Given its small size you might be tempted to think of the Zoom H2 HandyRecorder as the little brother of the H4, but the truth is that it is every bit the field recorder of the H4, and then some.

The H2 is small, at only 4 inches by 2-1/2 inches by 1-1/4 inches, this thing fits comfortable in the palm of your hand, or in your shirt pocket.

Out of the box the Zoom H2 comes with everything you need to be up and recording in just a few minutes. Samson includes an oversized winsock, a 512MB SD memory card, headphones, a tri-stand, a microphone handle and all the cords and cables to hook it up.

The H2 uses a standard mounting point at the bottom of the unit that is compatible with most camera tripods. Samson has also included a tri-stand that screws onto the H2 and makes it perfect for desktop operation.

For those who want to use the H2 as a microphone, Samson has also included a microphone mount that turns the H2 into a high-quality field mic with a built-in digital recorder.

Design wise, the H2 is much like the H4. The right side of the H2 has an External mic port, the Mic gain switch, the line in port and a micro USB 2.0 connector.

The left side of the H2 has the power jack, the power switch, volume control and headphone or line out port.

The front panel of the H2 is relatively uncluttered and intuitively laid out. There are dedicated switches for the microphone modes and a full directional keypad for navigating the menus as well as a dedicated record button.

Turning the unit to its top, you will find the distinctive feature of the H2, the 360 degree microphone coverage. Underneath the metal grill are four condenser microphone that give you stereo recording both in the front and the rear of the H2.

The bottom of the H2 has the SD card slot. The H2 will work with SDHC cards up to 16GB, but because it uses a Fat32 files system it will only support files up to 2GB in size. At the highest bitrate uncompressed WAV file this turns out to be just over 3 hours, at the highest bitrate MP3 this grows to almost a full day of uninterrupted recording.

Using the H2 is as simple as using the H4. Turn it on and within 8 or so seconds you’ll be ready to record.

Once powered up, you can use the microphone select keys to scroll between various options for mic activation. You can choose rear only, front only, or the full 360 degree 4-channel coverage. As you scroll through the option, small red lights on the front and the back light up to indicate which microphones are active.

The menu system on the H2 is quite expansive. Perhaps a bit too much.

The menu lets you control everything from frequency cut off, recording format, automatic gain control file parameters folder, monitor, plug-in and pre roll options – auto recording, mono mixing, balance, metronome , tuner, contrast and a dozen other settings. It’s nice to have the ability to do all that, but it can be a bit daunting for the novice who is scrolling through the first time. Good thing it’s also dead-simple to record.

Press the record button once and you’ll be put into standby mode. The Volume meter will activate and you’ll be able to fine tune your levels. Samson has thoughfully given us a three-position gain switch for down-and-dirty present levels, or you can use the keypad to set your recoding levels manually. Press it again and you’re recording. Press it once more and the H2 will close the file and drop you back into the root menu.

One of the cooler features of the H2 AND the H4 is the ability to use te field recorder as a high quality USB microphone. Simply plug it into your USB port and use the software of your choice. Samson doesn’t include editing software, but I found Audacity to work just fine. One caveat… most free software doesn’t support 4-track USB audio.

The Samson Zoom H2 is available online now for ~ $200.