Zoom's New H5: One of the Best Affordable DSLR Microphones Yet

One of the best thing about DSLR cameras is that they’ve made professional filmmaking become more and more affordable for the kids that wish to pursue it. But when your camera has the ability to shoot videos with quality that’s good enough for even filming House, M.D., you want to make sure your sound can match up with it. There’s nothing worse than having an outstanding looking film become completely pointless because of its sound quality, and the microphones that come built in DSLRs don’t really help that at all.

Luckily, there’s companies that offer both expensive and cheap solutions to that; one of them is Zoom, who delve into the latter. The microphones the company has offered give great sound quality for the prices they come at, and they’re expanding their catalogue with the newly announced Zoom H5.

Last year, Zoom released the H6, an upgrade to the H4N; while the features it packed were hands-down as good as it gets, the $400 price tag was a big jump compared to the other products in Zoom’s line of microphones. The new H5 comes in the middle and forms a welcomed balance, retaining the essential elements of the H6 while getting rid of things like a colored screen, in favor of a monochromatic one.

With 96 khz 24 bit audio recording, the quality the H5 presents is precisely what DSLR filmmakers need, and Zoom offers it at a price tag of $270. If you’ve been looking for a microphone that’ll give you a great on-set sound on a frugal budget, this is where you should stop searching. This microphone is basically targeted directly towards DSLR videographers. You can pick one up one of these guys in June, or preorder it at B&H right now.

As for me, when I talk about this company, I’m speaking from experience. I’ve been using the Zoom H1 for a few months on my setup; even at its cost of $100, it’s been nothing but great. The quality’s definitely less compared to its stronger siblings, but there wasn’t anything I couldn’t solve through a bit of editing. If you’re running a bit tighter on cash right now, I’d suggest giving the H1 a go, as well.

Full Specs:

Uses a system of interchangeable input capsules that can be swapped out as easily as the lens of a camera
Includes detachable X/Y capsule (XYH-5) with extended signal capacity and shockmounted mics for reduced handling noise
Compatible with all Zoom input capsules
Four-track simultaneous recording
Large backlit LCD display
Records directly to SD and SDHC cards up to 32GB
Up to 24-bit/96kHz audio in BWF-compliant WAV or a variety of MP3 formats
Two mic/line inputs with XLR/TRS combo connectors each with selectable phantom power and -20dB pad
Analog-style gain controls for each input
Protective “roll-bar” type covers prevent accidental movement of gain controls
Plug-in power (2.5 volts)
Built-in effects, including low-cut filtering, compression and limiting
Chromatic tuner and metronome
Auto-record, Pre-record and Backup-record functions mean that you’ll never miss that perfect take MS decoding
Multitrack to stereo internal mixdown
Normalize, Divide and Trim editing
Voice memo and up to 99 marks per recording
A/B loop playback
Variable playback speed and variable pitch without affecting playback speed
Multichannel and stereo USB audio interface for PC/Mac/iPad with loop back function
Mountable directly to DSLR or camcorder with optional HS-01 Hot Shoe Mount adapter
Uses two standard AA alkaline or NiMH rechargeable batteries
Over 15 hours of operation with alkaline batteries