Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620, Sony PCM D50: Inside Vs. Out

Posted by admin in Tuesday, January 5th 2010

Topics: Music

gearwire asked:

For rounds two and three of the Field Recorder Shootout, Owen O’Malley tests out our three recorders in a large indoor shopping mall and at the train tracks! We will still be taking bets, however. On anything. Owen also explains why we didn’t put a windscreen on any of these recorders, and it’s not because we’re totally ignorant, we promise. See more on gearwire.com.

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13 Comments

hlnio said in January 6th, 2010 at 2:31 pm

i’m torn between Zoom H2 and Olympus LS 10. Which of the two has a better built-in microphone? I’ll be using them mainly for recording my guitar practice sessions (and probably bootlegging a gig occasionally). I think H2 has a slightly better recording quality over LS 10 (tends to have phasing problem) while LS 10 seems to have a better built quality (it comes in a metal casing). what do you think people?

deadendkid1968 said in January 8th, 2010 at 2:38 am

I made a DeadCat for my H2…its alot better than the included foam for stopping wind noise…the marantz if there is any latentcy going into a camera input must be very disapointing.

lamparalaptopiaguita said in January 8th, 2010 at 6:44 am

which is the best?

luminousoctaves said in January 9th, 2010 at 7:38 am

Nice work, thanks. But… I want to know more about:
- External mics; how good are the mic preamps?
- Boot time. How long does it take from when you press ON until you can start a record session. You know, sometimes you just realise I gotta record this NOW!”
- How well do they work in cold weather. (Go to Antarctis or something.)

No, but seriously, thanks for this more practical review. It’s the way to go.

kluchert said in January 9th, 2010 at 1:54 pm

You say in your review of the PMD 620 that you can’t adjust mic sensitivity while recording. No true. You can adjust it, but you need to be in manual mode. You must have had Automatic Level Control (ALC) selected. It wasn’t that hard to figure out (pg 25 of manual).

kluchert said in January 11th, 2010 at 12:22 am

I just bought a PMD 620 today and I can hear and adjust mic sensitivity by pressing the PAUSE button prior to recording. A few more minutes and I’ll figure out how to adjust mic level while recording. Hee Hee.

canitocome said in January 14th, 2010 at 9:47 am

Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620 & Sony PCM D50. ¿ Which is the best?

ebbixx said in January 15th, 2010 at 4:12 pm

The windscreen is an *essential* purchase (or I suppose you could make your own) at least with the Sony PCM-D50, if you record outside AT ALL.

northwestusa said in January 19th, 2010 at 1:25 am

Thank you for the demo. To me, the Sony sounded clearly superior for the inside portion while the Zoom did the best job outside. The Sony and Marantz seemed overloaded by wind noise outside. Wonder how the outside portion would have turned out with windscreens in place?

infraredtechnician said in January 22nd, 2010 at 7:15 am

At last a real test all be it with the crap onboard mics,but a good test none the less,oh and my money is on the Sony,and im not a great sony lover.so what about the Fostex & tascam ?

chchaisson said in January 24th, 2010 at 11:10 pm

Zoom makes another older model, the H4. The H2 is newer.

matamjo said in January 28th, 2010 at 6:40 am

where’s the third vid??

MisterKill666 said in January 31st, 2010 at 11:11 am

hmm.. isnt that like an old model of the zoom H series?? i think there is H5 out already or something or maybe im confused?