Zoom Q2n-4K Handy Video Recorder with XY Microphone Reviews

Works great for online piano lessons! High quality sound. Not difficult to set up, either (user manual is on the Sweetwater website). This little camera has a lot of functionality and I am hoping to use it for more than online lessons in the future. P.S. Glad I purchased through Sweetwater because of their support.

Recorded my band the other night in 4K/24-bit audio on our house gig and it came out fantastic. The band members were very impressed, and we are going to shoot a demo to get other work.

Very use full simple to use. Record directly form mixer.
Professional Sitar Player.
Farhan Khan AKA Flash Sitar.

In reality, I might give it four stars, because the low-light video isn't good. But the audio is GREAT (worth it for the audio alone, which you could sync to video from another source), along with the form factor and features, so I gave it five stars to offset all the stupid one-star review tantrums from incompetent Karens with unrealistic expectations. It's $, not $.

I like this little camera a lot. I mainly use it to record myself playing in my studio, so it works great for what I wanted to do.

It's not real bright in my studio and I found that a little brighter lighting helps to make the video less grainy. I just use a floor lamp. I spent a few extra dollars to purchase the Zoom adapter, but any AC/USB adapter will work. I borrowed a charging cord from one of my other cameras and was all set. I run the Zoom exclusively with the charger because of my dislike for batteries, but if you plan on taking it out to other venues batteries will be a must.

I spent some time going through all of the video and audio settings then wrote notes about each of them in my notebook for future reference. I figured that would be handier than having to make a few sample videos before actually recording. Other than that I usually just put it on my favorite settings and I'm good to go.

I haven't bothered to use the external speaker jack yet because the internal speakers have sounded really good. My other cameras are a JVC Handycam and a Go-Pro. Both of them have good video quality but the audio quality on both of them is poor and neither of them have external speaker jacks.

I run my videos through some video editing software on my computer and have been very pleased with the results.

I am very happy with this Zoom camera!

I was used to using the audio zoom recorders. and this idea to have video as an option was right on. You can videotape your rehearsals your gigs without the hassle. It's so handy it's so affordable! It doesn't have a place to hook XLR Mics in like the other zoom but that's not what this is for. this is got the two stereo mics and they work terrific so Hats off to zoom on this one.

I bought Zoom Q2n-4k few years back.
Very simple setup and easy to use.
There is "linein" for Audio recording directly
From Audio Mixer.
I am full time musician Sitar-player.
Flash Sitar.

Simple to use, great sound and video, especially in daylight. Making YouTube videos in my studio looks amazing! Used the camera during an evening live event. The sound was fantastic, and the video was satisfactory even in low light conditions, however I have lots of experience with lighting and knew I had to "fill the shadows on stage" to make it all work. Great Value! Even comes with video editing and audio normalization and reverb effects. (go to zoom website for free download)

I am very happy with my new Zoom, recording and sharing is very easy and useful for my band, a new tool for us to help improve our skills, the sound quality has exceed my expectations, and video quality is top notch, I am very happy with this purchase.

Got this camera as a GoPro replacement becuase I was still using really old models. Have only used it once to record a band practice in my basement and the results were good. Audio was great and video was acceptable. Have a gig later this month in a darker club. Have to see how it works there for a full assessment. For now it, it seems great for recording video.

It's super easy to use and the recordings are excellent.

- Blackhouse

The real trick with these cameras is you must use lithium batteries and the battery extension pack. If I use Energizer Ultimate Lithiums, it will record and entire 4 hr gig with breaks in a single setup. If you use any other batteries, it'll gobble them up in a little over an hour. Another useful thing is a small clamp on camera rig you can mount it to and them clamp it onto something (like a mic stand, water pipe, ...). Then you can put them in places above the crowd and mostly out of the way and capture the entire show for promotional material.

I usually don't review but this camera is a must buy for the busy artists,as a technical director and artist I needed some quick to to make a record of performances This is it! so easy to use but whats so impressive is the video and sound quality real 1080p!and the sound is top of the line! recording quality!WOW!Zoom did a great job with this.

This is a very good buy, not only the cost, but the quality is dead-on

I did a test video before using it for a real live video and the image captured is wide screen very vivd clear colors, test done outdoors at dusk, sky colors are excellent, I only tested 720p. Batteries are still full after 2 tests I guess if you use 1080 or 4k the batteries will drain quickly people say.

The Q2n-4K is a great little workhorse. I've been using the Q2n for several years with excellent results in many different environments. The sound from the built in mic's is clean, crisp and captures a broad frequency spectrum. The video quality from the original Q2n was more than sufficient for capturing live band events, rehearsals and studio recordings. I got the 4K version so I could add another view on live events and solo drum videos. I christened the 4K at an outdoor festival last week. I placed the camera at the front of the stage about 4-6 feet from the main PA stacks. The sound was incredible. I used mic's with auto volume and it picked up the sound from the massive stacks amazingly well. If you plug it in to an AC adaptor it will run for hours. It records for over an hour using just 1 file. The older Q2n splits the files at 19+ minutes.

It doesn't have too many bells and whistles, but it is a great tool for capturing live performances with a minimum of hassle.
And it comes at a great price(especially if it's on sale!)

