Tell me which one looks better, what
you're viewing right now or
this?
Now, I'm sure there is an obvious
answer here to which one does
look better, but
is it that far off in this video?
I'm gonna be talking about the zoom
Q4 and how sometimes it's
more about simplicity than
quality.
What's up? My name's Javier Mercedes
and I do video territorials and give
reviews on this channel.
If you're into that kind of thing,
go ahead and hit that subscribe
button. Let's dove right into it.
The zoom Q4 n.
I think the name of the game with
this recorder is right here in the
title. It's a handy video
recorder. The ergonomics.
This thing has the
retro feel of
an old school camcorder where you
hold it like this.
The form factor fits in your pocket
and it has a flippy screen so
you can record yourself.
You can also point the video screen
down so you can hold it over your
head like this over a crowd.
And the fact that my more expensive
Sony mirrorless cameras don't have
a screen that tilts out to the side
irks me to the point that I love
this camera even more.
And even with the Sony camera I own
that has a flip screen where I can
see myself.
If you look right here, if you have
a microphone, you're not going to be
able to see the screen.
That's why I like the zoom.
Attenuating screen better.
And speaking of screens,
the screen on here is a touch
screen.
It's not like an iPhone.
But look at this.
I can scrubs through here, exit
out and go back.
Maybe I want to go to my settings.
It does a very good job of
being a touch screen.
Another pro that many people don't
think about is where the SD
card slot is.
Here's a plate from my man, Frodo
Tripod.
My SD card slot is still
accessible with this play
on.
What's also nice is since the video
quality isn't very high.
You don't need it very fast or
expensive SD card.
The next thing I appreciate is that
the rubber cap for the lens always
stays with the camera.
As you can see, it ties into this
little loop right here and
fits right on to
the end of the camera.
I guarantee you, if you've been
shooting long enough, you've
probably lost a lens cap.
Here or there, the video quality
of this camera could be comparable
to earlier versions of GoPros.
Probably not the newer versions.
It still gets by like I really
don't mind the video quality that
comes out of this camera.
For the price now the Q4
end trumps all of the smaller
action cameras.
Is the fact that it has a built
in stereo pair microphone
system right on camera.
And these things sound amazing.
Here's an audio test of me inside
the same room.
Here's an audio test of me inside
the same room. But from an iPhone
seven plus, here's an audio test
of me inside the same room.
I will say they are sensitive.
So if you take them outside, you're
going to want to put one of those
furry things on the
microphones because it will
pick up the wind, probably hear
the wind inside the microphones.
And here is the same audio test.
But now I have the very thing on the
microphones and hopefully it sounds
so much better.
Sticking with simplicity, this thing
has two buttons and a knob on top.
Power and record.
I love how simple that is.
You can't really mess that up
when you powered on.
It will have a little green light
right there. And when you hit
record, the light turns red.
It's that simple on the screen
itself. It has a red button that
shows you that it's recording
with the battery in.
Right. Up here is the information.
It has the levels right on camera.
I think it's awesome that you can
adjust your volume level with a
physical knob on the camera.
If you were using a DSL or you would
have to dig into a menu and then
click what you would want to
set your levels to on the back of
the camera. You have it an extra
mike in.
You have headphones, you have an
HDMI out and you have
a u_s_b_ in.
Now this means that you can be
powering the camera while it's
recording. And this does not have
a record limit.
So it's perfect for,
say, recording a podcast, which
is why I use these for most
of the time.
Now it does record continuously,
but it does take that single
recording in, chop it
up into separate files.
So it will have
one 19 minute in 17
second file.
That's 3.6 9 gigabytes.
And then it will move on to
this zie 0 0
2 0 2 right here,
which is the same recording, but
it truncates it into that same
duration and file size
and moves up into this see
0 2 0 3.
But this gets really confusing
because these two files
are linked to see of
two. And if you look at these files,
they're in alphabetical order.
