Zoom H4N vs Tascam DR 100?

J

Johnny Bueno

Active member
Hey all.

After a bit of research I've decided that its between either of these two. I plan on learning how to record audio separately to sync in post, but for the time being, I will record audio directly into my 5D via "Sescom LN2MIC-ZMH4-MON"

Here is a link to it:

http://www.markertek.com/Cables/Aud...ce=Online&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=DSLR

That being said, which audio recoder does everyone suggest? the H4N or the Tascam? Does either have better audio than the other? Also has anyone used the "Sescom LN2MIC-ZMH4-MON" and how is the audio when using it? Lastly, is the Sescom adapter compatible with the Tascam Dr 100? if not, is there an adapter for it? Thanks for any help.
 
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well the tascam has only two channels of audio, and the zoom has 4. HOWEVER, the tascam has manual gain control where the zoom does not.
 
JAWflyer3 said:
well the tascam has only two channels of audio, and the zoom has 4. HOWEVER, the tascam has manual gain control where the zoom does not.
Click to expand...

It does :undecided Easily too. Tracks 3 and 4 can also be controlled separately.

Or am I missing something?
 
I use both and feel the Tascam is much better, because its preamps are more sensitive and and when you use it as a standalone recorder, the audiosync is perfect while the Zoom has an annoying sync drift of about 1 frame per 5 minutes. If you don't need the standalone recording, I can recommend the Beachtek DSLR box, the pre-amps are great and provide you with clean audio with low noise level which both the Zoom and Tascam can't provide you with unless you're recording heavy metal concerts.
 
my mistake, I might be thinking of another recorder, or the fact that the tascams have dedicated switches on the back of the unit
 
I just got the Zoom, and though I havn't used the Tascam. Im very impressed with it! Overall they are pretty much identical.

Plus for

DR-100 are 48V Phantom Power
Wireless Remote Included

H4N are
Longer Batter life: AC/DC power and USB (not sure about DR-100 on USB power)
4 Channel Audio
 
But the H4N has serious audio drift while the DR100 is absolute sync. Some don't want to know about it though and keep pretending the H4N is a reliable device, others work at such a level that they don't notice the audio drift of 1 frame per 5 minutes or they don't mind having to correct it all the time. The Zoom shouldn't be on the market on the first place, if it was a car it would have been called back to the factory already. Maybe they fixed the audio drift in their latest firmware though, never read anything about that.

RileyRobertson said:
I just got the Zoom, and though I havn't used the Tascam. Im very impressed with it! Overall they are pretty much identical.

Plus for

DR-100 are 48V Phantom Power
Wireless Remote Included

H4N are
Longer Batter life: AC/DC power and USB (not sure about DR-100 on USB power)
4 Channel Audio
Click to expand...
 
My vote to DR-100

My vote to DR-100

Hi there,

I have been through the same dilemma last year. However, I've chosen the Tascam DR-100 because:

:-Mark-14(DBG) I do not need 4 channels. I can work with 2 perfectly fine.
:-Mark-14(DBG) It has a line out in case you want to output to an external source (besides the headphone output).
:-Mark-14(DBG) I do not need 96k recording.
:-Mark-14(DBG) It has a dual battery system which is pretty handy and saved me on a few takes. The internal battery and the double AAs. Which they will back up each other depending who dies first. You can also set up which power source is the primary of the two.
:-Mark-14(DBG) I also bought the power supply (3rd source of power) which will also charge your internal battery while plugged.

Those were the main reasons why I picked the DR-100 over the H4N.

I hope this helps :thumbsup:

Peace
 
The H4n pre-amps are noisy.

I'm using a Sony PCM-D50 and a juicedlink pre for XLR input. Really nice combo.
 
People tend to go for the hottest stuff. H4n has tons of toy features to play with, and has been popular for quite a while. So go for it, and you may like it too.

Be cool. Due to its toy features and ease to use, H4n is more for a musician or a serious layman to do location recording. The audio source is typically loud (and likely noisy too), so the noise from its preamp is less a problem for them. But if you want the cleanest possible audio recordings with a portable recorder, H4n is no longer the right/best choice for its price. For audio for video, you typically just need to record dialogs (and likely sound effects too), and you always want to do that in a cleanest possible way. Now, noise from the preamp becomes a huge issue, as always. And play features like half baked 4 channel recording, built-in cool effects (which I think are really cool to a musician or layman), stamina mode (do you really want to sacrifice your job performance for saving your batteries' life??)... do not matter any more.

Be cool, and you'll notice that DR-100 reportedly has better preamp for the same price. And if you want a portable recorder with remarkably low noise floor, go for a Sony model, such as Sony PCM-D50. A cheaper model, M10, has few toy features like H4n does. But reportedly it does one thing much better than H4n: record audio with low noise.

Go for a hot item, or be cool? That's the question...
 
You're more than likely right about the H4N but to say people buy it just to be cool is incredibly patronizing.
 
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