Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Is ZoomQ3HD still the best?

Idiot proof recording video camcorder? As some of you might have noticed, I'm not good with electronics. I bought ZoomQ3HD 2 years ago but it seems to be broken. My dogs were hopping around and Master Charlie the 94lb golden retriever whisked it off with his tail. The devise fell on the floor from the chair. From outside it does not seem suffered so much (pic below) but there may have been internal injuries for it can no longer record well.
Just wanted to ask your opinion if it's still the best for a person like me.

I bought the zoom H2n (audio only) to record the upright piano I've been using here. I was certainly happy with it and I imagine all the zoom products are well designed but I would avoid buying any combined video/audio device because the best placement for recording sound is rarely going to coincide with the best spot for recording video.

So, instead, you could combine the audio of, say, the H2n with the video track of any old digicam and you'd have the luxury of being able to experiment with the best position for recording audio.

The only downside is you're going to have to put some time into familiarizing yourself with windows movie maker or similar software for merging the video with the audio track. It's not everybody's cup of tea.

I just checked amazon. There doesn't even seem to be a competing product? Yes, you can do better. But for simplicity. The Zooms ain't bad at all. I'm thinking this is it. You've got enough going already. Don't need to get all involved in better recordings. It would require that.

Ach! Don't do that! I'm still traumatized from the Mendelssohn recital! Back away!

I am recovered enough to try to throw something useful in.

If you have a digital camera that can record video, there are adapters you can buy for it so you can do better quality audio and it syncs. I think - I am camera illiterate. I know we bought an adapter that will connect to the Zoom H4 to the camera, if you wanted to go that route(Haven't used it yet so don't know if it's any good). There are also mics you can buy to attach to your camera. I really don't know much at all about that either, or if the sound quality is any good, but I will ask when he gets home tonight.

I think this seems to be the most feasible advise. I know even I could get it if someone coaches me patiently at least 3 times but my 'engineer' husband says he can't help me. So I will settle with zoom.

Thank you everyone!