I had the older Q2n. It was nice, definitely great audio, but the video was hot and cold depending on how I set it and the lighting on stage. It was lacking in clarity for distant shots.
The new 4k is way better. The clarity is so much better, the difference is huge, but so is the file sizes. Takes longer to transfer files.
Another improvement for me is that the new 4k camera doesn't split the video files whereas the older camera split videos once they exceeded some time limit and then started the next.
So over all big improvements. For me it is a huge difference in picture quality as well as file sizes.
I attempted to upload a screen shot of my video. I am not sure what got uploaded. But hopefully it will show the new camera's video quality.

Q2N-4K is simple to use, provides great sound and nice video. I've recorded hour long sets of live performances. Perfect for creating endless social media content and fantastic for performance review.

Hands down the best video and audio recorder I've used. Two reasons why: First, it's so simple to use I learned how in under 10 minutes, while other cameras have the most complicated instructions and software that takes days to understand. Second, to give you an idea of how hands off this is, I'm shooting drums in a 7' X 9' studio with 5.5' ceilings, and to get fabulous sounding and looking videos I didn't have to figure out anything about levels or how to stop clipping and distortion or even much about lighting. I just needed to put the right settings on and the camera dynamically adjusted the levels and lighting so there's no distortion or clipping, lighting looks great, and all I need to do is some quick edits before I've got Youtube quality ready to upload. That's also just with the built in mics, which are fabulous. One thing that's a bit of a negative is if in the same video you're going from doing something really loud, like drumming, to then switching to talking, the talking is fairly quiet on the recording. That said, it's nothing you can't easily boost in an editor, so no big deal. I bought this specifically for filming live music and music lessons in tight spaces of varying acoustic and lighting qualities with the goal of being able to film on the fly with no need to spend much time on setting lighting, levels, and shots or doing much editing. It's amazing for that. I haven't done so, but I'm sure it would also be a great choice for certain podcasts if it's one to three people in a configuration that would allow the camera to be only a few feet away to pick up the voices best (you can also plug in an external mic, which I haven't tried). It has very good options for zooming in or out, so that configuration would be possible. Certainly for music in small spaces and where lighting isn't optimal I don't think you'll find something easier or better at anything approaching this price, and maybe not at all at any price. Total game changer for someone like myself who hates spending time trying to understand tech instructions and just wants to get great, reliable video and audio to move my goals forward.

This recorder/mic works extremely well for its price. Very clear audio in a very small package. We have dealt with a few of these and are always impressed.

With the pandemic our band has not been able to play any gigs, as is true for most bands, but we still wanted to perform and share our music with our fans. The trick was finding a way to record our sound without having to go through an elaborate set up yet still have a good sounding product. Of course, the sound is critical and we have all seen fan posts from phone videos and the sound from those is usually very bad, those phone mics are not designed to produce quality sound from a very loud audio source. Well the Zoom Q2N-4K has no issues there! We set up the camera on a mic stand, push record and we can't believe how good the sound is, not to mention the video options as well. We liked this so much that we purchased a second camera to be able to have different video set ups...so just need to learn how to edit video and create split screen views, etc. Great product and we would highly recommend to others! Jada Blade

I got this to aid in making video recordings for my career as a performing musician and it has been great so far. I love that it includes the Solo and Concert pre-set options as a way to make it easier to record yourself and the multiple camera angles are great. I haven't had any problems using it and I would highly recommend it for the audio quality. I was also thrilled to learn that there is a setting to use it as an external webcam or USB microphone for my computer, which is highly useful when teaching music students on Zoom right now.

This is one of those tools that really depends on what you need.
I had the original Q2n and it's like a Swiss army - good at a lot of things but not necessarily great. Unfortunately I dropped and broke it. I found it useful enough to buy the Q2n-4k

Impressions:
- The mic function is really great.
- the 720 webcam function definitely looks better than the Q2n but I would have preferred 1080. Still a great function I use daily.
- Video recording - 1080 at 60fps is awesome!! It looks really great. So far I like it better than the 4k option but it depends on what you're recording.
- Glad they included a lens cap and hood
- The white balance / scene option is ok but not great I couldn't get an accurate white balance in my well-lit classroom.
- Seems more sturdy / better built than Q2n

Definitely glad I bought it.

This is made by Zoom, the company that gave us so many amazing recording devices. As usual, this device is a hit. It has about 5 camera zoom settings. About 4 color treatments of the video. It records to mini disc and has an accessory mount that attaches it to a mic stand, a lens cap, an anti glare cap and-- the entire body is a microphone. I don't know how Sweetwater decided to stock this as a camera or a mini recorder. It does bot well and can be used as a web cam.

I had one problem with it. The video started freezing in the middle of my classes. I really tried to fix it but could not. Sweetwater tech support got to me, in the middle of this COVID crisis, helped me troubleshoot, and finally decided to sent me another.

In the meantime, Zoom found out about the problem, a conflict between the Zoom Meeting software and the Zoom Q2n 4k OS. It was publicized online. I downloaded the fix and repaired the first camera.

In the meantime, I had decided to get a second camera anyway as my faith in the manufacturer was not shaken. I have owned many of their products and never thrown them away only passed them on. Then the replace arrived-- so, now I own 3. That's the best endorsement I can give a company and both Sweetwater and Zoom Audio deserve it.

This is a very cool video recorded. I like it nice video quality and not bad sound. Easy to use I would buy again.

