rick.lang wrote:I talked to the Canadian distributor for the Fethead Phantom and the gentleman actually recommended I use the Sound Devices MixPre-D instead of the Fethead. When I told him about my interest in the Zoom F4, he said that was a good recorder with lots of features but if I wanted quality audio over features, the MixPre-D was the better choice. He sells them all so I trust his advice.
I made the unfortunate mistake of purchasing a Fethead Phantom. It did not work at all on the Ursa Mini. When attached all that came through the XLR was white noise.
EDIT: BTW having used both the Zoom F4 and MixPre-D, I did not see any difference in the quality of the audio. Tests posted online by B&H and other reviewers also came to the same conclusion. The signal to noise ratio of the recorders is equal (or perhaps even greater on the Zoom). The major difference is that the MixPre-D has analogue limiters versus digital limiters on the Zoom F4 (and F8). In practice, it hasn't turned out to be a crucial difference, especially because the Zoom F4 can be set to use channels 3 + 4 to record the source from channels 1 and 2 with a -12dB (or more) pad which offers protection if there is some unexpectedly loud noise. The MixPre-D is wonderful and better for mounting on the camera (though still unwieldy), but the Zoom F4 offers more features and flexibility which is what swayed my purchasing decision.
This is a quite extensive review of the Zoom F4 that I found informative: