Great, thanks!
I only do still photos so the lack of synch is no prob.
Any suggestions on the best place to buy an R4?

Sorry I bought mine off a stand at NAB a couple of years back and I'm in Australia (if you saw the prices down here you'd understand why I bought it in the USA, covered my airfare with the saving) so I can't really offer much help.

Although I've imported a few items from Sweetwater and they've been exceptionaly reliable and all round decent people to do business with, even from this side of the planet.

Just one word of caution about the R-4 or almost any such device, do NOT let it loose power without shutting it down. Quick way to loose the last recorded session and if that's 3 hours long, not good.
The extra cost of the Pro is worth it just for the external 12V DC input in my opinion, that way you can run the unit off a big battery if need be.

Bob.

Very interesting side topic. I used an HHB MiniDisc recorder for a while, and remember a similar warning about running out of power while recording, ie You Lose. I'm starting to plan ahead how to do live recordings of a choral group taking a European tour next summer, and would love to be able to use 4 mics, but these new machines scare me with that sort of possibility. Makes me lean toward my old faithful Sony TCD-D5 cassette machine. 2 D cells records for hours, and if the tape is rolling and the red record LED is on, you've got something.

Does anyone have a recommendation of a forum where such topics are discussed ?

Thanks and regards,
Rick Z

Oh Wow, I hadn't realized the pro had an external 12V input. That clinches it. I was thinking it was just the 80G hard drive and the synch it had over the R4.

If you're worried about losing power on a critical location recording the Microtrack has an internal hardwired Lithium Ion battery, so no worries there.
Only 2 inputs though both with Phantom. Get a good quality CF card, I bought a Kingston 4G 45x card and have had occasional dropouts at 24/96. Just did a format of it so that might fix that.

Prior to the Microtrack I had a Sony PCM-M1 and on location in Malasia a couple of years ago I missed not seeing the (very small) blinking "recording" sign on the LCD on one critical take. I pressed the buttons but obviously not right and on the PCM-M1 you only hear the incoming audio so everything sounded fine. Oops.
You really couldn't make that mistake back in the 60's when there was a big "clunk" as the solenoids dropped the tape on the heads and the idler on the capsten, the reels started turning and the VU's started dancing - as long as you were listening off the playback head!

The R4 is (C)$1450 in Vancouver while the Pro is roughly (C)$2150.
If I remember right Sweetwater is asking (US)$2000 for the Pro.

Sorry I don't know of any forums discussing location sound or just sound.
I find the Vegas forums here are pretty good.

It's not quite as bad as it sounds, thankfully.

Once you hit Stop when recording the directory is not updated until you hit the Power button, the shutdown sequence updates the directory. If you hit Record again it seems then the directory is updated with the last sessions info. So it's only the last recording that's at risk. I've only been caught out once and that was because the guys doing the PA mix were in a hurry and we'd borrowed power off their mains distribution panel.

The R4 does have backup to CF card if you're really a belt and braces guy. My R4 has been dragged around the aboriginal settlements of Australia doing recordings for the national archives and not a sample was lost in the process. The crew were running off internal power and charging batteries in their vehicles or motel rooms and backing up to drives with a laptop. They were using 3 of the 4 channels. So it's certainly a viable field recorder. I think the mic pres on the Pro version have been upgraded as well. I've never had an issue with the original ones but I've either been recording from line level or using hot mics.

Bob.