We needed to get the church service streaming fast and affordably. We are a small congregation and don't have money to dump into tons of tech, and previously didn't need it because we had an elderly congregation that didn't have access. That changed for us, and everyone, in a moment. This is an amazing tool. The video streams beautifully, the mic is wonderful and picks up really well. The ability to change the view, the quality of the video and the audio for assorted purposes. I only wish we could afford another. (We have gone online on zoom and facebook, along with providing tech for some of our older members for under $400, and this has been the best part of that cost, and worth every penny!) The simple plug and stream is great. If I could improve one thing, it would be to simplify the menu process. It takes several buttons and screens to get to webcam. Easy enough, but training others, it would be nice to have webcam as a top choice and not several menus down.

Not sure what any negative reviewer was expecting. No this is not a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K :) It isn't designed to do professional cinematography. However to do good video recording and sound capture to post on the web or do live streaming on the web it works flawlessly. There isn't a camera out there in this price range that will do better. I have used several of these little Zoom Q2N's and Q2N-4K and they definitely get the job done. If you want a compact action cam get a GoPro. For small concerts this has better sound capture. If you want to be a cinematographer at the entry level get a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. But if you want good sound and reasonably good video in a compact design for hundreds of dollar less this is the camera get.

Operates as advertised, any Negative review is due to the fact that the Intended operator did not read first. Like any other challenge, Trial and air always
travel to the positive rather than negative.
Remember to play slow before increasing tempo.
Also expression is more important then trying to become a Virtuoso ..

The 4K camera is clear as a bell

Easy to use, excellent video quality and good quality audio. Get the battery pack or plug in charger since the 2 batteries it holds don't work for long.

This is an incredibly easy unit to work with. Power it up and press record is all that's required. It is necessary, in my own estimation, that the owner spend some time experimenting with the presets. The light settings vary considerably from one another as do the frame settings. This video recorder is designed to be quick and easy, but the owner needs to know and understand the available settings to get desired results. For example, I have found the Night Light setting gives me the results I want indoors with > 1000 watts at 5000 kelvin light. It's my own personal choice and I know this because I have tested all presets under the same conditions.

The video quality is high and lives up to the standards advertised. Once again the owner needs to experiment with the video settings. I use 1080p at 24 fps because my computer can't handle higher frames per second. The Q2n can handle 1080p at 60 fps playback with no difficulty. I have not tried the 4K mode.

My own use of the unit normally affords me the luxury of using an USB charger to power the unit. I made an outdoor video with the unit at 1080p 60 fps and got approximately twenty minutes out of two high quality batteries.

Although I haven't used the unit in high sound pressure level settings I have used it in office mode room settings. I found the audio to be similar to highly sensitive condenser microphones. I have little doubt that the manufacturer didn't provide adequate limiting.

I'm quite happy with the Q2n. It's affordable and lives up to the advertisements. I will warn the buyer, however, it's a small unit and can be tricky to hold on to. It has a standard female tripod thread connection, so the threaded center stem from a phone light ring works perfectly, as a handle. The unit addresses up to 256GB memory. That seems like a lot, but a four minute 1080p video at 60fps used almost 2GB, it goes fast. The same four minute video at 24 fps uses a little less than a 1Gb. The menu can be a little difficult to understand at first due to the limitation of physical control buttons, but they have an owners manual online that explains how to use the menu.

I went against the negative reviews and found this on sale a couple of months ago. I decided to take the dive. I think this camera does very well in a live performance scenario. Sure, its no $1000 camera that's used to shoot blockbuster movies... But it does well for a small band on a tight budget.

I use this camera to record practices and home use. The wide lens is great when it comes to recording the full band. You can connect an external mic to the camera and use the video of the camera. I use a Shure sm57 and it gives me even greater audio quality.

Only had it one day, first and second tests went well, then we recorded our practice. It's more than suitable for our intended purpose which is recording practice and gigs so we can critique our performances. No one will ever see the videos except for us. But since the audio quality is sufficient for us to detect a single singer out of key or a single string out of tune, that's plenty good. Video is not as important to us as we only need to make sure we're making eye contact with the audience and not watching our fret boards. That said, the quality is much better than most YouTube videos.

All the controls were incredibly intuitive for me and that in itself amazed me. Good job, Zoom!

Why only 4.5? Folks that engineer things need to use them. The lens cover has a tether. No apparent place to attach it to the camera so it's only obvious use is to tangle with the key ring in my pocket. The lens hood must be removed to install the lens cover so that too must go in my pocket if I want to put the lens cover on. Just because I want the cover on does not mean I'm done with the camera and want to put it into the case. Second, while I would have no use for an app, A wireless remote with a simple single record/pause button would be really handy. I'd pay a bunch extra for that I think because this will be on a mic stand, in front of us and in front of the audience. We don't have someone always available who can walk out and stop the recording while the emcee, in the middle of our set, takes 10 minutes to tell the audience who's playing the rest of the week.

So, 5 for what it does, and minus a half star for what it could do for me. That said, we'll keep it.

Great audio and resolution for the price point. It will require substantial lighting to get rid of the noise. This is primarily for well-lit artists on youtube or IG. If your audience is mainly on a mobile device, this will be more than enough.

I have 2 high end ProSumer HD cameras (Panasonic), a Zoom Q8n-4k and a Zoom Q2n-4K.

The Panasonics are a lot to carry around, have limited battery life and can't get the whole band in from close up.

