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Tascam DR-40 or DR-100 versus Zoom H4N: Sync issue?
  • Looking to buy an external sound recorder, and it's come down to one of the above. I'll be using this with a Panasonic GH2 shooting in America, which means NTSC and framerates of 24 and 30 fps.

    It's a question about the sync issue. I do a number of long events, mainly plays, that run 90 minutes or so. I've been hearing that the Tascams drift out of sync after an hour or so. Haven't heard as much about the Zooms (save for people shooting PAL). So the first question is whether the Tascams have been fixed on this point, or if the Zoom H4N will or won't drift out of sync with my video.

    I understand that I can plug these recorders into my camera's mike port, and record directly onto the video. If I do this, then I have two questions. The first is how the camera records this: does it record multiple tracks onto separate audio streams? Or does it consolidate it into a mono audio track? The second is whether the record can record its own multitrack audio file while it's feeding the camera something. (This'd make post-synching easier, and give me more options for audio mixing.)

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  • I have a friend that shoots alot of classical piano and live events such as that and I've never heard of a problem from him. Though he's been behind the camera for 45 years so he probably knows his shit more than I will ever. I'll email him and ask him.

    Oh yeah, he uses the DR-40.

  • @Brian_Siano

    If such thing will be ever present, it is easy to fix (as it'll be constant for camera-recorder pair).

    So you must just get best recorder you can do. From this three Zoom is worse and DR100 MKII is best.