GROUP TEST
audio level, battery life, track information, headphone volume, gain, low cut filter and remaining recording time. With a headphone out and on-screen levels you canmonitor audio pretty easily, and gain is adjustable in 1dB increments to a maximum60dB. Recordings are started with a single touch of the rec button and there are options to play back and check your take, too. It’s not as intuitive or as easy tomanually adapt recordings on the fly as you’d find with immediate access to dials, and only offers a single track. Easily mounted on the hotshoe with its standard foot, or used on a stand via its thread, the VP83F is pretty dinky, measuring 97x58x168mm, and weighing just 215g even though it’s all metal, so not much different in size and weight to its non-recording cousin, the VP83. Therefore, while it offers less control, the absence of the weight and setup of an additional recorder is certainly felt. The mic runs off two AA batteries and will give around ten hours of recording time. Zoom recorders are a mainstay in DSLR video and the H6 is the beefiest version yet. The unit is not small or light compared to some, but that means the layout and options aren’t compromised; it weighs 420g with its X/Y capsule mics fitted and 280g without it, so perfectly manageable. Fitted? Yes, one of the H6’s most obvious features is that you can swap the capsule mics for others. It comes with the X/Y capsule fitted as standard, but there’s a ‘mid-side’ capsule in the included case, and optional units like a shotgunmic and a dual XLR input. Added to the four XLR ports on the unit, it gives a fantastic number of mic options – though only the body XLRs offer phantompower. Sound quality is very high, with a maximum96kHz 24bit recorded as lossless WAVs. You get up to six tracks of simultaneous capture each with independent gain, and results are extremely clean, with additional low-cut options that can be applied to individual tracks at varying levels. You can also record a backup track at lower dB, and the H6 will take SDXC cards so you have plenty of room to record at the max. Handling is pleasingly manual with individual dials and a PAD setting for each, plus separate buttons to live the channels;
L and R control the capsules, and the numbered buttons set the XLR inputs. They can be set to stereo or mono by pressing them together and the graphical display shows this. It’s a nice feature that keeps you out of the menus. The dials on the body are slightly shielded but not barred like on the H5 or H4N. The screen is bright and colourful, and angled for easier reading whenmounted. A lot of info is packed in, but it doesn’t take long to decode; it displays levels, icons showing phantompower and low-cut settings on each channel, while channels are coloured red when live and the remaining recording time updates as you add them. It’s all nice and clear. The headphone jack is on the side of the unit with a manual volume control, and there’s also a line out and speaker. The H6 takes four AA batteries, which will give over 20 hours depending on the settings, but you can run it off a USB bus, too. A tripod mounting thread is under the unit and there’s a built-in speaker. PROMOVIEMAKER RATING: 9/10 An incredibly versatile, high quality and well-rounded unit. It may have toomany options for some, but you will almost certainly be future-proofed.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
ZOOM H6 HANDY RECORDER £259/$339 zoom-na.com
SHURE VP83F LENSHOPPER £299/$299 shure.com
Although the generally accepted way of recording superior audio is to do it with an external recorder, other options are out there. For instance, with its VP83F Lenshopper, Shure has combined a camera-mounted shotgun condenser mic with an integrated recorder, so you’re solving two problems in one. Obviously, the mic can be used with external recorders or all on its own, placed off-camera for later syncing, so it provides lots of options for recording on location. The VP83F delivered very pleasing results in our test: low noise, high- definition audio that significantly exceeded the test camera’s results. It’s easy to tell this as the mic offers a 3.5mmoutput to the camera that you can use as a reference track for editing. Recording is made onto micro SD card and the maximumquality is 24bit/48kHz WAV format. Control is streamlined to a power button, rec button andmultifunction joystick, and all info is displayed on a bright and clear LCD on the rear of the unit, which shows
The condenser shotgunmic is supported on a Rycote Lyre shock mounting system, which is meant to protect it from vibration andmechanical noise, which it seemed to do very well. It comes with a foam windscreen, has a frequency response of 50Hz-20kHz, can record up to 129dB, and offers protection against interference from RF andmobile phones. PROMOVIEMAKER RATING: 8/10 A great all-in-one solution for on- or off- camera recording. Doesn’t provide ultimate control, but will let you dispense with the weight and set-up time of recorders.
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SUMMER 2019 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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