Question regarding the Zoom H5

Hi all,

I have been seriously been considering getting into video & audio alongside photography at local venues for gigs and I have been considering getting something like the Zoom H5 to connect up to my R5.  So that I have a all in one solution for Photo / Video Audio.

Now what I was wondering was, am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

ideally what I am looking for is at the end of the gig, I am able to give bands / artists

Photos
Video
Audio tracks

Many thanks

JWAR1976 wrote:

Hi all,

I have been seriously been considering getting into video & audio alongside photography at local venues for gigs and I have been considering getting something like the Zoom H5 to connect up to my R5. So that I have a all in one solution for Photo / Video Audio.

Now what I was wondering was, am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

ideally what I am looking for is at the end of the gig, I am able to give bands / artists

Photos
Video
Audio tracks

Many thanks

First, I applaud your decision to work with an external recorder. That is often overlooked by people new to videography.

I am not particularly familiar with the H5, unfortunately. Will you be using external mics plugged in to the H5? Or using the built-in mic (capsule)?

Will the camera be mounted on a tripod when you are taking stills? Or will you be roaming around with camera in hand

I assume you can just unplug the audio cable from your R5 if you want to walk around when taking stills and leave the H5 recording audio. But then again, you know what they say about when you assume...

And finally, just so you know, it is generally pretty darn easy to sync externally recorded audio with video in most video editors so that COULD be an option too, unless you really need to upload the video with audio immediately after the gig and won't have time to bring the video (and audio) in to a video editing program.

Sean Nelson wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

..am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

You can, as long as you know ahead of time that you're not going to have to leave for some reason (to use the restroom, for example). But it would require you to record on the H5 itself rather then feeding it into the camera for recording. It's no problem to do that, it just means you have to synchronize the audio track when you edit the video, not a big deal.

But, I'd suggest that it's better to record everything on the H5 itself and set it up near the band so that you're free to do whatever the heck you want. Ideally, you'd be able to get an audio feed from the band's sound board and run it directly into the H5, but failing that some place near the stage that you can let it sit where it won't be bumped would probably work too.

Keeping the H5 off the camera means that it won't record bumps or crowd noises close to the camera, and it would give you a lot more freedom and peace of mind while you're shooting other things.

If you've got a second camera it would be well worth setting it up on a tripod and let it run record the whole band while you move around with your handheld camera to get different angles and closeups of the performers. That would let you create a much more interesting video at the editing stage.

Sean said everything much better than I could.

The only thing I would add is that using the 8K resolution on the R5 will allow you to "punch in" to a tighter framing when you edit (or do a slow zoom in) if you will be delivering your video in a lower resolution, like 4k or even 1080p.

I don't know anything about the ability to record 8K on the R5 though so there might be usability issues of which I am not familiar (and you might need a pretty beefy computer and LOTS of hard drive space to handle 8K footage).

Personally, ideally, I would use a second or third camera AND record in the highest resolution I could in order to re-frame the shot in post. But it also would depend on how much time I am able to put in to the project.

Off The Mark wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

Hi all,

I have been seriously been considering getting into video & audio alongside photography at local venues for gigs and I have been considering getting something like the Zoom H5 to connect up to my R5. So that I have a all in one solution for Photo / Video Audio.

Now what I was wondering was, am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

ideally what I am looking for is at the end of the gig, I am able to give bands / artists

Photos
Video
Audio tracks

Many thanks

First, I applaud your decision to work with an external recorder. That is often overlooked by people new to videography.

I am not particularly familiar with the H5, unfortunately. Will you be using external mics plugged in to the H5? Or using the built-in mic (capsule)?

Will the camera be mounted on a tripod when you are taking stills? Or will you be roaming around with camera in hand

I assume you can just unplug the audio cable from your R5 if you want to walk around when taking stills and leave the H5 recording audio. But then again, you know what they say about when you assume...

And finally, just so you know, it is generally pretty darn easy to sync externally recorded audio with video in most video editors so that COULD be an option too, unless you really need to upload the video with audio immediately after the gig and won't have time to bring the video (and audio) in to a video editing program.

As much as I love my cameras I know the internal mic isn’t normally the best and so a external would be essential to avoid the tinny type sound.  The camera would be handheld as the venues I shoot in or not that large.

