today at jw pepper we're taking a look at the zoom
q8 handy video recorder we're going to show you what it comes with how it works and some use
cases but more importantly i want to talk to you about why i think this is the best
and most affordable video camera for musicians or music teachers let's get started
so being a musician who later took up shooting and editing video
the one question i get asked frequently from my musician friends or music teacher friends is
what is the best slash cheapest camera i can get to record myself for my band or my
students for lessons or concerts and this is a really hard question what is cheap and what is
your idea of the best and the world of cameras cheap might not be what most people think of
what i always ask first and remember this is speaking to musicians or music teachers
is audio important and the answer is always of course it is probably more than video well this is
going to make cheap a lot harder this is where a device like the zoom q8 handy video recorder comes
in zoom is an audio company that makes fantastic audio recorders of all varieties of price points
we've talked about them in past videos and we even use them for our own production needs at jw pepper
in fact i'm recording on a zoom audio recorder right now the zoom q8 is basically a zoom h4n
pro which is a great audio recorder with a stereo mic and two xlr inputs however the q8 also has
a camera and this is a big deal a lot of people immediately gravitate or think about the following
options when considering a camera to record audio situations one why not just use my phone the phone
has a great video quality however for audio it's just not ideal sure you can plug in an external
mic however more and more phones are losing their ports and trust me soon one of the biggest phones
will not have any ports at all and bluetooth mics are not great at least at the moment
plus anyone who has really tried filming with their phone for an extended period of time
realizes all the extra items needed to make this happen like charging and the ability to hear the
audio while recording remember there's only one port so connectors and dongles and all those
things are things you'll need to buy number two what about a gopro you might have one of these
again good video quality but you'll need to add things like an external mic and depending on the
model of gopro or action cam those can really vary in quality and these are mostly used for voice
so recording an entire band or orchestra is not going to happen with good quality from a
lavalier mic or the onboard mic of a gopro number three what about a dslr or mirrorless camera
well now we're into the price problem however we're still in the audio woods as well
these cameras are amazing at video i'm filming with one for this entire video right now however
they don't have good audio channels or options to plug in mics we're using a separate audio recorder
remember the zoom audio recorder that we sync in the edit in this case you need to buy a separate
audio recorder for the camera that you just spent a lot of money on so number four the other
option is what about a camera that has dedicated microphone inputs if you have a camera like this
one they're great since you can plug in any mic to them however they can be very very expensive
and they're usually used more for production based companies or things of that nature so to sum it up
all of these options are absolutely great at video but they're very poor at audio and you're a music
teacher or a musician and that's what matters the most so let's dive into the q8 and all of
its great features and shows some of the use cases to showcase how easy it is to get great quality
audio and video from this camera so here's the q8 in its box and it says right here the world's
best sounding video camera in the box we have the camera itself which is a very compact camera it
has a fully articulating screen and comes with a mounted interchangeable stereo microphone more on
that later we also get some additional items the windscreen which has really saved me in outside
situations a lens cap and a removable lens hood a removable rechargeable battery a small wrist strap
and a tripod converter to go to a gopro style mount the camera itself is capable of recording
video at higher than hd quality it can record in 2.3 k which is convenient for editing it has lower
quality video options as well to save on space the lens is a wide angle lens with a 2.0 aperture
which is not bad in low leg concert situations but it's very nice to allow for a close placement of
the camera and still get a very wide angle the screen is fully articulating so it's great for
recording yourself or positioning the camera at low or high angles the screen itself is a touch
screen which is very convenient for changing settings on the fly we have two dedicated xlr
inputs that can also accept quarter inch inputs as well it has dedicated audio gain knobs for those
xlr inputs and buttons right on the side to select those channels without needing to go into menus
additionally there's a detachable stereo xy microphone which is a great sounding
stereo mic however this is the same detachable microphone system found on many zoom recorders
so these mics can be swapped out in place for this stereo mic for example you could use a shotgun
microphone but zoom also offers another option to add two xlr inputs giving you the ability to
have four dedicated microphones plugged into this camera on the back with the xlr inputs we have our
dedicated headphone jack an hdmi to go out to an external monitor and a usb port to go for either
data or charging and this can be used to power the camera while you're recording for longer sessions
one bonus feature if you watch either of our previous videos on tech accessories
we've talked a lot about audio interfaces and just like other zoom audio recorders you can
use this camera not only as a camera but you can also use it just as an audio interface to get
additional mics into your computer for recording you can also use this camera to step up your video
calls like we talked about in our previous music workstation video which can be found right here
this camera is better and wider than normal webcams and can be positioned
at the desk wherever and allows for better audio options as well going into the settings we have
all the options for higher or lower video quality the q8 also offers some presets for different
looks of the video as well but the main features are all of the options on how to record your audio
and video together the video file will always record all the audio inputs you have selected
so if you have the stereo mic and one additional mic it will mix those together and give you one
video file with the audio file attached and this is one option that you can use to record with
another option is to record with higher quality audio in wave format in separate tracks and it
will give you those files separately to allow for better audio and video editing options
in this case you can choose to only use the audio files for better audio and keep the video as a
reference or you can mix them together in a video editor having all the options to mix all the audio
and video separately here are some examples of ways you might want to consider using the q8 with
or without additional mics so here's an example of using the zoom qa video recorder in a drum lesson
i have the lavalier microphone going into channel 1 and we have the built-in stereo xy mic to record
the drum set you're gonna hear the sound quality of this and why the preamps of this recorder
really make it shine versus any other video camera out there i'll also give you an example of what
it sounds like with those sounds processed using the separate wave files that we would
get from this also as i said before we have options in the way that we're recording this
we can record the video directly with the audio in in one mix as you're gonna hear but we can
also use the audio in a separate mix since we're getting those audio files separately in wav files
so here we go i'm going to play some drums for you
here's an example of a friend of mine who works for a local church
and how she has been using the qa for her weekly piano segments for their service
she's always working solo so the convenience of the wide angle really helps with being able to
position the camera close to her and still get the shot that she wants but more importantly she
can get a good sound out of the piano since the stereo mic is right next to the piano
the q8 has allowed making music virtually a possibility for me and it's allowed me to put
out a product that i'm proud of and one that i know my congregation and my students appreciate
so that's our overview of the q8 handy video recorder i really like tech products that
provide value for me especially as someone in the field of music sometimes i need one thing
that does many things and the q8 really does all of that it's a camera a field recorder an audio
interface all in one small package we hope that you found some value in this video today adding
something like a video camera for a musician can really be a daunting task i know i've done it
but it really can step up your game for lots of things and this camera really checks a lot of the
boxes for musicians and music teachers if you did find this video helpful please give us a thumbs
up let us know in the comments below if you would like to see more videos like this one and remember
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