Over the past 10 years I have used several Zoom handheld audio recorders. They all have been excellent field recorders, and I have recorded dozens of interviews and even use one of the devices today as a backup audio recorder in my studio.
The folks at Zoom sent me the iQ5 to review which allowed me to turn my Lightning connector capable iPhone/iPad into a professional audio recorder. Setup was a snap, I installed the Zoom Handy Recorder from the iOS store and plugged in the iQ5 into my iPhone and hit record.
The mic record quality is excellent, while you do need to be careful not to bang your phone onto a solid surface while recording, holding the iPhone and recording Audio or Video resulted in excellent source audio for both that was many times better than what the iPhone was capable of capturing on its own.
The folks at Zoom do not skimp, the device has it’s own internal rechargeable battery, audio headset jack, manual or automatic audio gain as well plus directional settings. The microphone itself has two elements as seen in the picture below in that it captures audio coming form the front and side of the mic.
The Zoom Handy Recorder software comes with a wide assortment of effects to fine tune the audio recording.
You can use the iQ5 with the standard iOS Camera app to capture great audio with your video recordings. Use the iQ5 with Garageband as well.
For $99.00 you cannot beat the price save space and weight when you are off to do a field recording with the Zoom iQ5 Professional Stereo Microphone for iOS