talking-f3

Zoom F3

This guide is exclusively used for the F3 field recorder from Zoom, and is not applicable to any other models, not even in the same F series.

This documentation is based on firmware version 2.20 of the F3 (it was first written for 2.0). Make sure to run the same version in case the interfaces changes. Should it change in the future, this documentation will be updated to reflect such changes.

The talking F3 (recommended)

Since 2026, there is a better way for blind people to use the F3: the talking F3. It is a patched version of Zoom’s own firmware 2.20 that speaks what is on the screen, through the headphones. It is now the preferred way of using the F3 without sight.

The rest of this guide is left as it was written in 2022. It is still for you if your F3 runs a firmware older than 2.20, or if you would rather not have a talking F3. The physical description, the button layout, the menu list and the input settings remain useful for everyone, talking F3 or not. Notes about the talking F3 have been added where they matter, marked Talking F3:.

What it speaks

It speaks in the language the F3 is set to: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese or Japanese. The voice follows the headphone volume buttons, and it is only heard in the output: it never ends up in your recordings. A short chime tells you when the F3 has started and the voice is ready.

The patcher

You make the talking firmware yourself with the Talking F3 Patcher, a single web page that works in any web browser, on Windows, macOS or Linux: https://xogium.github.io/talking-f3/. You can also save that page and use it from your own computer. It works offline: nothing is uploaded anywhere. It is accessible with a screen reader.

The patcher asks for Zoom’s official F3 firmware, version 2.20: download F3_v2.20_E.zip from zoomcorp.com and give the patcher that zip file as it is, no need to unzip it. It then lets you choose:

A “Listen to a sample” button lets you try your settings before building. Building takes about a minute and produces a new F3SYSTEM.BIN.

If your F3 runs a firmware older than 2.20, first update it to 2.20 with Zoom’s own file, the same way as described below.

Installing it

To go back to the normal firmware, do the same steps with Zoom’s original F3SYSTEM.BIN version 2.20. The patch never touches the F3’s startup code, so going back always works.

The talking F3 is an independent project, not made or supported by Zoom.

What does not talk (yet)

A few screens appear before the F3’s audio is switched on, so nothing can be heard on them, not even the chime. You have to handle them by counting button presses, as before.

Caution

Any menu in this recorder wraps around. Meaning that if for example you press the menu button, then go up once, you move all the way to system instead of remaining on finder. It is hence very important to exactly keep track of how many times you go up or down.

However dialogs that ask you a question of execute/cancel type do not wrap around. The up button moves to execute, the down button moves to cancel. Every time such a dialog is shown, you will be positioned on the cancel option.

After you have done something in a menu, the recorder remembers at what position you were on until you power it off. For example, if you are on the input 1 source and select mic+48v, it will put you on the menu item to select the source if you reopen the input 1 settings.

Since there is a limited number of buttons, what each of them does depends on the currently active screen.

Buttons and connectors

Hold the recorder so that the row of 4 buttons is closest to you, right below the lcd display.

Left side, top to bottom

front

right side

back, left to right

top of the recorder, left to right

List of actions performed by the buttons

Input settings

The following settings apply to the inputs and can be accessed with their respective buttons from the home screen.

How to connect the recorder in file transfer mode

If you wish to access the micro sd card directly from the zoom, connect an usb type C to usb type A cable or usb-C to usb-C cable to your computer, then do the following:

USB audio interface mode

To enable the F3 to act as an audio interface, proceeed as follows:

After these actions have been performed, you get back to the home screen with the recorder now acting as a sound card for whichever device you connected it to. Pressing the menu button will offer you a few options:

Using the optional bluetooth adapter

Zoom sells the BTA-1 dongle which allows you to control the recorder using the F3 Control Android and iOS apps.

This app makes using the unit a little bit easier for blind people, as you can then modify the source for the inputs, modify the sample rate, the file format and so on. It doesn’t let you adjust settings like backlight and etc., so for those, you do have to tweak them directly on the recorder.

Here’s a list of what you can do using this app:

When setting the date and time, it can be a little confusing because when you get asked for confirmation if you wish to do this, you might expect to land on a dialog box with day, month, year, etc. Instead, the bluetooth app somehow sends the current date and time of your phone over bluetooth to the recorder, which sets its date and time settings based on this information.

How to connect

Android app

Note: if at all possible, I would recommend to not use the Android app, instead use the iOS one.

The accessibility of the Android app is so-so, you sometimes get stuck in menus, the way to use the hpf menu is unclear and unintuitive at least when you’re blind. You have to be quite precise when tapping on icons even with talkback active, and you have absolutely no feedback on the activation of any icon, by sound or vibration. This makes it relatively difficult to use, given you can’t know for sure if you have successfully inserted a mark in a file, for example.

So, it is possible to use it, but I wouldn’t rely on it.

iOS app

Unlike the Android app, I’ve not found one single issue with the iOS one. Every item is easy to tap and doesn’t require precision, you get feedback about them, both vibration and sounds if you enabled them, and the hpf menu is easy to set, since it is a potentiometer. I’d rate this app’s accessibility as perfect.

Magnification of the waveform

The F3 lets you change the magnification of the waveform before or during a recording. What this means is that you have actually some very minimal control over the input gain in a sense, although it recording in 32 bit float means that the input gain ultimately doesn’t matter. But this can imply potentially 3 things:

To adjust magnification, do the following:

Note that the magnification screen isn’t displayed very long, so you must act quickly to adjust the setting, or it will disappear and you will wonder why it didn’t work and risk altering input settings instead.

Talking F3: the magnification popup is spoken: the input when it opens, then the new magnification at each press.

Deleting files

If you wish to delete a file, proceed as follows:

Typing a user defined name

This only applies to the talking F3; without it, use the bluetooth app as described above.

Go to recording, rec file name, then user defined name and press enter. The editor opens with three character sets:

After the characters of the current set come five more keys: character set (switches between the three sets), delete, cursor left, cursor right, and OK. Up and down move between the keys and wrap around. The editor opens on OK.

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