In desperation I found myself wandering around Best Buy and and eyeing with greedy stares the the Same Samson Mic I bought for playing harp. I figured I could hook them up in a pair and get stereo that way. They’ve been doing that for years. Then my sickly wanting gaze fell upon the blue star… er… Samson Zoom H1.

At $99 it was within my budgetary constraints (well not quite), and it fit the bill perfectly. If it was anything like It’s big brother, the Zoom H4n I would be set. I dropped the coin and picked up the last one on the rack.

I prayed that it wouldn’t be the disappointment the pocket memo recorder was (that’s a different story and involves the loss of some nice interviews). I pulled out some cables and my Kodak and headed to the Caddy for the jam.

The Zoom H1 has some really cool things and  some stuff that bugs me but, since I’m the kind of guy that always has a gripe (the lack of aperture control and manual zoom on my Kodak Zi8 for instance.. still love the camera) so, don’t take the negatives as hatred.

The Good

Mic quality is real good and it gets great stereo. The sound is full and cuts room noise. I recorded a band in a room full of people

and got a great recording. This is Kent Woodruff singing and playing harp in that room. It’s a tough room to mic too. The PA system is hung overhead and the band is set up with amps on the ground in behind them on the wall. The drummer isn’t mic’ed so in order to get the best audio, you have to be in the middle of the room… in the middle of the crowd. Once you get the record input set right it works like a charm. There is an issue when you hook it up to the camera but I will get to that later.

I like that it’s not just a stereo mic but also a recorder. It records in mp3 and wav format and has simple yet effective recording controls. This thing is great for recording mp3s for release. Set it up in front of you, hang a few carpets on the walls and record away. If you are shooting video, the record function gives you a great layer of redundancy. If you don’t get the video (like I did, I forgot to check my camera and it didn’t have memory in it) you still get an audio track. If there’s a problem with the audio on your video you can dub in the recording in post and save the video.

It has a headphone jack that I split and run to my camera. I can monitor with my headphones while recording direct sync to video, sweet! The one hitch is you have to control the headphone output to the camera or it might overdrive the cameras mic input and cause distortion. The first videos I shot with it had this problem. I didn’t know about it until I was back at the house checking my videos. the mp3s on the H1 were great quality so if I had really needed to, I could have dubbed in the better quality mp3 on the video.

Something to watch for is the quality you’re recording at on the H1. By default, it records at low quality so bump it up to get the best sound.

It takes 1 AA battery and gives 10 hours worth of recording time. It doesn’t have the ability to run on external power from what I can tell. I will mess with the USB and see what I can find out.

The Bad

There is a mic/line in on the side of the Zoom H1 and it overrides the input from the on board stereo mics. Unless there is a setting I missed that would allow me to mix it in. It isn’t a big gripe but I would lover to be able to mic a singer as well as record the band in stereo. It’s big brother the H4n can do this so why not this little beauty? That’s pretty much the only major gripe I have.

The Ugly

My father always said, “The problem with cheap plastic furniture is it’s cheap and plastic.” Cheap and plastic come to mind when looking at this thing. Will I overcome the pain? Yes, it is a great package and at $99. If it breaks in a drop, it won’t break the bank to replace.

It records to MicroSD. I don’t mind MicroSD but I would have preferred a standard size. Would it have given it that unsightly a bulge? Not a big deal but I like to whine.

Where To From Here?

Wireless. The 3 ways I can set this thing up are: 1) hooked to the camera 2) set up on a tripod in front of the subject with a long cable to the camera and 3) disconnected from the camera to be dubbed in in post.

If I could go wireless and be able to record directly to my camera, I would be a happy man. There was a time, before bluetooth, before wireless headphones when there were adapters you could hook to your headphones and to you home stereo. That would be perfect if I could find one.

The other idea is the mp3 player adapters that broadcast on FM. You know the ones, they allow you to use your mp3 player on your cheap old car stereo. Get one of those and a one of those little FM stereos, broadcast from the Zoom H1 and hook the FM stereo to the camera. I just don’t trust tech that super cheap. It’s worth a try I guess.

Can you guys think of anything?