Alas, the Zoom Q8n is hopeless outdoors - even with the included "windscreen" installed, the slightest breath of air ruins the recording.

The Q2n-4K has therefore been my GO-TO video/AUDIO recorder for quickie recordings of my bands. That's what I toss into my backpack along with a BIG external USB battery to keep it recording for hours.

PROS: Great Picture, GREAT sound that rejects wind noise well, small, easy to carry and has a decent set of fixed settings for audio and video parameters. It sits up there like a tiny bump on top of a tripod and does its job. The audio quality is so good that I've been able to master it (Wavelab/Izotope) and produce home-burned CDs (and DVDs) to sell at our gigs.

CONS: Tiny, very low resolution screen makes it almost impossible to see what the final video might look like. I tend to just MAKE SURE the field is wide enough to get the whole band for sure and then zoom in when I edit the video in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

But (SOB) it finally died. When I hit the record button, the red light comes on, the timer counts off about 1 or 2 seconds and then it STOPS. I tried installing latest firmware - it worked for a test - then the same fatal symptom returned. Alas, the stuff built now days is NOT designed to be repaired so I have to junk it.

BUT it's such a useful appliance that I bought another one from Sweetwater last week. Now I'll be able to record my bands' performances again.

Very helpful tool to have

I've recorded a few gigs with this, the audio is great, the video acceptable for a non-videophile (is that even a word?) like me. I bought it to make demos, and it's serving the purpose fine. I record an entire gig and find a few snippets that I like.
It really needs a zoom so the FOV isn't always so wide. As others have said, in low light the video is grainy, but the quality of the audio is consistent.

This is the kind of camera that you can throw up on a tripod set it to, "Record", and let it run. It's a good way to critique your band's performance. The only drawback is that the viewing screen is so small. It is small. But, it holds all the information you need to see at a glance. It's very inclusive, in terms of detail of how you are about to record, but that screen. However, would I buy it again if I should be unfortunate enough to lose this camera? Yes I would. Without hesitation.

LCD screen not great but good for mostly framing. The videos look great and I love the 150 degree wide angle which is what sold me. Easy to figure everything out. Very user friendly interface. Auto setting works works very well especially if your lighting changes in the room while filming. Solid little unit. My biggest concern is dropping it or having it slip out of my hand because it's so tiny. Wish it had a neck strap so I could carry it around my neck. I'm a big ZOOM fan and have bought several products of theirs over the years. The sound quality is excellent. When I filmed my sample video I tried to capture the stereo mic effect by placing the camera between the chimes so that they were on either side. My sample video is 1080p but 4K looks very good but takes like 4x as much memory card space. With a 64G micro SD card you get like 5.5 hours of recording in 1080p. The only thing I don't like which cost a star in the rating is that it will only output to a QT (Apple Quiktime) format which I hate. I really prefer mp4. Overall I am very happy with my purchase. This little guy is really cute. lol. Unfortunately I was unable to upload my video here.

I've been trying to use one of these for a while now and they completely eat standard AA batteries. With standard AA's it's good for about 45 min. I had been trying to use the power adapter, but it's not always easy to find an outlet in the audience at some gigs. After reading the manual again (RTFM!), I saw that they report extended use if you use Lithium AA's and low and behold, I was able to shoot an entire gig without running out of power. I'm excited now, because they have a good lense and the mics work great in loud environments. I look forward to placing 2 of these now out of the way and being able to set and forget until the show is over.

I didn't realize how tiny this thing was, I was under the inversion sit was roughly the size of a point and shoot, but its much more like a go pro sized camcorder. great audio, good video. low light is still grainy, but I was shooting 1080 and heck low light is just low light, this thing is very affordable and the stereo sound is cool. looking forward to getting some film out!

At the price, this camera is a great deal! I've not recorded anything with it yet, just live streams. But I'm sure the recording quality will be just as good as my Zoom Q8. I'm using it mostly for live streams, which have been coming out great! One thing to be aware of though, make sure you use proper lighting as the end result will look grainy if you have poor lighting. Simple setup, quick connections. Audio quality is excellent, and actually made my setup so much easier. Instead of using a mixer, two mics, and two line in's, we just use the stereo pair that are in the camera. VERY pleased with the end result. We've done 3 FB Live streams since getting the camera, and they've come out great! Very satisfied with my purchase.

The video is really good, the sound is amazing, but it will eat up a set of batteries in less than one song. I highly recommend this camera, but I also recommend getting a power pack. Another issue to be aware of is there are some microdisk cards that do and some that do not work with the camera. Go to the Zoom website and verify what cards will work before purchasing cards.

As I'd hoped, it's slightly sturdier than the earlier Q2n model: thicker body, reinforced jack inputs. Time will tell if these improvements hold up, but so far, I'm pleased.

The sound was good, but the camera was facing the sun. We got Shadows, but we expected it. Next time we will shoot at an angle.

Okay, so the negative reviews are right, in the sense that this has mediocre video quality and not a lot of features that you'd get with a similarly-priced camcorder. (It's a bit washed out, and gets grainy if you're zoomed in or working in poor lighting.)

But that's not really the point. It's not a camcorder, it's a pretty good standalone mic with a meh webcam attached, and the wide-angle lens means you can put it close to the front of the stage (where an X/Y microphone setup should go) and still capture the entire scene. Any stage or auditorium will have a few kilowatts of halogen lighting up top, which addresses the lighting concerns.

