RTMotion Systems MK3

[kiranreddy ss]

Sorry Mr. Jarrett,

The weight of the RTM receiver is 118gms and the RTM motor is 212gms, that equals to 0.7275lbs in total. Very light weight in fact.

[Jarrett P. Morgan]

Check out the manuals here:

http://www.rtmotion.com/page/support

They should have all the info you need.

[Victor Lazaro]

Hi all, has anyone tried their new system MK3.1? They seem to have upgraded the antenna and they claim 1.500 meters (just under 5.000 feet).

[Jarrett P. Morgan]

Hi all, has anyone tried their new system MK3.1? They seem to have upgraded the antenna and they claim 1.500 meters (just under 5.000 feet).

I have their MK3.1 system. It is quite a nice upgrade. The biggest thing for me is the change in the antennas. The upgrade greatly reduces the risk of the antennas breaking off (which was a problem before for me)

 

Range-wise, I have been using the 3.1 since September of last year and have never run any range problems. That being said, I haven't been 5000 ft away from the puller either.

 

I have not tried the new motors yet, I still have MK3 motors.

 

The 3.1 hand unit is nice as well. The focus knob feels smoother than the MK3 one.

[Brett Manyluk]

We had an RT system on a show in Calgary and the AC said it performed extremely well. The only complaint was a night out in cold weather with a significant wind chill (around -18 C plus wind. Probably -27 to -30C) and the system froze up and stopped working. I'm not sure whether this was a MK3 or MK3.1. As with all equipment up here, we need it to function in the extreme cold.

[Justin Besser]

Can anyone chime in with some good feedback on the 3.1 system, no much in the way of reviews or feedback or video out there ..

haven't heard of many people in the professional market using them currently.

 

mainly interested in response time (heard some conflicting reports on small amounts of motor lag), and range

 

am looking at a 3 motor system without the expense of a Preston, still require solid performance ( preston would be ideal, just locked out of that on price currently. please dont berate me on looking for the cheaper option, live television in my primary market, so cant currently justify the high initial expense of that system )

[Zoltan Jonas]

Hi Justin, how you doing? (We both attended the 2011 Robertson workshop in case you don't remember),

 

I've been eyeing this system to the better part of two years now, observing through their modest little website its evolution to the current Mk3.1 version.

 

I finally bit the bullet, and purchased a single-motor system back in mid January. I've been waiting for it since then to arrive (9 weeks now!), and not-so regular emails from Kris Bird tell me that they're suffering everything from an office relocation to a component supply gap. I'm trying to remain confident, and hope that once I do eventually receive, I'll forget about the drawn-out waiting period.

 

Of course I'll write as much detail as I can on my impressions of the unit. I've read a handful of encouraging reviews (one's I'm sure you've come by). I believe a group in Tasmania are acquiring a system for their Octocopter, plus, a photo from SmallHD's website shows it in use on one of those Movi rigs, http://www.smallhd.com/gallery/author/sam-bell/

 

I've read some really supercilious garbage from Preston and Bartech fanbois. I'm not going to delude myself about RTMotion out-performing Preston - that would be foolish. But for their price, I would feel justified to expect out of it at least the performance of a BFD - which would suit me just fine. Before I made the purchase, I was assured to of two important factors - the rig is capable (with current beta firmware) of both manual and auto calibration, which is crucial for my needs. Plus they have a 2 week money-back guarantee if I don't like it. We'll see.

[Howard woosey]

I have been using this system for about 2 years now, it has at last after a great deal of updating and refining started to be very a reliable kit. I have spoken to rt motion with regard to their customer service, I find them very hard to get hold of and not always fast at replies, but they tell me they are increasing their staff to help this.

[Boyd Hobbs]

They have been really great to me. I had the 3.0 system. The antenna broke off the receiver and they worked a way for me to upgrade to the 3.1 system with the new antenna. I did test the range when I got it. And it worked smoothly at 1,000 ft, line of sight. After that it started to get jumpy. Then best way I found to contact them was via phone. I just Skype call them. They usually pick up and are very helpful.

 

The 3.1 motor is also a big improvement. More powerful, and it's dual sided gear is a lifesaver.

