The F1 Zoom looks to be a real game changer.

It has a few real benefits, some unrealised before purchase and some small niggles, but nothing that cannot be fixed.

• It has made the SSH-6 a fully realised shotgun on camera or hand held. The reality is, I would have struggled long term with the H5/SSH-6 shotgun setup, likely buying a whole other mic like a Diety D3 or MKE 600 Sennheisser, which to a fair extent would have negated some of the point of the SSH, which I consider to be a very good mic for the money if you have a Zoom to put it on.

• It is a better, more focussed recorder for the shotgun (or Lav), carrying less “fluff” and therefore less bulk than the H5. This means the menu is simplified, ideal for run-n-gun, as you have plenty to worry about already and some settings like the mid-side control as a one touch with clearer settings (increments of degrees rather than -25 to +6) are well thought out.

• It uses small batteries and small cards, same as the H1n, my other on the go mic. Consistency is great. I have one kit with these two in it and one with the H5 and its bigger batts and cards.

• Having it reduces dismantling and mount ware. The SSH-6 on the H5 needed to be dismantled to pack away and having no cover for the H5’s contacts, I replaced it with the XYH5 mic each and every time. These things are well enough made, but I could see this being a likely failure point sometime in the future. I will swap them out occasionally, but its nice to not have to.

• It looks cool.

• It turns on much faster. Turning off is the same 2 second hold, but on is super quick. There have been a few times, I have thought the H5 was on when it wasn’t and even a few when the delay has mixed me up a bit (it does not help that you cannot see the screen from any angle but above. The F1 has a little conformation light at the rear that helps.

• For the $400au it cost (all up), I could have an MKE 600 with 3.5 adapter, but I would not have all of the other features and benefits available like Lav recording, self contained recording, other capsule configurations etc (or the guarantee of a better pre-amp).

• It gives me a compact X/Y option. This is even smaller, cleaner and more robust than the H1n and with a dedicated shock mount.

• It allows me to have both capsules in action at the same time. Two mic options, so no tough choices to be made.

• The buttons happen to be on the right sides (mostly the right side) for my usage. This is of course subjective, but the H5’s on/off is on the left side and hard to reach with the rig shown. The F1’s is on the right avoid the handle side.

• It recognises Lithium batts, the H5 does not.

Negatives (nothing terminal).

• The F1 is simpler and more compact than the “hub” H5, but with that comes a reduction in deeper specs, such as no -20db pad (not really needed for it’s input options), no equalising or modifiable attenuation and it records in stereo only. This makes menu navigation cleaner than even the H1n and leaves tons of room for it’s capabilities to shine.

• The shock mount is really solidly attached, but a pain to remove so I likely won’t unless I use it as a remote Lav. This makes the assembled unit too long and deep for my small travel cases, but I have been putting off buying one good hard case for all my mics anyway.

• The volume setting on the unit (not used with a capsule) is in ten steps, but rather than just setting ten numerical steps, Zoom have used Low-, Low, etc to High++. Why not just use 1 to 10 like their capsules?