Sean Nelson wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

..am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

You can, as long as you know ahead of time that you're not going to have to leave for some reason (to use the restroom, for example). But it would require you to record on the H5 itself rather then feeding it into the camera for recording. It's no problem to do that, it just means you have to synchronize the audio track when you edit the video, not a big deal.

But, I'd suggest that it's better to record everything on the H5 itself and set it up near the band so that you're free to do whatever the heck you want. Ideally, you'd be able to get an audio feed from the band's sound board and run it directly into the H5, but failing that some place near the stage that you can let it sit where it won't be bumped would probably work too.

Keeping the H5 off the camera means that it won't record bumps or crowd noises close to the camera, and it would give you a lot more freedom and peace of mind while you're shooting other things.

If you've got a second camera it would be well worth setting it up on a tripod and let it run record the whole band while you move around with your handheld camera to get different angles and closeups of the performers. That would let you create a much more interesting video at the editing stage.

The only reason I thought of the R5 is that I know it creates a backup audio file on it while you are recording the video.  Another option I was thinking of was having something like the Rode Pro mounted onto the R5 for the audio and having the H5 for just standalone audio recording.

JWAR1976 wrote:

Sean Nelson wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

..am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

You can, as long as you know ahead of time that you're not going to have to leave for some reason (to use the restroom, for example). But it would require you to record on the H5 itself rather then feeding it into the camera for recording. It's no problem to do that, it just means you have to synchronize the audio track when you edit the video, not a big deal.

But, I'd suggest that it's better to record everything on the H5 itself and set it up near the band so that you're free to do whatever the heck you want. Ideally, you'd be able to get an audio feed from the band's sound board and run it directly into the H5, but failing that some place near the stage that you can let it sit where it won't be bumped would probably work too.

Keeping the H5 off the camera means that it won't record bumps or crowd noises close to the camera, and it would give you a lot more freedom and peace of mind while you're shooting other things.

If you've got a second camera it would be well worth setting it up on a tripod and let it run record the whole band while you move around with your handheld camera to get different angles and closeups of the performers. That would let you create a much more interesting video at the editing stage.

The only reason I thought of the R5 is that I know it creates a backup audio file on it while you are recording the video. Another option I was thinking of was having something like the Rode Pro mounted onto the R5 for the audio and having the H5 for just standalone audio recording.

All cameras record audio embedded in the video clips. There are no backup audio clips produced by the R5. If you record 8K you can also shoot proxy video clips of lower resolution. Both the 8K and proxy clips have audio.

The Rode Pro is mono. The internal camera mics are stereo, as are the mics on the H5. You want stereo or mono?

The internal R5 mics are not tinny, they are full range. They are omnidirectional, however, and thus not ideal for recording music in a noisy setting. The H5 mics are directional(cardioid).

Markr041 wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

Sean Nelson wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

..am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

You can, as long as you know ahead of time that you're not going to have to leave for some reason (to use the restroom, for example). But it would require you to record on the H5 itself rather then feeding it into the camera for recording. It's no problem to do that, it just means you have to synchronize the audio track when you edit the video, not a big deal.

But, I'd suggest that it's better to record everything on the H5 itself and set it up near the band so that you're free to do whatever the heck you want. Ideally, you'd be able to get an audio feed from the band's sound board and run it directly into the H5, but failing that some place near the stage that you can let it sit where it won't be bumped would probably work too.

Keeping the H5 off the camera means that it won't record bumps or crowd noises close to the camera, and it would give you a lot more freedom and peace of mind while you're shooting other things.

If you've got a second camera it would be well worth setting it up on a tripod and let it run record the whole band while you move around with your handheld camera to get different angles and closeups of the performers. That would let you create a much more interesting video at the editing stage.

The only reason I thought of the R5 is that I know it creates a backup audio file on it while you are recording the video. Another option I was thinking of was having something like the Rode Pro mounted onto the R5 for the audio and having the H5 for just standalone audio recording.

All cameras record audio embedded in the video clips. There are no backup audio clips produced by the R5. If you record 8K you can also shoot proxy video clips of lower resolution. Both the 8K and proxy clips have audio.

The Rode Pro is mono. The internal camera mics are stereo, as are the mics on the H5. You want stereo or mono?

The internal R5 mics are not tinny, they are full range. They are omnidirectional, however, and thus not ideal for recording music in a noisy setting. The H5 mics are directional(cardioid).