There's also a common caveat with Zoom products in general - you're paying for the microphone. if you're going to use it with an external microphone, you can get a different recorder with mediocre or nonexistent built-in microphone for half the price.

I wouldn't strap it to a helmet, shoot outdoors, or use it to produce a youtube channel, but it's ideal for capturing a school band/orchestra performance on the fast/cheap and I've been using mine for that specific use case very happily.

-1 star for a couple reasons:

First, the thing had a couple UI bugs (needed a firmware update and that seems to have resolved it.)

Second, it really should be sold in a bundle with a memory card and a USB power bank.

Third, it won't turn on without batteries installed (even if you've got it plugged into a power bank.)

Fourth, the SD card should be swappable without removing it from a tripod.

Just want to point out that the grainy issue is due to lighting, or lack there of. With the right light the resolution is beautiful.

Received my Q2n-4k and almost immediately shot two indoor stage-lit concerts back to back. I chose 1080p 60fps because editting 4k video is so processor intensive. The results are crazy good for a $200 camera and the YouTube video has plenty of resolution though I will shoot another concert soon and do it at 4k just to get it a try (lots of waiting during post-processing). The audio is really the reason to buy this camera... super easy to get right and very stereo-evident.

The only negative thing I can say at this point is the locking mechanism for the battery door is poor and seems destined to break.

I am a field recorder who loves recording wide angle video, quality stereo audio with the minimalist of gear. Usually drum ensambles, so its exciting to see gear go in this direction. Keep it up Zoom. I am hoping to see better video resolution, same wide angle with XLR inputs in the next one. Very exciting to imagine where this could come out.

Great sound quality and picture quality! LCD screen is extremely lo-res but don't let that fool you in the picture quality. Definitely great quality for the price. The downside is that it does not come with the necessary cord to connect to your computer. I understand the lack of power supply to some degree but not to have a cord at all is a bit strange and annoying. And the type of cord is not readily described either. Some be aware of the type of connection you will need.

The sound quality on this device I must say speaks volumes for ZOOM. It has always been phenomenal since I had my first audio recorder(for almost 10 years) from ZOOM which finally kicked the bucket 2 yrs ago (God rest its soul lol). I'm still fooling around with the video settings to get the right settings because most of the recordings I do outside at night. The video quality is great and clear for what I need, but once I get more familiarized with the different settings I can have a more extensive review.

I have purchased two of these units. First point, which is likely obvious, is to not expect to get the 4K video quality that your full-frame DSLR or mirrorless provides. And definitely not as good as a what a dedicated video camera provides. But for the price of these units, you get very respectable additional cams for multicam use without breaking your bank. Audio capture using the built-in stereo mics is excellent. Menus are fairly straightforward and easy to navigate.

The small size enables you to tuck them away on stage amongst the band and get some very interesting angles that are not always possible with larger cams on tripods. I inject LTC timecode into the Zooms, which allows me to easily sync up all cameras when doing the multicam processing in post. There are some adapter cables available that enable you to use one channel of the audio input for the timecode, and additionally attach a dynamic mic to the other channel for audio (albeit mono, of course).

One last point--yup, it does eat batteries fairly quickly. My solution was to purchase a couple charging power bricks and power them through the USB port. With the power packs and a 128 GB card, it will run continuously for hours. Be sure to always have a battery installed in the unit so that your settings are retained when you disconnect the external power supply.

Strap everything to a mic stand and attach the unit to a 1/4 inch mic adapter, and you have a complete standalone setup that can be placed anywhere at your event.

Bought this little guy to record some live performances. The camera is intuitive, shoots great 4k quality video, and has an excellent, sensitive mic system built into it.
However, it will drain its 2 AA battery capacity in under 2 hrs. I wouldn't recommend buying this item without also purchasing a plug-in adaptive for it.
Also, the preview screen is incredibly small, so you won't have much to go on when it comes to previewing your videos.
That being said, it's low cost and meets my needs so I'm content with it.

Picture has many pixels, but mediocre quality. Low lighting has a lot of noise. The zoom function is perfunctory. I filmed myself from maybe a dozen feet away, and my face is pretty muddy - maybe it's a focus issue, but in any case I was hoping for better.

Audio quality is good enough. The venue's acoustics and microphone positioning will probably make more of a difference than the cam's mic.

Biggest complaint is that it works off of AA batteries. You can use an external USB battery (and I frequently do) but it's not an elegant solution. And ofc you can just use AA batteries, but you only get - I think - 2 hours of filming from 2 batteries, so you'd chew through them pretty quick.

Ultimately, it won't blow you away, but if you're spending $ on both a camera and microphone combo, it probably wasn't supposed to anyway.

I ordered 2, set them up the same, and one works perfectly, the other not so much. Support quickly sent out another to replace the troubled one…the replacement didn't work; we kept repeating that until they started ignoring me. Situation is unresolved and I'm getting no response from Sweetwater. Try your luck, it's a great product, should you be lucky enough to get one that works.

If you're looking for a portable recorder I think this captures sound well. I wasn't all that impressed with the video quality. There would be video noise almost every time. If you aren't picky like I am about video quality and just need something to capture sound and video then maybe it could work. It just wasn't the right product for me.

