true. Projects that use TC in my book are only the very high end. I have worked on high budget 35 mm shoots and they didn't want to use TC.
What country do you live in? I live in Brazil even if I made my first years in the film business in Argentina, a long time ago. In those days we used Nagra and Uher machines for location audio.
In the early '90s I started an audio rental business in both countries, now only in Rio. So I have most of the equipment except recorder, which I never got requests for except in the early DAT days.
So it's the only piece I don't have now that I want to restart doing location audio.
Remember that all three components, audio recorder, camera and editing suite, have to support TC.
Particularly in Argentina there seems to be very few people using TC, but I am not too sure why. In Brazil is very much used. My Denecke TC slates go out all the time.
So according to my work experience I decided to buy the R-44.
What do you deliver to your clients? A CD copy?
Maybe ask Edirol if they're planning to make a R-44 Pro anytime soon, since the R-44 virtually replaces the old R-4, and the R4Pro is a ship of a recorder.
AFAIK the Edirol R4 Pro is the latest version and the R44 is that model without the TC capability. I don't think there will be a new model.
So it really depends form the kind of jobs you do, and if the majority does require TC. In my case, if someone wants TC, I will rent a SD 744T for the job.
I will have buy a TC capable recorder, even if it's the Tascam, which you have to input a TC signal. As I already have a Denecke TC generator, then I can use it. But having 4 channels and TC is even more interesting. So I'd be willing to go for the R4 pro.
The good old slate still is the safest solution to me and will never die.
Yes and no. It will soon die, when all equipment is TC capable, and we are now very close to it. Many DV and HDV cameras can output an SMPTE or mide TC signal, so you can jam that to the TC generator.