Zoom Q3 mini camcorder with ‘pro’ microphone

Mini cameras like the flip have become incredibly popular, thanks to their small size and ease of use. However, when it comes to audio quality, Flips are pretty lame – we’ve experienced it ourselves. If you do an interview or something like that, you can’t get the device close enough to record a good audio track.

That’s problem that the Zoom Q3 tries to solve. The Q3 has a comparable form factor, and USB connectivity, but integrates stereo microphones that should be way better than the flip, or even the new Samsung HMX-U10. The camera records in Mpeg4, but we are not certain that Windows/Mac computers can play the videos without an additional driver/codec. With a 32GB memory card, one can record up to 16 hours of video.

On paper, the Zoom Q3 might be the perfect handy camcorder if it had a 3.5mm audio input as well. We hope that someone will think of this, next time ($250, product page)…