Let me start by saying the average consumer buying this probably should know this is a good microphone with an okay camera attached. Even with great lighting things can still look a bit grainy at times. However it isn't bad quality by any means.

In regards to the features, the reason I was purchasing this was for the webcam, and usb microphone ability. The usb microphone feature works perfect. Does exactly what I expected and the onboard audio controls handle everything well. So I am happy with that. However, no video (not even Zooms official one) or specs sheet I looked at when researching the product tells you that the WebCam can only do 720p. Compared to the 4k resolution it boasts and webcam being a key feature this was incredibly disappointing. Especially since it didn't even do FHD at 1080p at the very least. I have to give it to Zoom it works very well, and the features haven't had any issues as far as I can tell. I did feel slightly mislead on that feature though. They should've definitely disclosed more prominently that it has the webcam feature but only at 1/4 of the resolution the camera is capable of.

Audio is great! Size and portability is great. For a general purpose camera.. it works.
I have been recording with this over a year, in most cases it was a live show setting so had to deal with whatever lighting I had. Picture quality was ok for the cost, surely not 4k quality and with the stated F2.8 lens should handle low light fairly well. Recently had a live show where lighting was under my control, so we lit it up good. I also put it side by side with my Sony A6400 and a GoPro. Q2n4K proved to be nowhere close to the quality of the GoPro and leaps behind my A6400.
Summary- If you need a fair quality video camera with awesome audio capability this is your camera, hard to beat for the price. If you are looking to do quality (not noisy or grainy) video.. find something else.
Video & sound below is all captured from ZoomQ2n set in 4k

I purchase the product from Sweetwater and nothing much difference with the old Q2N Handy. Audio is good but FOV still limited to wide angle despite set the camera on concert hall. Gain set halfway especially orchestra. Set scene on auto, mic on 90 degree angle, covered with zoom mic cover to reduce external hissing and background audience.I have 3 Zoom portables now. Watch these live videos with your headphones.

This is a great camera for recording audio. It has real nice built in mics that do a great job capturing the bands sound. But the new 4K camera does not seem to be much better than the old version. Colors seem nicer, and the image is a bit sharper, but it's still WAY grainy. My 10 year old phone takes better looking video.

I was split between Going with this and the common product for this kind of product. In hindsight I would GO with the other people. The mics and the sound are really good and everything you'd expect from zoom. The video is a little lack luster especially in over light situations. The view screen on the device meh. It's a total battery eater!

If sound is your main concern it's awesome. If you are looking for video or a device to handle audio and video GO with the other manufacture.

Would I buy this again? Yes if my exceptions for video were much lower.

The biggest flaw with this product is that it is NOT bluetooth compatible with any form of remote control. It's not unusual for bands to want to video tape themselves to create content for media. Usually, my band doesn't have somebody to video tape our show. Ideally, this recorder should have the ability to tie to a cell phone via an APP, so the performer can start and stop recording. This is especially handy if you want to stat and stop recording after one song, in order to make song files small and easier to download and edit. Ideally, an APP with the ability to start and stop recording, see what the camera see's and change the preset scenes would make this the perfect video tool for bands.

As a standalone recorder, it works. Video quality on screen is grainy and audio is way too low. The overall design is awkward and it doesn't come with any cables. Just two batteries and some lens accessories. I haven't bothered to test it out, much. Just not quite what I expected or wanted. I'll get usage out of it, but kinda wishing I went with the Sony camcorder, over this.

This camera was purchased for recording video of a band at various venues. Disappointed in the video quality at the light levels we have available (stage lights). Very hazy, noisy and grainy (its picking too high an ISO setting, possibly). I compare this to the images we get in the same conditions from a cellphone camera and a GoPro Hero 7 Black. It is very poor compared to these two options.

Don't waste your money here. This device needs improvement.

I was looking for a camera to supplement my phone camera to do some content filming for a YouTube channel and also for a few music videos and social media footage. The audio that comes out of this thing is great, good stereo image, clean sounding, not great for outdoor dialogue as it picks up too much of everything, but great for recording in a room or smaller space where outdoor noise isn't an issue.

My phone is about 5 years old, and it shoots FAR SUPERIOR footage even at 1080p compared to this camera's 4k footage. This camera is snowflake city, you cannot adjust the ISO manually to avoid it, you will get noise in every shot, even with good lighting. If you have a decent smartphone, the only possible reason you could need this camera is for the audio.

This didn't fit the bill for me, all my setups are rolling clean audio anyway, I needed a camera that was good at being a camera and was hoping this would work out. It was not that much more expensive to jump up to a used DSLR mirrorless camera with good video specs and a real lens, spend the extra money and avoid the regret.

I read the reviews and watched a number of videos. What I was looking for, was videos that were actually shot with the Zoom Q2n-4k. But the the majority of the videos were shot with a higher quality camera and only described the Q2n-4k. When I actually received the product, I tested each setting and I was frankly disappointed with the quality of the video. I got the best indoor shots using the concert lighting. The outdoor videos were pretty good. But it was still not the quality I want for my videos. I found that the lower the light in the room, the more grainy the videos were.
As to the audio, it was superb. When I recorded just me and my guitar, the sound was not altered from the real.
If you plan to get professional quality videos from this unit, I think you will be disappointed. My son in law brought over a Hero 9 so I could compare them. The video quality was much better than the Q2n-4k. But the audio was not as good on the Hero. The Hero seemed to have more of the fisheye effect than the Q2n-4k.
So there are trade-offs.
I gave the Q2n-4k a 2 rating, because I think it can be improved.
I like the design. I like the size. I like it that it can be mounted on a microphone stand.

