Zoom has introduced the F8 MultiTrack Field Recorder, designed with filmmakers and sound designers in mind.
The F8 offers 8-input/10-track recording, low-noise preamps, and support for 24-bit/192kHz audio.
Here’s their official intro video:
Features:
- Phantom power (+24V/+48V) can be turned on and off for each preamp individually.
- Plug in any Zoom mic capsule.
- 10 tracks—8 input channels, plus a stereo mix track*—allow you to simultaneously record stereo and surround sound.
- An onboard mixer with flexible routing of all inputs and outputs (pre- and post-fader). Each channel has controls for pan, input/output delay, filtering, and limiting.
- The F8 can be mounted to a tripod and attached to your camera using the included mounting bracket.
The Zoom F8 MultiTrack Field Recorder will be available in July, 2015 for US $999.99. See the Zoom site for more info.
Will be interesting to see a shootout between this and sounddevices 7xx. It sure is at an interesting price level but the Edirols, Marantz’ and Tascams of the world have never made a dent in the pro market. There is a huge prosumer market now tho, with all the youtubers.
I don’t think marantz, tascam, edirol etc did target the pro cinema market (i don’t think they even offered timecode). In the pro music market, they took no prisoners.
Having said that and comparing my marantz pmd661 with a sound devices 744, i don’t find a perceptible difference. The sony offerings are also of exceptional sound quality.
As the owner of both a Marantz PMD661 a Sound Devices 744, I hear a marked difference in the quality of the preamps, noise floor, and action of the limiters. They’re really two devices in totally different leagues, both good for different purposes.
Still sticking it out with minidisc recorders! MZ-RH1 still serves me well. Sad that they discontinued a genuine musician’s device. Phooooey.
In the past, if you were really serious about location sound you had to spend the $$$$ on Sound Devices, Nagras or Zaxcom. I ended up with the Roland R88 because of a review on this thread https://www.gearslutz.com/board/remote-possibilities-acoustic-music-location-recording/761420-roland-r-88-a.html
It’s been pretty amazing for the money. Zoom have always been at the low end and their mic pres have been terrible. Probably fine for home movies or Youtube but not taken seriously by working location guys. I’m not hopeful based on the price but you never know.
I agree. Zoom have served wonderfully as a way for ‘prosumers’ to get a foot in the door and learn how to use professional equipment – whilst holding back on features, preamps and build quality.
I doubt anyone’s pitching this as a serious competitor for Sound Devices, but it’ll be wonderful for people who can’t afford the other stuff and want to get a handle on an 8-ch field recorder. The input specs sound promising, yet I was excited (then disappointed) by the preamps in the H5/H6; let’s see. I can’t imagine anyone really seriously considering swapping SD kit for this on a film set, but I suspect it’ll be *amazing* for artists and musician/radio/crossover sorts. At least the timecode is a gesture that they’re trying to do something serious, and that’ll be its edge over other cheaper prosumer recorders.
Whichever way, I’m sure it’ll be better than the Tascam DR-680 for this kind of work, but most people will probably find themselves needing less tracks, in which case the DR-70D is a far less costly option (that goes nicely over the shoulder etc). The bluetooth iOS app seems kind of random; can’t imagine anyone seriously using that except for setup and metadata. I guess when Tascam are using wifi, you’ve gotta do something.
I will say that whatever the sound quality, the fiddly and small plastic knobs already scare me a bit. Likewise – no channel pan controls on the front panel? Suspect a bit of menu diving is in order. I fear for the battery life, especially when using phantom power (and bluetooth control); it was nice of them to include a lithium battery input. USB power might have been handy too?
This seems a very nice piece of pro kit, I was concerned on the usb side, but the site says “Use as an 8-in/4-out USB audio interface (@ 96 kHz) “.
Wow, this is exciting stuff. I hope that the preamps are anywhere in the ballpark. Very cool feature set.
sound devices 7** over everything still. The preamps and indestructible-ness are too good. You can tell the difference with the preamps in the tracklay for sure
I love it its the best out there in this price range very nice preamps and intelligent bios love the bluetooth faders and really flexible I have sound devices 788t ssd zaxcom nomad and zoom f8 but now I have f8 in top of my list for feature film … love it zoom has improved themselves in many ways…..