. I'm hoping we find a need to use this device again, hopefully sometime in the near future.