Tascam DR-70D

I've bought this primarily as something to kickstart some kind of location sound recording career. I know that it's something that I will outgrow, but it really does have excellent preamp quality, four inputs for good flexibility and room to add mics, and great portability and ability to have a very long battery life (with a USB power bank). There's really not that much out there that can compete on the features for the price, and saving here means I can put aside more money for better microphones on my kind of budget, which I think is a reasonably smart move.

Build quality is pretty nice, and I appreciate small things like the rubberised plate on the bottom which keeps it from slipping around if you have it resting on a table.

I initially had an issue where an 128GB SD that I have wasn't being recognised properly on the device, wasn't able to get it to format properly. Eventually I used the official SD Card Formatter utility software which got it working just fine, so if anyone has any issues with SD cards then I would strongly recommend that.

I've taken this into a local wood, and recorded some wildlife there, where it worked quite well in a 'tactical deployment bag' (cheap shoulder/bum bag that can be found at a few online retailers..) with me holding a boompole/mic and scrambling about, the compact size and light weight are excellent for situations requiring some tricky navigation on foot.

Once you get used to the menus you can set things up pretty quickly, main issue I've come across in terms of the UI is if you need to move from recording something loud to very quiet quickly it necessitates changing gain mode, a fair bit slower than having more full analogue control.

My main complaint is the lack of a solo function for individual channels, which really should be possible, but it is possible to work around it, and the other good features listed above go some way to compensate for any limitations.

Eventually I will very likely end up with a Sound Devices recorder, but this will hopefully get me going until that day.

(BTW I would love to see more manufacturers start including comparable analogue-realm mixing and processing features such as on the Sound Devices gear, as the primary reason for wanting an SD recorder is the analogue limiter capability.)

Its shape is perfect to install it under or on top of the DSLR camera.
The quality of the sound is ok, you can't expect professional sound but it is way more decent than the built-in microphone from the DSLR and better sound than TASCAM DR40, but, still cannot compare with other sound recorders of higher-end.
In general, good for its price. A bit hungry with the batteries and the menus are a bit difficult to follow, as a majority of functions can be activated/deactivated only via "software" and not with independent switch/knob.
I would recommend for persons willing to improve sound quality in their recordings but who does not want to spend more than 250-300 euros.

New: Despite an earlier more negative review the pedal has lasted well and the sound really is more than adequate for the Independent film work that I do. I found it to be far better than the Zoom H4N which I also own.
Old: This recorder feels light and plastic. It does not appear robust and I wonder how durable the parts are. You have to dig into the menus for basic operation which I don't like. However it sounds really good In preliminary tests. I've noticed online reviewers of products mention the flaws in this kind of equipment to cover their reputations but they bury it beneath all the positives. This recorder feels cheap, if I had a better budget I'd have gone for a professional recorder.
Addendum: it is a good few years later and the grooves on the sliding power switch have worn off and it is now hard to turn on, forcing me to apply too much pressure to the switch which may in time break it. I had the same problem with the Zoom H4N switch and ended up with a pretty useless piece of equipment (replacing the switch part is expensive enough and I am not good at making those kind of repairs).