But these two files come before
the original file, which is kind of
weird and takes a little getting
used to. But I would rather
have some weird folder
structure than not have the
capability of continuous
record. I think my main qualm
with why I don't use this camera
more is because of that
audio wind issue that I brought up.
There, if you don't have something
to protect the microphones, your
audio will most likely end up like
this.
Then you get the footage
into the editor
and you have to.
My second issue with the camera.
Are these weird rainbow lens flares
that happened with the camera fairly
often, depending on how you
face it towards light.
But it happens more often than
a usual camera would have lens
flares. Zoom does provide you
with a lens hood to completely
eradicate that issue, but
it is something that could be lost
fairly easy.
Some people may say like, hey, I
wish you could get better visual
quality with this camera, which
I mean, obviously it would be
awesome to get like the best
visual quality with
any camera that you buy.
But I think for the price that you
pay in the fact that it
does have awesome audio quality
if you have the proper setup
is enough.
The other thing is if this had
excel or inputs, there
is another version of this camera
and it's called the Zoom Q8 and
I'm actually very curious
because you can swap out the
microphones on the zoom Q8
to any of the proprietory
microphones of the zoom line
and it does have excellent inputs.
So it seems like they just
wanted to have this camera for this
price point.
Now, I will say I believe Zoom has
discontinued this camera,
but I wanted to just do a review
of it anyway because I think
it's better to review
something after you've been using it
for X amount of years and like
it. Look, I still use this thing
all the time.
I just released a video
that was shooting with the
Sony F7 and half
of that video was footage from
this camera.
Would I buy the zoom
Q4 and now
I honestly don't know because
I would probably if you're gonna
be spending the money on something
like this at this point.
There's so many other action
cameras out there or little small
cameras that can get great footage
or there's just like the
iPhone at wide angle.
Those are great cameras as well.
This one just has these microphones
on top that are awesome.
And I think one of the reasons why
Zoom has probably discontinued
making the Q for N is because
the zoom Q A is really
the only recorder that it has
that has a competitive advantage
over things like a cell phone or
the other action cameras that are
out now because other action
cameras have modules that you
can place on them, which is like
it's crazy that they allow you to do
that now, which is I think is
awesome.
So that zoom Q8.
The fact that it has
excel are inputs that can provide
phantom power and
it has the interchangeable
microphone up top.
So you could have a shotgun
microphone with the whole flippy
screen in same form factor as this.
Plus that camera only has one button
on top. It's just the record button.
Like that's awesome.
But I do have to give credit to the
zoom Q4 in.
In fact I own two of them.
They are super dependable.
I've never had one die on me
other than like a battery going out
and that's user error.
But I've never had a corrupt file.
Whenever my other cameras go out
during a podcast, I always
know that I can count on this camera
to get the record done.
And I don't have to worry about
losing an interview.
The video footage, because at least
I know that this thing was
recording.
So I think simplicity
trumps quality in that
matter. Where this thing
is so easy to use in, it's so
stable of a device that I know I can
count on it to record the things
that I need it to.
I mean, I would recommend it for
those reasons, but I'm sure
there are other cameras out there
that if you're looking for better
visual quality
for a form factor like this,
then go with that other camera.
But if this thing kind of like
suits your fancy and your
piqued your interest, maybe you look
at this zoom Q8 or
you could check out eBay.
Maybe these are super cheap now
because they're discontinued and
people are just getting rid of them.
I have two of them, so you know,
I like them.
Let me know in the comments down
below what you think is something
like this camera still necessary
or.
Would you get another camera?
Does something like the Zoom Q8
sound like a great idea?
Does simplicity over
the visual quality really
matter for you in your circumstance?
For me, I have other cameras that
have great visual qualities.
So this helped me
in so many ways.
And just providing a backup, if
you want to check out more gear
reviews that I've done.
I put a playlist on the screen right
here and if you did like
this video, you could throw a thumbs
up on it and leave me a comment down
below until next
episode. I hope you're out there
living a life of abundance.
I'll see you guys next time.