Customer Ratings & Reviews

The battery drains very quickly double A battery lasted a proximately 2 minutes. Dad

To big and awkward to use on camera for taking videos.

This was worthless. And that's being nice. The sound quality recorded on every setting was terrible. Save your time and purchase the better ones. This is by far the worst recording device I've ever used.

Best 100 bucks I ever spent. This is an incredible product; the superb sound quality one expects from Samson and amazingly simple operation (one button recording!) I love it, have used it for live music sessions and interviews -- 69 hours of continuous recording at 128kps, that's 5 days! Wish BB carried the accessory pack, I'd buy that too.

the quality of the recording sound was tinny, not worth it, we returned it

So I have purchased this lil beauty in the past thinking it would be great as a personal recorder, and it was great. Then while working on some personal film projects I tried it out as our back up and it saved the production. These mics are awesome to use for vocals and most audio related situations. I will say however that I would strongly suggest using external mics (even ones that are like $20) to use as LAVs and you get amazing results. If you don't believe me, I am currently working with a 9 time EMMY nominated AUDIO TECH who swears by these things and we are using as we speak. Also Dont use cheap batteries with it though, definitely go lithium for best results. Definitely something to have in your audio arsenal.

My daughter needed a sound recorder for commercial voice-over work so we purchased the Zoom H1 Handy Recorder. It is easy to use and the sound quality is incredible. When my daughter transmitted the MP3 file to her agent in Florida, her agent said that the sound quality was so good that she wanted to know what product my daughter used to record her voice so that her agent could recommend it to all of her talent.

This is a great backup for my Tascam DR-100. It is perfect for most DSLR audio since it is small, lightweight, and has a big record button. If you are a pro, I would buy two, just in case. The plastic is quite thin and breakage is a real concern. However, when going handheld on a DSLR, this is way better than lugging around a higher quality recorder. I use my DR-100 with 2 wireless receivers plugged into it via XLR and leave it on my tripod. I can attach this to my external mic and then feed it back out to my cam for backup recording. This allows for a lightweight rig for handheld shots. Lots of features and great sound for under $100!

I had been wanting an excuse to buy a Zoom recorder for a while - just to play around with and record my piano practice - and when my daughter needed to submit an audition recording for a band competition, I finally had my reason. I bought this because it was the only one in stock at the store - I had been debating between this one and the H2N. I know this gets used a lot by videographers who mount it to their cameras but I mainly wanted it for recording music practice sessions. The pros - it was easy to use. I took it out of the box and basically was recording things in minutes. Getting the recordings off was as easy as plugging the USB cable into the computer and the device appeared as a hard drive that I could transfer files from. Sound quality was great - much better than what I could capture on my android phone and my daughter could get on her iphone. The cons - it does not stand up by itself and if you try to hold it, there's so much rustling from your hand touching it that it ruins the recording. So you have to mount it on a tripod - I used one we had for our camera. Once its on the tripod, you can't access the buttons on the bottom of the unit next to the tripod mount. And when even on the tripod, this thing was so sensitive that it picked up the noise of me pressing the record and stop buttons so I had to crop that out using audio software on my computer. I used the auto-gain feature and it was a bit flakey - it did not do a great job of keeping up with the dynamics of the music and I could definitely hear noticeable swings in the gain level...I would recommend setting the gain level yourself vs. using the auto feature. Also, for my purposes, I really missed having a remote, which is the main reason I am upgrading to the H2N. The best place in the room to capture my piano is on a tripod placed at about the middle of the open side of the grand piano. But from there, I can't reach the record/stop without getting up from the bench. I suppose I could have just recorded the entire session and chopped it up later on the computer but I was trying to avoid dealing with huge audio files so I wanted to record the songs individually (and delete the bad takes as I went). The H1 does not have any way to control it remotely so I had to keep getting up and sitting down and of course it captured all that noise of my walking around which then had to be edited out later. So I have returned this and am planning to get the H2N with the optional accessory pack that includes the remote. It's a bit more expensive but I think it will give me more versatility in the future -- the H2N can also record in surround so it is better for recording interviews or work meetings at a conference table. The H1 was fine and if you're just looking for an easy to use recorder that has good quality sound, I would recommend it. But to me, if I'm already spending $100, I'd rather spend a little more and have something that does everything I want.