Sorry what I meant was while the R5 records the photo and audio, the Zoom H5 records a backup of the audio track. The following is stated on the Zoom website

Backup-Record*

The H5’s Backup-Record function automatically records a duplicate set of L/R tracks with 12db less input gain. This audio safety net helps to protect your recordings.

*44.1 and 48 kHz WAV files only.

So what I was thinking is use the backup audio file and put into a audio editor to split tracks, so that the band / artist has mp3 / flac files of each song they performed.

Ideally, I think that taking a feed off the mixing board might be the best.

Maybe use a phone to record some audience sounds / applause.

JasonTheBirder wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

Hi all,

I have been seriously been considering getting into video & audio alongside photography at local venues for gigs and I have been considering getting something like the Zoom H5 to connect up to my R5. So that I have a all in one solution for Photo / Video Audio.

Now what I was wondering was, am I able to record say a couple of songs from a band with video, but have audio recorded of the entire performance while I am taking photos, while the H5 is still connected to the camera ?.

You do not want to have the H5 on the camera when recording a band. You'll be too far away. You would want someone (an assistant) much closer to the band with the H5 while you take photos and videos. Also your movements will be very loud if you're taking photos and it will contaminate the audio track. The H5 can pretty much record the entire time while you are free to take photos and video.

With the venue I go to, I am normally able to get close to the front as normally shoot at 24mm on my 24-70, when the crowd comes forward halfway through the performance, I am still able to maintain position or go right up to the stage adjusting position for close ups if the singers facial expressions / guitarist hair going nuts and they are  is leaning towards me playing for the camera so to speak.

The majority of the time I shoot as wide as possible whilst remaining centre.

JWAR1976 wrote:

Sorry what I meant was while the R5 records the photo and audio, the Zoom H5 records a backup of the audio track. The following is stated on the Zoom website

Backup-Record*

The H5’s Backup-Record function automatically records a duplicate set of L/R tracks with 12db less input gain. This audio safety net helps to protect your recordings.

*44.1 and 48 kHz WAV files only.

So what I was thinking is use the backup audio file and put into a audio editor to split tracks, so that the band / artist has mp3 / flac files of each song they performed.

That's the recorder creating two audio files on the recorder. You only need the second one if the first one clips. If the first one doesn't clip you'd never touch it.

No reason to have the recorder plugged into the camera other than making syncing later easier.  But the camera mics are likely good enough for that. You'd also want to make sure the output from the recorder is good enough. I have the H6 and it's output can be an issue. You'd never use it over the file created inside the recorder.

Also if you're buying new I'd spend the extra money and get one of the newer 32 bit models. Much harder to clip and easier to fix in post. If you're only using one mic the smaller F3 might even be cheaper than an H5.

NickZ2016 wrote:

JWAR1976 wrote:

Sorry what I meant was while the R5 records the photo and audio, the Zoom H5 records a backup of the audio track. The following is stated on the Zoom website

Backup-Record*

The H5’s Backup-Record function automatically records a duplicate set of L/R tracks with 12db less input gain. This audio safety net helps to protect your recordings.

*44.1 and 48 kHz WAV files only.

So what I was thinking is use the backup audio file and put into a audio editor to split tracks, so that the band / artist has mp3 / flac files of each song they performed.

That's the recorder creating two audio files on the recorder. You only need the second one if the first one clips. If the first one doesn't clip you'd never touch it.

No reason to have the recorder plugged into the camera other than making syncing later easier. But the camera mics are likely good enough for that. You'd also want to make sure the output from the recorder is good enough. I have the H6 and it's output can be an issue. You'd never use it over the file created inside the recorder.

Also if you're buying new I'd spend the extra money and get one of the newer 32 bit models. Much harder to clip and easier to fix in post. If you're only using one mic the smaller F3 might even be cheaper than an H5.

Thank you for the informative reply, the reason I was thinking about the H5 is that my local Camera shop has a open box one for £170 with full warranty, so is tempting.  I will definitely do some research on the F series range.  Regarding the 32 bit, I was originally looking at the Tascam Portacapture X8, which can be bought for just over £400, which is quite reasonable for a handheld device.

The venues I go to have very few tables and no tripods allowed on busier nights, so handheld is pretty much essential.

The F3 is tiny. I think it's actually designed to be strapped to a tripod leg or a light pole. I guess with a cold shoe mount it could go on top of a camera . The only issue is it needs a microphone. The older H4,H5 or H6 come with mics.