Zoom F8 price point

Wasn't it even at US$750? For a while.

I hope there is a F10/F8n/F6/whatever in the pipeline, but I won't be holding my breath.

Got hope that Roland or Tascam might decide to enter the fray again, they've been missing in action for a while or fallen off the pace lately.

And who knows, maybe NAB 2018 will throw a surprise at us and Marantz might make a go at the prosumer market with a F8 competitor after bringing out their Marantz PMD-706 (which might be the best sub $300 recorder at the moment?). Or a complete odd ball surprise such as Atomos/AJA/Blackmagic giving it a go at making an audio recorder and leveraging their years of knowledge in making recorders already (but totally different kinds of recorders).
 
Looking over the F8, at a price point of $800, whom is this aimed at? If it's for the semi-pro indie type guys, then aren't we approaching "good enough" territory with the F8? What more would you as an indie want from a recorder/mixer? It's not like as an indie or docu/eng guy you'll be doing 20 mics simultaneously, so what more do you want? I mean, sure, if you are a pro, and work on big productions, then yeah, the F8 falls short, but there are tons of companies out there to take care of the pro needs, including slightly lower cost guys like SD.

I mean, sure, bring on F9 and F10 and so on, but it's getting to the point of diminishing returns. Maybe that's why Tascam or Roland have not jumped in - the market is now very mature, and the little indie guy is pretty much set with the F8 type gear for this sub $1K price point. No?
 
I have an F4 and I'm fine with it, as I'm a DP who rarely runs more than 3 mics, but I am curious if Zoom has any new recorders on the horizon. My only complaint about the F4 are the digital limiters, so I wonder if they're thinking about implementing a recorder with analog limiters i.e. Sound Devices...
 
I have and F8 and dollar for dollar it is probably the best deal piece of gear I have. Solid, quiet, works like a champ.
 
The big markets I see for recorders like the F8 are, as you mentioned, the indi folks and people working on lower priced reality shoots. But also SFX recordists. They will be much more willing to take a chance on newer less "pro" equipment because in general they can afford to have a glitch now and then. Also with SFX it is getting to be more of a norm to have lots of perspectives. We used to use a bunch of two track recorders to "cover" a car but in a heartbeat switched to a multi track recorder, so much simpler. A lot of things lend them selves to having a bunch of mics so you get multiple perspectives in a single file.

The other market is bands, which is where this started. Eight is a good place to be for that market, much more and you really should be in a studio.

What the track count ends at? 5.1 surround was because 6 tracks are all that 35mm Mag recorded. Eight tracks became a norm (and the SDDS standard) because that was what digital tape recorders recorded (DA88, et all).

Some point over eight and it just gets unwieldy if you are not locked down on a cart si I doubt we will see a big bump in field recorders but?

I suspect that the other players will bring something to market that is competitive with the F series. Right now Zoom is standing alone in the cheap high quality market
 
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