Mikko Wilson

Martin, Thanks for your great blog post. I was all set to order myself a Camwave 5HD on sale to try for a low-budget live TV gig coming up, figured I'd check out what I might be missing by not waiting and spending the bucks on the 7HD that's coming out soon. Ended up over here and heard about the Recon for the first time. After a couple of hours and reading Martin's blog post above, I figured I'd give it a shot as I've got 30 days to send it back to B&H if it doesn't perform. Only had it since yesterday, so still lots of testing to do. Initial thoughts are that it's pretty decent. Definitely a little bigger than the Camwave, and it doesn't feel super robust. But it works great. I've fed it SD and HD-SDI and pulled both HDMI and SDI out in the respective SD/HD modes and it's worked great. Lag is very very short, I'd estimate less than 2 frames including any lag in the camera and monitor I was using. Range out in the open was almost exactly ay 150' as advertised. On signal loss it pretty much just cut to black after a couple of minor glitches apparently (I wasn't at the monitor). Re-aquiring takes a moment and it does flash a little (kinda neat) on-screen status display as it's searching for signal and when it re-locks (So it's always outputting *something* at the receiver). I haven't had a chance to test inside the large venue yet, but I'm hopeful it'll perform as expected. Around the TV station it had no trouble few a few studio & control room walls during a quick walk-around. One reason I got it was for the unadvertised and (turns out) undocumented Tally feature. I do a lot of live TV with and without Steadicam and tally was an enticing option. When it arrived, the manual made no mention of the tally connectors, so out came the multimeter. I wrote up my findings in a quick n' dirty article here: http://mikkowilson.com/articles/ReconTally/ - Mikko

I was using a older vest at a workshop some years ago that had had the upper quick-release velcro pad improperly repaired. Instead of thick material, it just had this thin - almost vinyl - material over the back of the velcro. As I was backing through a door and pushed the rig out to bring the arm in for clearance I heard the velcro go. Between my grabbing the post and my spotter grabbing the edges of the vest and holding it together I didn't loose the rig. Got a newbies hart rate up though... :o :rolleyes: - Mikko

Yeah, that's what I was getting at Jerry, thanks for the clarification! :) - Mikko

Jerry, does lifting the camera slightly while locking the plate force it harder in sideways against the opposite (fixed) rail (Into the "V"), making sure that the locking clamp isn't just compressing the place down against the face of the stage? - Mikko

Well, isn't the solution simple: Set it up so that when you hit a button on the remote, the TV/FF/Sled will simply ask you for a password to continue. :ph34r: - Mikko

"Ahaa", gotcha. I thougth the light was hitting the nose-box .. but it was the mag. Makes sence now, thanks! :) And yes, on re-reading your original post, there it is on the 3rd line. D'oh! :rolleyes: - Mikko

Gald it worked out David. :) I know this is after the fact, but for future reference and purely out of curiosity; is there any reason one couldn't just open a post clamp and pan the entire upper post 180* and operate with the stage (& long nose-box) 'facing' backwards? - Mikko

Glad to hear everyone in this thread has been duly paid. (Why is this even a battle? what is production thinking?) Slightly O.T., but I had a similar experience with P2 a couple of months back. It's a low-budget student shoot (red flag) with a HVX200 with a Mini35. Production has 1 8GB card. The DP has his laptop along to offload to, along with an external hard drive for more space. My day started badly enough as my Archer developed a minor problem in the morning, so I had to borrow a Flyer at the last minute - and wasn't sure if I could carry the camera -- but that side worked out ok. So production is already shooting when I show up to do my "couple of shots". I'm doing it as a freebie (to let them [and me] know what they are dealing with), with a paid full day scheduled with the group for later in the week. About the time I'm all set up and waiting for the camera, their first P2 card fills up (they still have a few shots to go before Steadicam). It's then that the DP starts to hope to offload the card. He sticks it into his laptop ... nothing. I ask him which version of the P2 driver he has installed... ... (you know it's coming) ... "It needs a driver?" As I do my best not to cry and laugh at the same time, I explain that Panasonic has a free P2 driver on their website that needs to be installed in any laptop used for the dumping. Does he have access to the Internet there? (Yeah, of course not...) About the time that he's headed off to ask another group that shooting down the hall if they have a spare P2 card he can borrow, I remember that I may have the P2 driver on my USB memory stick in my pocket, I ask him if I can plug into his laptop to check. Sure enough, there amongst all the other files I really should have cleaned up ages ago, is the P2 driver left over from some install I did over a year ago. I let him know, install, and off we go to dump the cards. Easy as pie. They do get a 2nd card from the other group to shoot with while the first one dumps, and the shoot continues. But it was a classic moment of improper planning & pre-production causing trouble on set. With someone who knew what they where doing with P2 (me) there wasn't a problem, but that sure as heck wasn't my responsibility to save the ass of production. Needless to say, by the end of the week when I showed up for the full day, production had greatly improved their work flow. The production was very nice, treated me well on set, provided assistants when necessary, and payment certainly wasn't a problem either. (We had hacked it all out beforehand to the point that everyone understand exactly what was expected and would happen). But another example of the borders between responsibilities being blurred. - Mikko

This is nice, as I have lots of space for my batteries in my carry-on, alongside my laptop, hard drives, camera, and array of liquids not exceeding 3oz... :angry: How does this affect us operators in practice? Do we now simply pack our sleds with batteries attached? (well, only one on my Archer - unless I sack my E-10's together [much safer...]) And does a battery on my extra plate count as "installed"? Maybe if I tape a small blinking LED to it... :ph34r: - Mikko

OK, I've finally got all my photos togther from NAB. I have a full gallery of all my photos of RED on steadicam here: http://www.mikkowilson.com/photos/REDsteadicamNAB07 I also have a gallery of just more RED pictures, not related to Steadicam, here: http://www.mikkowilson.com/photos/REDboothNAB07 RED is a very very nice camera to fly (Just make sure you have a HD monitoring solution or downconverter handy!) ... - Mikko

Yeah, it's on my mirror: http://red.mikkowilson.com (at the bottom "milkgirls1080.mov") So you are one of the few who have been to the factory huh CP? - Mikko

I flew the HVX200 on the Flyer back in the spring and DB wasn't a problem. I do agree that a little bit of extra weight on the HVX would help get the gimble up to a little better position. - Mikko

If it is an IR system, you should be able to prety simply convert one of Peter's Zalex Tally Lights by switching out the red LED for an IR-LED. The light sensor should allready be sensitive to IR (Easy to check, just put the sensor over a IR remote and hit a button and see if the tally light blinks.) Maybe Peter could make a batch of "Zap-its" remote extenders for all these new DVRs... :) - Mikko

It might also be wise to evaluate if you really wish to use a 35mm adapter for your Steadicam shots. It brings a lot of extra headaches that could be avaoided by just using the camera's own lens and embracing the deep DoF from the 1/3" chips. 35mm adapters on 1/3" HD cameras on Steadicam ... the new indy fad. bonus points for building it all yourself. :rolleyes: - Mikko

That is exactly what you want. Check any place where A/V gear is sold, prolly cost you sroudn ?5 - ?10 The S-Video signal is 2 signals: Brightness and Color. The Brightness is just the Black & White video signal. Some S-Video -> Composite adapters join the channels through a capcitor and give you a color image, othere's just pass the Black & White signal. Either adapter will work, though of course a Color signal is preferable. - Mikko