 

The only downside to the 3.1 system's new antenna is just how powerful it is. Sometimes when the hand unit is too close to the antenna, it overwhelms the receiver. To counter this, in the menu of the unit you can change the power for the transmitter to "Low" which works for close proximity stuff.

[Sandro Galv]

I have a statement to make! RT motion is phenomenal! 1,2 or 3 motors! It is perfect! Works great!

[Zoltan Jonas]

REVIEW!!! WOO!!! I can finally write some impressions about the RTMotion Mk 3.1.

 

Background: I've been tracking the progress of RTMotion for three years now when I was originally in the market for wireless lens control. Throughout that time, I have witnessed the prolonged delays that their development had faced, but eventually, around 18 months ago, I was pleased to see they were finally distributing their mk3.0 system. What quintessentially attracted me to the brand was the remarkably small size of their receiver unit, plus a whole load of specifications they claimed to include in the package, all for a price point that made the system potentially accessible to those like me, to whom a system like the Preston was well and truly out of reach.

 

The one obstacle holding me back for actually purchase was that I felt uncomfortable buying without trying. But, living in Sydney, this was a very slim prospect. I held out until wider distribution could perhaps allow a local trade show demo, but that never happened. Then, in October last year, they announced the Mk3.1. The 0.1 numerically indicates only minor refinements, but these are evidently significant improvements. So, I finally made a move on the system, and after a protracted 10 week lead time, the system finally arrived at my doorstep. So!

 

What I purchased:
Hand Unit, receiver unit, 1 motor unit, wired thumbwheel, various camera run/stop cables, various power cables. £ 4456.00.

 

I bought, for now, just a single motor system, but the receiver can accommodate 3 motors, so upgrading is simply a matter of purchasing more motors.

 

The hand unit:

The very first thing to notice about the hand unit, is that it's incredibly solid! It weighs a bit in the hand, but not excessively. You know you are holding something that will survive some rough treatment (from less considerate AC's). The focus knob itself is an absolute pleasure to handle. It has optimal fluid drag, is milled aluminum (just like the rest of the unit), and has gracious dampening at each end stop. The makers have well and truly nailed their design of this knob. I know I will never feel a Bartech the same way.

I power it on, with a (separately purchased) LP-E6 battery. The button and display cluster initially felt slightly cramped, but in fact they're conveniently placed for the left hand. Crucially, the firmware boots in 2 seconds. This means that powering the unit off, and on again is practical to save battery, without the worry of losing time in the boot-up. I was jarred by the small OLED display, relative to what I've seen with the Preston. The display is quite puny, but I'm glad to report, that the info on display is well designed to fit into the space. I'll go through the menu system later.

 

The Receiver:

This unit is remarkably compact. Tiny! This has been achieved by transferring the driving electronics to the motor unit. There are the six ports: 3 motors, aux, camera, and power. These are all very self-explanatory. There are two 1/4" thread mounts, through which you can mount the unit onto the camera rig in practically any configuration. I absolutely love this. The small footprint means you can mount the unit anywhere, and you (or the camera ops)will barely notice it. This is a luxury I'll never enjoy with a Bartech, or a Preston. I can't stress how liberating this is, considering that in my experience, operating DP's are most often put off by the bulk, or weight, of wireless receivers. Whenever I'm unfortunate enough to work with a DSLR+lens, then the camera would otherwise be buried in an LCS kit.

 

The motor:

Equally impressive is the motor. Despite that the unit contains its own electronics, it isn't really any bigger than a full Heden, Preston, or M-One. It has a rod mount, as expected, and physically is no different than any other motor, and this includes noise output. RTMotion claim that its torque output is comparable to a Heden. So far, I haven't been able to try with a cine lens, only DSLR lenses. Which in turn, takes me to the next point; calibration.

 

The system architecture, for now, means that the motor immediately begins auto-calibration upon receiving power. This is my first point of serious feedback to the company, and I made sure to point it out to them at NAB last month. If you're working with a DSLR lens, then brute-force with your hands is needed to stop the motor rotating in each direction. I would like for the hand unit to give the user the choice of either manual or auto calibration before the motor starts acting. I am delighted to discover therefore, that manual calibration has been very well implemented, and a pleasure to use. The menu system takes you through a very intuitive, and highly controllable manual calibration procedure that will easily let you calibrate as roughly or precisely as you like, very quickly. I'm very impressed of how well thought-out this feature is in-fact, considering how tacked-on it could have potentially been. I'm taking the Bartech's procedure into comparison here, and it is well on par.