Been using the Q2n as a way to record guitar ideas and video to post on social media. I actually end up using my phone because of how difficult it is to start and stop recording on the Zoom. There's no remote and the buttons, which are difficult to push, are located on the back of the camera. So you end up fumbling with the camera, ideas lost in frustration. The only option is to just leave it recording and rewatch the countless minutes, possibly hours of footage trying to find that one hotspot. No way to mark spots like you can on a gopro. For me, it was a waste of money, should've gone GoPro 9 with an external mic. Hopefully the Zoom designers will get it right on the next revision. This one definitely sucks.

On battery power it keeps shutting off every 5 minutes weather you in the middle of recording or not I lose a lot of the performance I'm recording Danial

I was very disappointed in the video,it was always grainy. The buttons are in a bad spot as well. They really need to improve upon this model. Save your money for something better.

THE CAMERA WORKS GREAT, UNTIL I TRY TO RECORD FOR THE THIRD TIME AN OVER IT RECORD AND THE FILE IS THERE BUT IT A NON READEABLE FILE. I CAN SEE 1 AND 2 BUT THE ONCE AFTER DONT WORK. I HAVE USED DIFFERENT SD CARDSCHANGE THE SETTINGS AND STILL DOES THE SAME.

Great portability, sound and audio... But the good stops there for me.

First, they could not have found a more inconvenient spot to place the "record" button (which is about the size of a pregnant ant, so have a magnifying glass handy.).

As a solo artist (without a dedicated "videographer" behind the camera), it is SO clumsy and clunky to have to reach behind and fumble for the record button if you're filming your own solo performance.

It disrupts the flow, especially when you're reaching blindly to hit the record button, and inevitably cables hook up and the whole camera and tripod topples over - not a great way to start a fluent recording process, if you're a solo musician.)

Why they did not add a wireless remote or an app to be able to remotely trigger the record button is beyond me.

Or, at least put a BIG RED RECORD BUTTON on the front of the unit.

Also, I had to purchase a separate field monitor to visually see what my video looked like, while recording (so add at least another $200 to the price to purchase a field monitor scree, if you're planning to film yourself - unless you enjoy "filming blind" until you hit play, only to see that your head is out of the frame when viewing playback on the (awful) mini-monitor on the back.

Pros: great sound and visual quality for small size

Cons: no cables included; no power supply included; no way to remotely trigger the record button; terrible quality "built-in" monitor; - so be prepared to shell out $... on these extras, which you WILL want, I promise you - if you're a solo musician. (If you're a dedicated videographer for a band or company, who is used to being BEHIND the camera, it's great for mobile field work.)

I'm on the edge of returning it because of these super-frustrating lack of features in the year 2020.

I'm not sure how they are allowed to call this 4k video? I'm sure it is a technical point, but I would say this is on par with 720p (best light) and worse in dimmer light. They neglect to tell you that the zoom is digital zoom. So, your best video will come from the wide setting - not very helpful if you have to record from any distance. If you want great audio AND a crisp video, this is NOT the camera to buy. If you want great audio and ok to really poor video, this is the camera for you. Also, the viewfinder resolution is HORRIBLE. If you want to run off AC power, you have to buy the cord and the adapter. Most likely, if you use the micro HDMI cable to plug into your TV, you will be able to see video, but not hear any audio. Not sure why they couldn't make that compatible? I gave this two stars instead of one because the audio recording is really good. I am hoping to find a better alternative that delivers great audio AND great video.

Bought this from Sweetwater a few weeks ago. Took it out of the box and tried it out this past Sunday at band rehearsal. Brought unit home and connected to my 4K Smart TV. As others have stated, picture was grainy, sound was okay.

I hope my opinion changes after some continued experience/usage but not feeling this product met the hype around it.

I have a Q8 that I use for covering front of house live band performances. I picked up the Q2n 4K to cover the drummer. Recently the HDMI video output is now grainy/static. To rule out cabling I used the cables connected to my Q8 (which works great) but there was no change to Q2n4k HDMI output so I know its not a cable issue. I updated firmware to the latest but that did not solve the issue. It has been more than a week and Zoom Corp has yet to get back to me. I hoping Sweetwater Tech can resolve....

Was excited to try out this zoom camera but immediately ran into issues making it connect to anything. The documentation is limited and leaves out important information-like exactly what kind of cables you need. And since this thing doesn't come with any cables you will need them. Hint-you'll need a special cable, not just one of the micro usb to usb cables you probably have around the house used for charging devices. That cable will fit but can't transfer data.

Contacted sweetwater support who was very helpful although they were stumped too. They put me in touch with Zoom customer support which was beyond horrible. Long story short is that it took five days for them to figure out that their device isn't compatible with the generation ipad that I have. Nothing noted in the specs on this lack of compatibility. And clearly their own tech support people were stumped. Extremely frustrating experience.

