- Zoom Q2n-4K Video Recorder for Musicians, Streamers & Filmmakers

I wanted a video camera that can tolerate high dB levels, like my DRUMS..... This is the one. The video quality is outstanding, the microphone levels are adjustable by a potentiometer (knob) and with good lighting, you'll get crisp, detailed and lifelike images. I started with it set to 1080P-60 and the video is superb. The 4K video is super sharp. I had a 64G micro SDXC card and on the 1080P setting, I could get something around 11 hours of recording time. On 4K it's around 3 hours and change. Nothing to complain about. I bought a 128G micro-SD XC and, of course, doubled the recording time across the board.

I have an old Zoom 2 audio recorder and have been very happy with it and still use it to this day. I have an earlier version of the Q2N. The prior version was okay but there were issues. The manufacturer apparently listened to the feedback and the Q2N-4K Handy Video Recorder literally addressed and solved every legitimate issue. [Battery Life, recording clip length, using the right size and type Micro SD, and unexpected recording cut offs.] The result is a superior product. I use this one to record very different types of music from church choirs with and without accompaniment, British Brass Bands and live jazz in concert settings. The sound and video reproduction in all of these areas is excellent. The battery life is more than acceptable. I have had it record a rehearsal nearly two hours long on just the internal batteries. The recording time is longer when I can stop the video between sets. The lens angle on this is slightly less than the earlier version, but it still allows the unit to be placed close to the stage, and covers the entire stage with slightly less 'fish eye' distortion. This is an improvement. The sample video was recorded just more than four feet from a 25 ft stage front, sitting on a table and still the top and both ends of the stage are visible. The demo is recorded at 720, considerably less than the highest resolution. You will need head phones to appreciate the sound on the nine second demo clip.

I use this to record our band's rehearsals, and the occasional live show. The sound is very good, the video is OK. My biggest problem with it is the awful view screen. It's so tiny and so low res I can barely see what I'm filming. I often just put it on wide screen , point it in the general direction and hope for the best. It usually works out OK but it is a bit awkward. It's not even worth running on batteries. I plug it into an Anker power bank which I attach to a tripod leg. It will run for hours on a good usb power bank. The size makes it easy to bring to live shows. I've been using it since 2021, It still works fine. For the price, especially if you can get it on sale its worth it as a rehearsal tool, and to share casual vids with friends and bandmates.

Pro tip: throw in some batteries, but plug into a portable charger when using. Musicians prioritize audio over video. The video is serviceable. It’s not near as good as an iPhone or Galaxy camera. But it gets the job done. We used a couple of phone cameras to record different angles, and having video of any kind made it super easy to sync the audio from the Zoom to the video of the phones. I love this thing. I watched reviews. I knew what I was buying. And it does the job fantastically. Sure better video would be great, but this device is super affordable and easy to use. And the audio really is fantastic. For fun, I used this as a mic on Teams meetings. It sounds incredible. Called my gf from a different room so I could hear what she sounded like between the MacBook mic and this. The Zoom sounds pro. Pretty close to a Shure SM7b. If you can’t tell, I’m in love. My only true grievance: it’s 2024. Just update the charging port to usb C. Don’t have to change anything else. But man I really do have micro USB. It’s structurally inferior and antiquated.

If you're recording loud music, you can't go wrong with the audio capabilities of this little machine. Unfortunately, it's performance recording video is--how to put this?--not great, especially but not only in low light. However, the adjustable gain makes this a wonderful bit of machinery for recording audio at concerts. From the press area, directly in front of the stage, directly in front of the big speakers, recently I recorded songs from multiple sets--indoors, no less--at a heavy metal festival, and the sound is surprisingly clear. In fact, some of it's unusable because I had the gain turned down *too low.* To require the gain turned that low would have required a concert with even more volume than I was dealing with (which was a lot). The device is compact enough to be easily portable, and its basic functions (record, zoom, audio gain) are fairly intuitive, making it pretty easy to just unbox it, put in a memory card, supply power, and start using. However, there also are various other functions for which you'll want to download the manual. One serious, serious problem is keeping the thing supplied with power. Even using the external battery holder (that you need to purchase separately), this thing runs out of juice within thirty minutes. You really need an external power source, and unless you have a portable external power supply, this means you're tied to one spot, defeating the purpose of the machine being compact and portable. So is this recorder worth the money? For me, yes, because 1) most truly good microphones that have audio gain control will cost substantially more than this thing, 2) I really I needed only the audio recording capabilities, and 3) the battery non-life wasn't too problematic because I recorded only short segments of music (a song or two) at a time. The video isn't great, but I was using my phone for video purposes (as people will never admit who still shell out thousands of dollars for cameras, a good smartphone will take video that's of higher quality than most professional-grade cameras) so it mattered little. On the other hand, if you need a good camera *and* a good sound recorder, this might not be the device for you.

