Well I wanted to do a cool little Zoom H1 Portable Audio Recorder video review, but looks like bhphotovideo.com beat me to it. I'll just post theirs instead since they touched on a lot of what I wanted to talk about. One of the things they point out is the use of the LAV microphone. Everyone's been talking about using this method since this unit is so small and portable, you can save some big bucks from buying a wireless mic kit. They even found a way to jamb this thing into a Microphone Shock Mount.

click image for Zoom H1 kit

I'll still do my own little video review, but i'll talk about some things I don't like about it. My intent was not to use the built in microphones on the Zoom H1, but if you're planning to, get the foam windscreen which is part of a separate Zoom Kit (above). It's nice that the Zoom H1 leaves everything out to control many functions like WAV or MP3 settings, but these buttons are completely exposed. Using it as a body pack, I fear these buttons will be easily pressed. They should have placed these switches under a cover like the Rode VideoMic. There is a 'Hold' feature, but that only works to disable the playback buttons, not the other feature buttons.

The unit is also mainly plastic. It's nice because it shaves some weight, but feels real fragile. Not something I'd throw in my bag without a hard case, or at least the case shown in the Zoom H1 kit above. Even the microphone covers are chrome plated plastic. DSLR's as of now have terrible audio compared to the Samson recorders. For the audio quality of the Samson Zoom H1, the features this little gadget has, and the low low price point of $99 bucks + Free Shipping, it's a must have item for any DSLR shooter. The only thing we need to narrow down now is what's the best 'bang for the buck' LAV mic to use. My search continues for the cheapest and best LAV mic to use.....

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