I use this to record sound from a PA system in a church, to create podcasts. It works well for that application. This device's audio quality is just fine, both for music and voice recording. I use it in MP3 mode. The 2G micro-SD card will handle well over a day of audio in that mode; this is helpful if somebody forgets to press the stop button. When you're using this with a sound system it's important when setting it up to figure out how to get the input jack into Line-In mode, not microphone-input mode. Otherwise your audio will be badly distorted. It's also important to switch off the automatic gain control, and set the input volume to a level appropriate to your sound system. The memory card from this thing imports directly into the open-source Audacity sound editor with no trouble at all. It has been known to spend time in my pocket between recording and podcasting. It looks a little delicate, but it is surprisingly robust.

I have conflicting views on this product. I have had the Zoom H1 for a while now and I love the sound quality but i feel like i have to baby it because it feels cheap in the hand. If Zoom could have but a better body on this handy recorder then it would be perfect. I would recommend this to indie film makers on a tight budget or bands for practice rehearsals or to record songs if you are on a tight budget. Overall a good product from Zoom. I would recommend getting the optional accessory pack and a windscreen from furryhead windscreens. They help.

The sound is excellent and it is so easy to use. Makes MP3 or WAV files that are instantly usable on your computer and sound great. The bad part is it is made out of cheap plastic and the part that is around the mics, assumably to protect it, bends and breaks with the slightest pressure. And because of this it seems overpriced. At least include a carrying case and DSLR mount for that price, or make it more durable.

I use this recorder with my canon 7d camera, as I do a lot of video recording. Mainly I use the mic with a special cable that drops the output of the mic and records directly to the 7d. Saves time instead of recording to the recorder and syncing the wav files. Got the cable on amazon by Sescom. Sound quality on the H1 is great. There is some air sound when it is completely quite but not when audios present.

I've been very pleased with this little recorder. It gets much better audio than my dslr. Uploading and syncing it with video is a breeze. The ease of use is also great!

If you're looking for a device to record band practices, concerts, and the like, this is a pretty good choice. It has a very widely adjustable input gain, the ability to plug into outboard mic or line level signals, and great battery life. It can record in WAV or MP3, and it's very easy to set up for recording and to extract the audio via USB or sliding the memory card into your computer. The USB is high speed enough that you can suck down a 2 hour WAV recording in about 7 minutes. My only real complaint with it is the high frequency response is about on par with a SM-58 - nowhere near as good as you'd expect from a condenser mic. For the most part, applying a EQ curve to it after you've recorded is enough - the high frequencies aren't missing entirely, they're just rolled off some. It's also *very* directional, which can make finding a good place to stick it when recording your garage band somewhat challenging.

It's a good little recorder but you can't turn it off and come back to the same spot you left off at, you have to start from the beginning again unless you use markers. I would expect a recorder of this price to be made of something else besides plastic.

This is great! I am a budget filmmaker on youtube and I LOVE to use this with my microphones. I have a boom mic that I have to use and either way boom or just regular mic it sounds great! The 2 year warranty is only 9.00 so i think i might go with that just to make sure it doesn't break.

Im writing this review becouse this microphone/recorder is awesome. Do your self a favor and buy it or at least ask for it as a gift. Simple to use very nice manual (short and sweet) the website explains technology and purpose. It does the job well.

The H1 is a great little tool for the price. It doesn't have the sturdiest build and it lacks some manual controls, but for $99 it gets you great sound quick and easy.

This is a good entry level, low cost audio recorder. I have used the 4 channel zoom recorder that costs more than twice as much and while that one has better controls and better construction (i.e. more solid build), it is hard to beat this for price which is my main driving factor. As far as recording quality, I haven't noticed anything different between the 2 in my recording (mostly play audio from a mixing board) but the microphones do seem to work well also.