Build Quality: So far the device is made quite well. It has a heavier feel then the original Q2n and the buttons even feel better in comparison. It’s hard to explain but it makes the Q2n feel cheap because this seems more solidly built even though they share a very similar design. Accessories: The Windscreen from the previous model can also be fitted on the 4K as well. Just make sure you install the lens hood (included) before the windscreen this way it helps keep the fur out of the lens itself. Mind you, doing this outside on a windy day will almost guarantee the windscreen getting in the lens fov. It does help, especially if you like to keep a ceiling fan on high in the same room you may be doing a video in while using this camera. The lens hood and lens cap from the older Q2n is not compatible with the 4K model. The Mic stand adapter is though. Audio: I just want to touch on this for a sec as when you set it at the highest quality, windows computers may have an issue with it and not play any sound at all. Not sure if this is a driver/codec issue but Mac users won’t have this problem. iPad and iPhone users won’t have this problem either. Any other audio setting below the highest will work for Windows users just fine. Zoom has the best audio on a small camera I’ve ever heard before. File type: It’s .MOV and they will airdrop for you Apple users and work in iMovie without a problem. The Q2n is the same if you wanted to know. Audio Line out: It doesn’t mention the headphone jack doubling as a line out but I was successful in doing so. It doesn’t say on either model but the Q2n and the Q2n-4K both work, as long as I turned off “plug in power” in the settings and it was just as clear as my Zoom H2n Recorder which I normally use for this. [I’m referring to using the cameras as a Mic for gaming capture where the audio is direct line into my capture device]. You can use the headphone jack normally for headphones just fine and it has a volume adjustment. The Plug In Power is for external Mics that require power to operate them as you can input those into either model Q2n which will bypass the XY mics built in. There’s a separate Mic In 3.5mm jack for that on the cameras just below the headphone jack. SD Card and Recording Times: (with Max Audio) This camera will take up to a 256gb Micro SDXC card and when using an XC, it will record in a seamless recording. Only to stop when the card is full or you stop it yourself. If you use a SDHC (these are up to 32gb capacity), the files will be broken every 4gb. 128gb Card: 4K30/24fps=3hr 31min 1080p60fps=5hr 9min 1080p30/24fps=9hr 51min 720p30fps=20hr 50min Camera Off 96k24bit WAV Audio=61hr 42min (highest quality) I formatted my own card in the device to get those numbers. Video bitrate up to 76Mbps which is likely 4K mode and I can’t test whether it’s a constant or variable. Lens: A fixed focus 150 degree fisheye wide angle lens. f2.8/15.2mm. I did see a comment where they (Zoom) replied saying it’s 16mp, though I don’t see this anywhere on the website. More: Runs off 2AA batteries and it’s recommended you use Lithium as they will last much longer. Record times with various battery types are listed on Zooms website. You can power the device with a usb power supply and avoid AA batteries altogether. Lens is a 150 degree wide lens and the older Q2n is a 160. The Q2n Lens can easily be replaced but I’m not so sure about this one yet. The Q2n-4K isn’t compatible with Gimbals and doesn’t offer any kind of image stabilization. There isn’t any kind of optical zoom as it’s all digital and on 5 presets. No still photos option. Of course you can always take a screen shot but this could easily be added in a FW update. Mind you, they never added this to the previous model. Same small screen. I wish they gave an option to turn off the selected settings displayed on screen to make the image fill the viewing space. The camera view is just so small with the current settings in the way. Thanks for reading! Even if you already have the Q2n then this is definitely worth the upgrade. A camera that does 4K, Digital Recorder and Microphone! Plug in another Mic, listen live with headphones and even HDMI out to a tv/portable monitor while recording... Why not? You can’t go wrong with this at the current $199 price point. A full video review will be on my YT channel at Para-holiX hopefully soon. Questions then just ask. I may have left some out as it can be found on the Zoom website. *Edit A 55min file at 1080p/60fps will be 25gb with the highest audio as well. *Update If your video is blurry, it may be the device you’re playing back on. If it’s not the device then YT/Para-holiX and I have a video showing you how to replace the lens and focus it back if that’s your issue. We’ve done a video on the previous Q2n model as well.

