My H4n works great but the battery life is hell. I can only do 2 recordings of about 1hr each and its gone. I use an external line feed (no phantom pwr) but still its pretty heavy on the batt. Do u guys have the small issue or its my set?

I replace the batts before every show. Cheap. But yeah, using the internal mics I get a couple or three hours, max.

Thanks for posting this. This informs my next purchase decision a great deal.

Wasn't the H4n the heavy duty version? I thought they touted its ruggedness, but a mic snapped off when it landed in some towels?

The previous version of the Zoom has a cage over each mic.

True about the old one and the cage. I dropped my H4 pretty badly and at least nothing actually broke off. It's extremely rare that I use the onboard mics. I don't even think I've tested them again since that drop so they could be broken but you can't tell it visually if they suffered any damage.

Odd, it seems like a step back when most of the other features were improvements. I wonder why zoom made the decision to remove the cages.

The mics rotate right? but I would think they could still do that in a cage.

Yes, the mics do rotate, between a 90 degree pattern and a 120 degree pattern. I would rather have more protection over a slight variable in the stereo field of the onboards. I mostly use it with external mics anyway.

so far i do not use the internal mics much so they are pretty much still in one piece :p

I was using an external mic when this happened...I was actually unplugging the mic cable and lost my grip on the Zoom sending it crashing down into...towels. Maybe I need to use more fabric softener?

sorry for being a little off topic but what is the best way to mount one of these on a rail system? cage? I see a lot of hotshoe adapters and ball heads but not sue which one would do it in the most low profile but secure way. Thanks

The H4n has a 1/4"x20 socket, the smaller tripod screw standard. Somehow, you need to connect up to that, it's the only physical connection point - a 1/4-to-hotshoe might be a good way, if you have a hotshoe on your rails/cage.

I 2nd the Tascan HD100.

Picked it up and feel comfortable of almost full operations within 5mins of it.
Plus it has side protection bars so if it's not a direct hit - the mics are fine.

I slip it inside a LowePro Quick Release Tripod Mount which has two wide attachment straps on the back. Two-sided velcro is also on the back the Zoom to keep the Zoom tightly in place inside the LowePro tripod pocket. I use a Samcine shoulder & waist pro stabilzer and the Zoom fits on to the front of the Samcine inside the LowePro mount.

On another note; one quick question for those of you using external mics and wireless mics with the Zoom (I use the Zoom 4, but I think the 'n' version is the same in this respect):

I noticed by chance when testing various types of external mics connected to the Zoom in 4-track Mode, that the onboard mics don't completely turn off. Yes, they stop recording, but if you for example set the Zoom to 1&2 with an XLR cable into port 1, then gently blow directly on to the heads of the onboard mics they will pick up some of that blowing sound.

I was wondering that I've somehow left something on or off inside the Menu that isn't turning off the onboard mics completely.

I tend to use the lapel mics for distance work and require the onboard mics be completely "off" when recording. They are not supposed to record at all when an external mic is connected to the XLR ports, and indeed they seem to stop recording...but still partly pick up strong wind!

I haven't got a second H4/H4n with me to experiment with, so if anybody out there could do this simple test: Plug in a microphone via XLR cable to the Zoom's XLR port with it set in 4-track Mode and monitor via some headphones, and then blow hard directly onto the two onboard mics to see if they are still picking up any wind sound.

Is there anybody who can answer my simple question please in the above post? Is it impossible to completely turn off the onboard twin mics of H4/H4n recorders when external mics are connected via XLR? Yes, they are supposed to turn off automatically when an XLR lead is plugged in, but I'm still getting some pick-up from the onboard stereo mics, for example in strong wind.