Topic: Zoom F8

[stevetoney]

This is a long thread and I haven't read it all, but does the recorder have any backup features, or issues with saving files in case of power failure/batteries?

Short-short answer, yes, Steve tested that. It has to run for at least 1 min I believe before the backup starts working...

Yes, that seems correct.  I think what can be concluded is that it seems to save in one minute chunks.  I'm not 100% on this, but I think what my test showed is that if you happen to lose power, say a few seconds after the one minute chunk is saved then you might only lose a few seconds of your recording.  If you're less lucky and lose power towards the tail end of that time frame, you might lose up to just short of a minutes worth.  But seems like the most you're ever exposed to lose is a minute of your recording, which I find to be adequate for my needs, especially with redundancy in powering.  With redundant power sources, I'm far less likely to ever have to worry about a complete loss of power while recording.  For example, I'm powering my F8 from the rear 12V connector from an external battery, with the AA battery sled acting as my backup power supply.

Incidentally, I've also confirmed that there's complete transparent changeover when the unit switches between external power and the battery sled.  No clicks or interruptions in the recording of any kind.

[connloyalist]

Still $999 on B & H and Sweetwater!

On a different note, anyone notice the price increase for the F8 now that the pre-order is over.  WOW!

In the Netherlands it has actually come down from 1462 euros to 1099 euros. Available 3 weeks from now.

Regards, Christine

[Life In Rewind]

On a different note, anyone notice the price increase for the F8 now that the pre-order is over.  WOW!

All the prices look the same to me....I thought it was always 999?

[stevetoney]

Quick search around all the major US dealers and everything I saw was still $999.  The only price I saw that was different was an Aussie price up around 1600 Aussie dollars.

[404 Not Found]

My mistake, as I saw the price and was shocked without reading the small print noting the it was a package deal with 2 sd cards, a zoom F8 case, the zoom mic package.......


 

[acidjack]

According to Justin at Pro Sound, Zoom is having manufacturing delays (I guess because they sold out of these bad boys quickly) and 3rd week of November is their target to get more.

[carlbeck]

Yep, I heard the same thing as AJ from my vendor. I'm wondering if there isn't some updates causing the delay?

[voltronic]

Hardware: you push stop at the same time as one of the pfl buttons to disable all the level knobs, push 'em again to re-enable.

I could definitely see myself not quite pressing them at the same time and stopping my recording.   

Seriously, I would be terrified of using that!

According to this post on JWSound, you cannot lock the gain pots while in record mode, and thus have no worry about accidentally stopping your recording.
I'll double check this and report back.  The pfl buttons have a very definite click to them so i think that might be the key to not screwing this up.

[stevetoney]

Hardware: you push stop at the same time as one of the pfl buttons to disable all the level knobs, push 'em again to re-enable.

I could definitely see myself not quite pressing them at the same time and stopping my recording.   

Seriously, I would be terrified of using that!

According to this post on JWSound, you cannot lock the gain pots while in record mode, and thus have no worry about accidentally stopping your recording.
I'll double check this and report back.  The pfl buttons have a very definite click to them so i think that might be the key to not screwing this up.

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=172643.msg2163152#msg2163152

Yes, confirmed in the above post.  So, on the one hand it's good that you can't accidentally stop the recording once you hit record, but on the other hand that level hold is the only hold function on the entire machine.  Since the level knobs are probably the only thing that would be accidentally moved during recording, I suppose that's not all that big a deal but I'd definitely like to see a more comprehensive hold function added in a firmware update. 

[voltronic]

Hardware: you push stop at the same time as one of the pfl buttons to disable all the level knobs, push 'em again to re-enable.

I could definitely see myself not quite pressing them at the same time and stopping my recording.   

Seriously, I would be terrified of using that!

According to this post on JWSound, you cannot lock the gain pots while in record mode, and thus have no worry about accidentally stopping your recording.
I'll double check this and report back.  The pfl buttons have a very definite click to them so i think that might be the key to not screwing this up.

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=172643.msg2163152#msg2163152

Yes, confirmed in the above post.  So, on the one hand it's good that you can't accidentally stop the recording once you hit record, but on the other hand that level hold is the only hold function on the entire machine.  Since the level knobs are probably the only thing that would be accidentally moved during recording, I suppose that's not all that big a deal but I'd definitely like to see a more comprehensive hold function added in a firmware update.

Whoops - missed that one.

[phil_er_up]

Went to archive and searched for "Zoom F8" recordings. Almost all 58 are steve toney's - mostly schoeps...want to hear this deck with other mics. Way to go steve that is a lot of recordings for 2 months of owning that deck. Maybe have this wrong seemed like quite a few TS members bought the Zoom though not much on the IA yet.
http://archive.org/search.php?query=%22zoom%20f8%22%20AND%20collection%3Aetree

Anyone else record and have listing on IA besides schopes mics?
(Did listen to the classical piano with the Josephson mics that sounded very nice.)

[stevetoney]

Went to archive and searched for "Zoom F8" recordings. Almost all 58 are steve toney's - mostly schoeps...want to hear this deck with other mics. Way to go steve that is a lot of recordings for 2 months of owning that deck. Maybe have this wrong seemed like quite a few TS members bought the Zoom though not much on the IA yet.

Thanks.  Two festivals and about five or six times out 'clubbing' with it.  I think I'm aware of four people on ts.com that have one so that's probably why you're not seeing much activity with it yet.

[voltronic]

TD, I've been looking through your review, and may I be the first to say:
 

Very comprehensive, clearly written, and nicely supplemented with photos.  Really top notch work!

[stevetoney]

TD, I've been looking through your review, and may I be the first to say:
 

Very comprehensive, clearly written, and nicely supplemented with photos.  Really top notch work!

Thanks man.  It was fun to do...though I started and stopped a few times.  Once I got some momentum going and got over the hump of getting all the screen shots of the menus sorted through, the rest fell in place because I'd had enough time vested into it that I didn't want to let what I'd already done go to waste. 

[ArchivalAudio]

I'm really tempted to order one of these units...
Still waiting for more real world experience from others.
 how's the external  hirose> battery experience ? is any one sure of pin assignments?
 Do the pre's match up to what ever flavor you are used to?
I know I don't really need one of these, but it would be a nice compact way to ad extra channels if I wanted to I do run a lot of 2 track  and sometimes 4  but also have to options of adding more sometimes. this thing would be much easier to haul around then my DR-680.  or the HD-P2 + SD USB-Pre2 or my DR-60
I like the pre's in the USB-Pre2 a d the fact I can go out digitally (Spdif) to the P2 which I got because the DR-680 is funky to use with Spdif in.