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I purchased the Zoom H5 primarily for sound effects recording and film production. If you don't need the multi-channel capabilities of its more popular sibling the H6, the Zoom H5 is a solid portable recorder and comes at a great price. It's comfortable to hold; I can access many of the vital controls with my thumb while holding the H5 in the palm of my hand. The H5 does actually have multichannel capabilities as well- you can record 4 tracks simultaneously, though the sample rate caps out at 48kHz when doing this. Still, that's fine for indie film shoots where you might have a couple of radio mics as well as your boom. The H5 uses the same interchangeable-mic setup as the H6, so if you don't want to use the provided X-Y module, you can swap out for the M/S module or an extra set of XLR ins (these are sold separately). This is a fantastic feature that really makes the H5 (and 6) a flexible tool that's useful across a number of applications. The H5 uses standard SD cards to store data; I prefer this to the proprietary cards used by the last portable field recorder I used. Sound quality is good; the X-Y mics are shockmounted so that handling noise is minimized. I also purchased the accessory kit which includes a fuzzy "dead cat" windscreen that works very well. My one quibble is that the placement of the gain knob on the X-Y module makes it a challenge to get the windscreen on firmly while still being able to adjust the gain.That's a minor issue, though. Overall I'm very happy with this unit.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Used the H5 with the XYH6 X-Y capsule set to 120 degree separation to record a holiday symphony concert. The recorder was 5 rows into the audience on a tripod. The recorder was set to 24bit 48K. Excellent sound stage width, great clarity to the recording and good bass. Everyone, including the conductor was very pleased with results.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

This is the best entry-level to the professional audio recorder. I used this model on two movies for remote recording and dialogue. Its great as a podcasting recorder, or anything really. It truly is a recording studio in your hand. The only thing advice I can give is to stock up on batteries as it goes through them pretty quickly if you are recording audio for film. I also recommend using the best quality batteries. This is my go to!

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

This is an amazing recorder. Using the correct SD card is important though. There was a show at a local bar that was a decent size & fairly busy. If you watch your clipping settings you can record excellent live audio with the original microphones it comes with. It impressed me so much. The mic connections are fantastic and a great alternative.Me and a friend have a podcast which after this product we bought the Zoom Podcast outfit. However, in the background I captured perfect audio using this H5 for cork popping and everything else that was necessary for the podcast. I keep it recording thru out the podcast recording in general and whenever we open a new bottle we make sure to bring the bottle about 6 inches away from the mic on the H5 to record the opening 'pop'. The audio from both products always comes back delightful. We haven't been so happy with equipment prior to this. Some things in the past were always a hassle and we weren't always pleased with the audio with other products.This H5 was used to record an Orange 35RT amp as well as the Mojotone pedal head with a Panama speaker. I'm just amazed by the quality of the audio. I haven't used it for drums but I'm about to set something up this weekend.Lastly, I'm a paranormal investigator and I instinctively and religiously use this for Paranormal Investigations alongside an SB11. It's excellent for capturing any and all audio within the room. I use it from beginning to end, notetaking verbally, and everything else because of how reliable it is. If I have any product issues it's everything but the H5. So, this is one of my most important pieces of equipment to every single scheduled investigation I do. Battery life is excellent compared to others.The audio files transfer perfectly to computer by pulling out the SD card and dropping the card into a laptop. Files transfer was so easy and has come back the highest in quality when I placed the files from it into Sound Forge and ProTools. It's never disappointed. Learning to use it I just watched a YouTube video instead of reading the book, there's plenty of YouTube videos but feel free to watch various ones as some people provide you alternative ways to use it. I recommend that when using the H5 you want to station it somewhere you won't be in direct contact with. As in, if you put it on a table and you use your hands a lot (as my fellow podcaster friend does) it will capture every bump and swish of the shirt against the table. So, find a stable spot within range. It's really that good, it captures everything. The reason I bought this is I owned the Zoom Camera (Q2n & Q8) and I found the audio was amazing. I wasn't crazy about video footage though. I was extremely happy with how the audio turned out. This pretty much provided me the decision to go with one of their recording devices and after further research I bought the H5. My experience using the H5 brought me to buy the Zoom Podcast package. I'm so pleased with this company's products I cannot imagine using anything else now and I have so many recording options but I prefer this H5 over all of them.I have had questions and contacted the company a few times, very friendly and helpful customer service.

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The packaging of this product is great comes with a hard shell case that will protect the unit only . The build of this unit is extremely sturdy it feels solid . The sound quality is awesome , we do blogs and podcasts from live shows in the settings add compressor and it does a wonderful job of filtering out unwanted noises (ie band playing in the background while subject that is talking, picked up great) . On quieter locations run to individual mics 2 with phantom power and the onboard LR mics does a good job also . Recently picked up the XLR capsule have not had a chance to use yet but the reviews show it is not phantom powered so keep that in mind if you are looking for more than 2 phantom powered inputs . The manufacturer support is 3 stars have not had to use so I have no rating for it.

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I'm using my H5 to record live street performance as well as my solo guitar and voice. I love the clarity of sound I'm getting. It wasn't as intuitive to get started as I might have hoped but watching Golden Spiral's demo of it cleared that up.

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