 

The menu:

Though we have a small display, the menu is quite adequately designed and accessible. The menu system contains all the typical, generic, parameters you'd expect. Features I find most often to use are the motor response setting - fast, normal and slow. For wireless hand unit use, 'fast' is obviously the most responsive, but if the thumbwheel comes into play, it becomes very twitchy, and 'normal' is more comfortable. Slow is for very damp, gracious moves, more ideal for iris pulls, with iris slider.

 

One other point I mentioned to the guys at NAB, is that I want to see a USB run/stop cable interface for DSLR cameras. They assured me this is in the pipeline.

So, these are my first impressions.

 

I really could write on end about each specific feature, but I'd rather just answer questions from other users. Please feel free to ask. I'm quite keen to spread the word on this unit.

 

Zoltan Jonas.

[Massimo Bordonaro]

@zoltan

 

so now that you've had the system for almost a month since your review on the 15th of May, how is everything holding up? Have you had a chance to hook it up to a decent cook s4, or a hawk V light, or an angeniux? I'm curious to know how good the motor strength is, overall impression, etc. I'm heavily debating getting the 3.1 version, or if it's worth it to hold out for something else. Let me know your thoughts

[Zoltan Jonas]

@ Massimo

 

Hi mate, thanks for reading my impressions. True, I've had the system for many weeks now, unfortunately, I can't really add to my comments at this point - I've been on some extended personal travel since early April, and the kit hasn't had too much of a workout as a result. You may have noticed that I put particular emphasis on it's manual calibration routine, and this is because DSLR lenses are all that I've been able to test with the system so far. I regret not being able to comment on Cooke, Hawk, or Angenieux lenses at this time (or in general) - I usually find myself working with DSLR lenses, or Zeiss compact or master primes.

 

The best I can suggest is attending a trade show. Your profile says you're in LA. MK-V had a display system on show at CineGear just last weekend. That would have been a good time. They were also present at NAB back in April.

 

I'll be back in Sydney later this month, after which I'll obviously do further trials.

 

All the best.

[Massimo Bordonaro]

@Zoltan

 

I was at Cinegear this year and stepped by the Mk V booth and had extensive conversations with Ashley. Love the product, and did my own test with the "European" power setting. there is a US power setting, medium, low, etc.. According to MKV, this Euro setting though is the highest power setting for the maximum range. I was able to get signal from about 460 feet away going through three dummy/set buildings, plus add in all the additional wireless interference coming from the other vendors at the event. I lost signal when I rounded a chain link fence, which I was expecting anyways.

 

I'm about 80% convinced to buy the unit, but still researching other options. I don't want to get too far off on a tangent or off point of this particular topic, but Tilta had a prototype that would sell for around $5000 for 3 motors all the cables, the MDR and the handheld unit. their handheld unit also has a better display much like the Preston. only downside is that it's untested yet. It's still in development, so I'm eager to see what news develops on that particular model. if the Tilta does exactly the same thing as the MKV, it's worth saving $5,000. they said around July they will have a finished product.

[Zoltan Jonas]

@Massimo

 

Oh yeah, so you had a chat with Ash, good on you.

 

I'm intrigued by the Tilta System. I have a vague recollection of it, just looking at the website, I remember passing by the demo model at CineGear several times, though I can't comment beyond face value at it's viability, except, if you're stated price for a 3 channel system is $5000, I wouldn't expect too much. My single-motor RTMotion kit cost around $8000, so that immediately speaks for itself.

 

I know that you're looking for some objective reassurance before making such a financial commitment. I know the feeling.

 

I took (in very large part) a leap of faith when purchasing the RTMotion 3.1, and that was after only scarce user feedback, and a superficial attraction to its design. Also, a local Steadicam colleague of mine was vocally sceptical about the company (though I'm sceptical of the true motivation of his opinion ;)) back when I was finally putting serious consideration into it. I am happy with it. It involved a moderate (in the scheme of things) investment, but now I'm confident about it. I have no regrets.