Jump to content

Frederic Chamberland

Premium Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    284

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    13

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Frederic Chamberland

  2. Cinetronic monitor and customer service review

    in Monitors

    Posted

    Hi all,

     

    I have in my possession a Cinetronic HB 6.5" #007 and have been using it for the past 3 months on my PRO HD sled flying an Alexa.

     

    Like others here that bought the Cinetronic, I made that purchase due mostly to Eric Fletcher's review of that monitor .

     

    I won't go into details about how it's built and the quality of the image, it's been said many times, this monitor is the new reference for HD monitoring on big rigs. I just love it. It's well designed, well balanced, crystal clear and easy to use.

     

    Customer service is what differentiates the players here and my experience with Cinetronic is nothing but stellar:

     

    While shooting last week, I lost the HD signal in between two takes. The monitor HD board had just died on me. I still had power going to the monitor and screen so at first, my AC and myself thought it was just a bad connection between camera and monitor. After couple of tests (cables, batteries, power on and off everything...) we realize it's the monitor .

    We are using a decimator for wireless so I re-routed the analog signal to the monitor and voila, image is back in SD mode. We can still fly and production was stopped about 8 minutes because of that episode.

    In the next minutes , I sent an email to Chris Bangma at Cinetronic describing my problem. It's 9am in Montreal (eastern time) , I realize it's only 6am in LA so I'm not going to call that early, I still can use the monitor in SD mode.

    I received an email back in the 2 hours from Chris offering a back up. It's on the FEDEX truck priority in less than 5 hours...

    I received the back up the next morning. Sent my defective monitor the same way.

    Cut to :

    I just received my repaired monitor yesterday. Everything is back to normal.

    That kind of customer service is what we all expect from our suppliers and while having problems with the equipment is never cool, knowing you are covered like that is a plus. And sharing the experience with other operators means a lot when deciding to buy or not into new companies like Cinetronic.

    One happy customer here.

     

    Chris is still developing stuff for that monitor (like the digital level) and I will be in line for anything new to complement my purchase.

     

    Cheers, fly safe.

     

    Frederic

  10. New Steadicam Monitor

    in Monitors

    Posted

    Hi Jamie,

     

    Got my Cinetronic 6.5" three weeks ago. Only used it for 3 days now, all interior. Will be using it 5 days a week for 5 months starting in July, so I will post more feedback by the end of July.

    I'm on the East coast , if a trip to Canada does it for you, I'm in Montreal. . .

     

    My feedaback for now:

     

    The thing is built like a tank, as you would expect and more.

    Soft touch buttons that you feel "clicking" are great and simple to use.

    Menus are the same as they were on my Boland (same layout and graphics) so I am in known territory .

    Only one power input, I chose the 8 pin PRO connector. So I can't use it on any other device than my PRO sled(why would I?) , or I could make an adaptor cable if I wanted to use it somewhere else ( a 4 pin XLR to 8 pin LEMO kinda cable)

    The Cinetronic yoke is a must, would not even consider the monitor without it. It's part of the balance solution I have been looking for (lower CG) .

    Image is great indoors (bright and crisp) can't wait to try it outside.

    Housing gets hot but not anywhere near what I was expecting.

    Ran almost 4 hours on a fully charged Dionic HC 90. (i did play a lot with every settings, more and less brightness, backlit, so maybe the optimum settings will last longer when I leave it as is)

    I have one dead pixel . Apparently it's "within manufacturer specs to sometime have one dead pixel" so I'm stuck with it , mind you I can't see it when the image comes up, it gets lost in the picture but it's painful to see nobody saw that when building the screen , if another dead pixel comes up , Chris can do something about it but no warranty for one lousy dead pixel.

     

    So there you go for my first impressions, there is no comparison for steadicam use with anything on the market right now (brightness, viewing angle, design, mounting options).

    Chris and his team made their homework and it shows on every aspect.

    No regrets for now. This is the ultimate monitor in 2011.

     

    Will update with more feedback ASAP.

     

    Fly safe,

     

    Frederic

  11. Fed-ex account

    in Steadi-Newbies

    Posted

    Great advice.

     

     

    So simple to get one , so many different uses .

    Also a good idea to ask FEDEX to link your account to a broker for duty fees. I asked FEDEX to be my broker (they offer the service in Canada), so whenever there are duty fees, there are no delays and all the brokerage fees are sent to my account.

     

    Cheers.

     

    Frederic

  13. PRO lower & upper junction box , post cable ••SD••

    in Steadicam Marketplace - For Sale

    Posted

    Hi all,

     

    Well taken cared of , all works 100%.

     

    LED's were added by David Hable in Vancouver (www.crampedattic.com) and they show voltage of each battery .

    There are 4 LED'S 2 greens, 1 orange and 1 red. They represent : 14,13,12,11 volts.

     

    This is the most reliable voltmeter I have ever owned. I'm sending my HD lower sled to get the same mod ASAP.

    Idiot proof and you instantly see the LED'S when turning from green to orange. For the record, it's the exact same voltmeter found on the Sachtler Artemis.

     

    Make an offer .

     

    Fly safe,

    Frederic

     

     

     

    web.jpg?ver=13082743600001

     

     

     

     

     

    web.jpg?ver=13082743240001

  14. charging batteries in the truck

    in Batteries/Power

    Posted

    I use this :

     

    Backup 1800w

     

     

    Thing is a giant battery housed with a converter that outputs more than enough power to charge batteries for a complete night.

     

    It's big and heavy but you put it in the truck, plug it in and forget about it. It charges when power is in the truck and automatically runs on the batteries if power is lost or makes free games from a faulty genny.

     

    Saved my ass a couple of times when power was lost at night without no one noticing it.

     

    Cheers.

     

    Frederic

  15. Red Epic Connectors

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi Mike,

     

    Just got confirmation from Stuart English (red bomb squad) :

    ...:The pin outs described in the manual (depending on manual version it's somewhere between P 125 - 129) are correct. There are also pre-fabricated cables, and you might consider buying one of those and changing the non-camera end connector if you have a special application in mind....

    Cheers.

     

    Frederic

     

     

    I also heard from one of the red guys (working with epics 2 weeks ago) that the final pin config set up for the epic may yet change....

     

     

     

  21. New Steadicam Monitor

    in Monitors

    Posted

    Hi all,

     

    Just sent my money to Cinetronic without seeing the monitor in action. I am an avid reader of this forum and thanks to it's many contributors, I don't consider that I'm taking a risk sending 5g's to this company .

     

    Thanks Eric Fletcher for sharing your opinion and pictures on this particular item. Your input was invaluable in my decision making .

     

    Next interesting reading will be Charles Papert Transmitter's debacle .

     

    Starting a TV series for 90 days flying Alexa so I'll be able to review the monitor in many different settings .

     

    Fly safe.

     

    Frederic

×
×
  • Create New...