I never leave reviews, but felt like I had to in this case. I was very hopeful about this product. As a band, having an easy to use, small camera that can capture good sound that won't break the bank was very enticing. The first time I used the product, I used 2 rechargeable batteries during a rehearsal to test. It lasted about 15 minutes and the batteries died. Put 2 brand new batteries in, lasted another 15 minutes and died. The video quality was poor even at 4k in decent light. My Android does better, but the sound was decent so I thought I'd give it another chance. Had an outdoor show with good light so tried it there. This time, I attached it to a power bank so I wouldn't have problems with the battery life. Camera just shut off after an hour. Not because of power, have no idea why. Did some research and found that some had this issue with certain Micro SD cards. So I went to zoom site and saw they had a list of recommended cards. Bought one of the recommended cards, then tried it at an indoor show. Started the camera, then noticed about 20 minutes into the set that the red light was off. Arrgggh. Started it up for second set, and same thing happened (again, attached to power source so it wasn't a power problem). Out of curiosity, I downloaded what it did record and the quality was absolute rubbish in lower light. Looked like a phone from 10 years ago. What a disappointment. Called customer service. What customer service? They don't even answer. Just a canned message that says that basically they are too busy to take any calls (called several times at different hours), but if you leave your number and email, they will get back to you. Left both and never heard anything. I was ready to buy several of these to get multiple angle shots at shows. Instead I'll be returning as soon as I can. Don't waste your money. Shame on you Zoom for your poor customer service.

But the x-y axis microphones, the on board scaling from 4K to 720p or just audio, if all you want is an audio sketch pad, all of this works just the way it’s supposed to for the musician who just wants a dedicated performance recording device without the need to download and learn how to use any finicky apps on your phone. I paired it with the battery pack and the tripod to mic adapter, and recorded a 2 hour gig on Saturday. Pop the memory card into your computer, and you’re in business, it’s up to you which video editing software to finalize it with, but a really good digital video recording is what this will give you to start out with. Zoom has been around for long enough, that every now and again, they synthesize several ideas into one dynamite product that knocks it out of the park. This is one of those products, just stone cold smarts in the production. It feels durable, but only time will tell. The only reason I took a star off the rating is it sucks batter life. But you can get 4K out of the deal, so there’s that. And the short battery life can be ameliorated by getting the add on power pack, or plugging it into a USB power source, which is a nice touch. Like I said, you could do this with the right smart phone, but it is nice to have a dedicated device for recording your gigs. Leave the phone to call the club owner about your pay.

Excellent quality sound and vision. Highly recommend for good quality AV for concerts and live performances.

La amo, graba genial el sonido, todo es bastante nítido para ser una cámara digital. Súper funcional para grabar conciertos y ensayos, con una pila externa funciona súper bien y no tengo que estar comprando pilas. También es súper sencillo pasar los videos al iPhone con un adaptador de microSD

In General, Audio quality is very good and excellent. However very disappointed with the Video quality especially 4k video. Not that great, lots of noise and pixels are seen. OK product and not impressed

Q2n is best for recording music concerts because of its excellent audio recording with satisfactory video recording. It is aptly called " Musician's Camera".

This is an excellent video recorder with great sound in its own right. However I bought it to use as a webcam as well. It works SO well as a webcam. It's not cheap for a webcam but if good sound and video quality are important to you this is perfect. And the upside is it is versatile. You can use it as a webcam and then take it out and video your friends at a live music venue or something. It is a great product. And because of its versatility it is good value. You need to read the instructions of course but once you work out how to do the things you want it's easy to remember how to do it.