Zoom F8 - quick test. Good News, but a Zoom bug to report..

[Stewart Read]

Hi All

Did a quick informal test this week locking timecode to a new Zoom F8 with my Dragon.

Synched in FCPX using timecode and it was absolutely perfect synch using a clapper board to test. Was a short recording so can't comment on drift but wow it was a joy to see the accuracy on such an inexpensive recorder.

One thing to be aware of is that there is a bug in the current Zoom F8 firmware that affects timecode... if you enable the 6 sec pre record feature on the Zoom, the timecode is incorrectly offset by 6 seconds too. Turning off pre record solves this issue.

Thought this info might benefit someone out there.

Best wishes

 

[David Battistella]

Nice post, thanks for sharing.

David

 

[Stewart Read]

Most welcome David. thank you for all of your input on RU.

 

[Marc Wielage]

That's an awful bug, and it's ridiculous that Zoom would let the camera out with a flaw this big. Accurate timecode is in the Top 5 most important things the machine has got to be able to do.

I have seen the machine and dislike it because the knobs are way too small and the whole thing feels very cheap and "plasticky." But I would rather somebody record on the F8 than record directly to camera, particularly if they need multiple tracks. Better still, I'd prefer they use a mixing panel and a Sound Devices or Zaxcom or Tascam recorder, but for very no-frills productions, this might suffice.

 

[C. Burkhart]

The real question is where the sound floor S/N ratio is rated.

Great reference here for instance:
http://www.avisoft.com/recordertests.htm
(Look at the first column A weighted - I find very accurate)

 

[David Battistella]

Yeah,

They have not tested the ZOOM H8 on that list yet, so there is no way to know where it stands in comparison.

David

 

[Daniel Powell]

Zoom released V2.0 firmware for F8 that fixed the TC offset problem and introduced some great new features. I got the F8 as a backup to my Zaxcom recorder but I've been using it as my main unit lately. It works pretty well all around!
Must admit I'm a little biased because I've been developing a product and decided to make it for the F8 before moving on to other recorders. Check it out, it's definitely geared toward unifying the camera and sound world.
www.facebook.com/mixercage