I bought this thinking it would be an improvement over the webcam on my PC--it isn't.
The webcam drivers downloaded from Zoom's website are worthless. My PC still doesn't recognize the camera.
Zoom said the firmware needed updating. Downloaded the firmware. Put it on the SD card. Followed the instructions in the manual and the camera won't accept the update.
Basically, this is an overpriced piece of garbage. I can get better video and audio quality from a $25 webcam

I bought the Q2n last year.The weak spot on this cam is the usb port.On the first models the port would break lose from the circuit board.this meant you could not use it as a web cam or no usb power which meant a small ramson in batteries.A fresh set would not last a bands two hour rehearsal.Also to transfer video you would have to remove sd card and put into pc to get files.If they made the port more robust it would be a great buy....but the port is a weak link.mine broke about 4 weeks after i got it.Never got a reply back from zoom after many emails i gave up.

Waste of $$$ Batteries die every practice even Lithium.
Unit shuts itself off during recording.
Contacted Zoom they said they don't sell them "Get on online"
Got 2 online listed as compatible with my unit jack wrong both times sent both back
Haven't used it since and will never buy one of their products again!
I believe Sweetwater told me to call Zoom so they were no help either.

The video is grainy unless it is taken in bright sunlight. It is useless indoors. The video from my cell phone is much better.

Battery life is very poor. It really isn't usable for a live recording. They should discontinue this product.

Purchased this to record and edit simple music video's. Records fine - however - there is no way to transfer the recorded files to a PC for editing without disassembling half the camera. Zoom states it should be as simple as plugging the unit in via USB, opening the folder, then dragging files over to your PC - which is the way it should be and why I purchased it. This method does NOT work. The problem is that all 3 of my windows 10 pc's will not even recognize the Zoom camera through USB. They recognize other external hard drives, my phone, etc. - but not the Zoom Q2n 4k. You have to remove camera from tripod, open battery compartment, remove the SD card and insert into a separate reader then insert into a PC that actually has a card reader, then move the files. I guess you get what you pay for - Returned

The first few recordings were ok at best, but after the third time using this, the picture quality degrades on every setting.
Gets glitchy, so video is pretty much unusable.
The sound quality is parochial at best.
The first video is from the 2nd time I used the Q2n
The second is from last week (7-8th time I used it... kept trying different settings and this was the best... UGH)

I threw away $

Don't make the same mistake.

Waste of money your play hell getting any off of it you must have a working computer to download to they don't tell you that

I've been using this camera for a few months now, and I used it today to get a FOH video of my old band's reunion show. It recorded exactly 4:00 minutes of the long winded MC introducing our band, then it just stopped recording. It had USB power, ample card space, and one important job, to film a performance that will likely never happen again. Here's the deal with this camera, it has great audio, but the video quality is subpar, not even as good as my old iphone 6. Now that I know it is not dependable, I will never use this camera to record anything important ever again. Spend a few more bucks and get something better.

The camera and settings are designed for live use. Good angle viewing options, good lighting profiles great options for audio and video quality and easy/fast auto gain audio settings with great audio. So why 1 star? Well this is all pretty much "useless" if you want to record a set of live music that takes more than 4.29gb of space, in my case 22 minutes and 30 seconds...cut through like a knife in the middle of an inspiring solo. the camera continues recording on a new file (if you have batteries and space)BUT why ZOOM? why making it all good in every aspect BUT you can not record a whole set? I contacted them and they said "ohh you can easily copy the two files and put it together! So where is the convenience? I want to enjoy the music, not spend time like an audio engineer trying to put together your flaws. SO again why Zoom not working out that detail. I don't get it. My return window have expired unfortunately.

I purchased this to add a camera to my others for additional angles and for a standalone solo act video element.

Let's start with the good. Feature rich with excellent sound quality with a true stereo sound product. Leveling meters on the back to show db levels and clips.

Now, the deal breakers - the video quality is absolute garbage. I've tested this thing in all kinds of lighting, including my streaming setup, but you get nothing except grainy awfulness on all video settings and filters. It's so distracting that the end product is simply unusable. Returned it the same day and purchased a GoPro.

Final statement - don't cheap out on this, just use something with a better camera. Zoom clearly only put research into the audio capabilities here, even though they claim this can be used for shows and rehearsals (which are typically not taking place in well-lit laboratories) it simply cannot operate in low light environments or well lit environments. This thing has less camera quality than a digital camera I got from Walmart 15 years ago for $200. If you don't care about video quality, than I guess this is for you. But if you don't care about video quality than why are you shopping for a video camera in the first place?

I bought this used it once. Worked fine recorded video a sound pretty well. plugged it into my computer uploaded video. Tried to use it again, and it never worked again. I have tried every option, but it wont power up and has never worked again.

This little camera makes a decent recording, however the battery life is awful. A brand new set of AA Alkelines will last about 20 minutes. Really unusable because of this for anything except very short recordings or use as a webcam.

If you're looking for something to record audio, this has a nice recorder. But after trying this thing for over a week, I can not find a setting that makes the video look decent. Always grainy, doesn't matter what video setting the recorder is on, and we have a well lit stage and have tried the recorder at different distances. Again, an iPhone or GoPro for video quality makes MUCH more sense.

The audio quality is pretty good, the video is really grainy, noisy, and (generally) bad (especially in 4K). Look elsewhere.

The video quality was really bad, tried different settings and it didn't work, then when it was time to transfer the files to the computer using the cable, the connection inside was lose so it kept stopping the transmission to the computer. The files I was able to transfer had a great sound but, the video was not good at all, I called the customer service and they asked me to take back to the nearest store which I will do immediately