Zoom and Tascam are good to start with, Zoom H4N adds the ability to use your own microphones, an invaluable option imo, using external microphones will improve your recordings 10,000x, the Tascam DR series are good value too (DR680 is currently our standard multichannel recorder, nice bit of kit for the money), and imo have better sounding pre-amps than the Zoom range - I would recommend a Tascam over a Zoom any day, zoom H4N has been a pain in my neck on more than one occasion lol but it does the job