Chrosziel MagNum

[Vedran Rapo]

http://www.chrosziel.com/news.asp?wdid=17&wpid=237&sid=0

 

MagNum is the first wirelss lens control system with ergonomics scrupulously tuned to the professional requirements of 1st AC‘s. It‘s a focus puller‘s dream come true. Even on long days on the set, pulling focus is a breeze when you have Chrosziel‘s MagNum at your command.

MagNum is extremely light despite its robust design. Communication reliabilty is unrivaled, handling is easy and intuitive. Left-handers rejoice because adapting a wireless LCS to their needs has never been so easy: You can rotate MagNum by 180 degrees and reverse the orientation of the display and the slider at the push of a button.

To top it all off, MagNum comes at a sensational price. Starting at around 2300 Euro for the one-channel model, MagNum offers all the functionality of a remote focus plus many new additional features. The two-channel version costs around 4000 Euro and controls the iris as well. There is also a version of the one-channel model available which includes an upgrade option for two channels, it will cost around 3500 Euro (all prices ex works plus VAT).

 

 

It looks interesting, and even more if you look at the expected price point.

 

 

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

Brought to you buy the same people that built the Aladdin, the only follow focus I've seen that would blow the 10 amp supply fuse but not its internal 5 amp fuse.... Thanks but no thanks

[Tian Shen]

Wrote to them about a week ago to enquire about specs and tech details. No reply from them yet...

[Vedran Rapo]

Brought to you buy the same people that built the Aladdin, the only follow focus I've seen that would blow the 10 amp supply fuse but not its internal 5 amp fuse.... Thanks but no thanks

 

Hahah, this really made me laugh. Well you are right, they are known for their "bugs".

 

Who knows, maybe they will correct their bugs on this one?

Well, we will see.

[Ron Aerts]

I've been (and am) using the aladdin for years now. Never encountered any problems...

Curious what went wrong with you guys

[Benedict Heinzl]

I'm guessing meanwhile some of you came across this System.
What are your thoughts?

 

Cheers

Ben

[Oliver Roetz]

I'm guessing meanwhile some of you came across this System.

What are your thoughts?

 

Cheers

Ben

 

Well, I am very happy. I've been using it since January - works like a charm. Reliable and solid peace of gear. Great customer service.

 

 

Oliver

[Kyriacos C. Mosfiliotis]

 

Well, I am very happy. I've been using it since January - works like a charm. Reliable and solid peace of gear. Great customer service.

 

 

Oliver

 

hey oliver...how easy is for you to make a demo video and post it...i'm looking forward to get a system and magnum might be the one

[Benedict Heinzl]

Found a Video. He seems to be happy with it:

[Jarrett P. Morgan]

I have played with it a couple of times. I am not a huge fan. it isn't very much of an upgrade from a digital bartech in my mind. The biggest thing is the 12v vs 24v performance. Just like the digital bartech, if you give it 12v the motor only spins at half the speed as 24v. I would want an internal 12-24v upconverter like the preston. based on an older post here I built an upconverter for my backup digital bartech and it works great.

 

When I first got my heden M26VE with the digital bartech I thought it was super slow, but it was just the 12v source.

 

Just a thought!

[Kyriacos C. Mosfiliotis]

anyone who has this system or used it to say some more words?

[WojtekSzumski]

anyone who has this system or used it to say some more words?

Hey Kyriacos,

 

From my experience as a 1st AC, working and/or testing with: analog Bartech, different flavors of Arri WCU/EMC/SMC, Heden, Hocus Axis1, Chrosziel MagNum, Chrosziel Aladin, I can tell you a few things:

 

The good ol' analog Bartech is my personal favorite. The lower-freq 900MHz signal punches through walls very nicely, and it doesn't need to re-establish a 2-way 'handshake' type communication after losing signal. Anytime the receiver manages to decode a single data packet, it immediately snaps to the desired position and you can keep working. It's reasonably comfortable, it's built like a brick, and it has no noticeable delay/latency. BUT it has a very significant feature missing: auto-callibration. That pretty much puts it in the museum nowadays.

 

All of the Arri FF's seem to use the same wireless protocol; fast reconnect, great range, very low latency, auto-cal. But the price is definitely on the high side.

 

Hocus Axis1: surprisingly, very low latency for such a low price, and good range. The least comfortable hand controller of all the ones i've held, and it makes an annoyingly loud SNAP when hitting the end stops of the knob.

 

Now, onto Chrosziel:

The MagNum, which i've worked with more frequently than I would've liked, has a very comfortable hand unit, similar to that of the WCU. Unfortunately, it also has a noticeable and extremely annoying latency, in the order of hundreds of milliseconds (less than 100 is pretty much unnoticeable). The latency is small enough that it doesn't seem to be noticed by inexperienced focus pullers, or other people, but I've seen several FP's blame it on the motor. The latency is so big, though, that any focus puller's reflex is pretty much irrelevant.

 

What I would wish for, for the ultimate perfect WFF, is Arri's ergonomics, combined with Bartech's wireless latency and protocol.

 

The Axis1 is the lesser of all the evils, IMHO.

 

Regards

[Kyriacos C. Mosfiliotis]

Hey Kyriacos,

 

From my experience as a 1st AC, working and/or testing with: analog Bartech, different flavors of Arri WCU/EMC/SMC, Heden, Hocus Axis1, Chrosziel MagNum, Chrosziel Aladin, I can tell you a few things:

 

The good ol' analog Bartech is my personal favorite. The lower-freq 900MHz signal punches through walls very nicely, and it doesn't need to re-establish a 2-way 'handshake' type communication after losing signal. Anytime the receiver manages to decode a single data packet, it immediately snaps to the desired position and you can keep working. It's reasonably comfortable, it's built like a brick, and it has no noticeable delay/latency. BUT it has a very significant feature missing: auto-callibration. That pretty much puts it in the museum nowadays.

 

All of the Arri FF's seem to use the same wireless protocol; fast reconnect, great range, very low latency, auto-cal. But the price is definitely on the high side.

 

Hocus Axis1: surprisingly, very low latency for such a low price, and good range. The least comfortable hand controller of all the ones i've held, and it makes an annoyingly loud SNAP when hitting the end stops of the knob.

 

Now, onto Chrosziel:

The MagNum, which i've worked with more frequently than I would've liked, has a very comfortable hand unit, similar to that of the WCU. Unfortunately, it also has a noticeable and extremely annoying latency, in the order of hundreds of milliseconds (less than 100 is pretty much unnoticeable). The latency is small enough that it doesn't seem to be noticed by inexperienced focus pullers, or other people, but I've seen several FP's blame it on the motor. The latency is so big, though, that any focus puller's reflex is pretty much irrelevant.

 

What I would wish for, for the ultimate perfect WFF, is Arri's ergonomics, combined with Bartech's wireless latency and protocol.

 

The Axis1 is the lesser of all the evils, IMHO.

 

Regards

Any opinions about the Remotion MK 3.1?

[Timm Stemann]

Hi Everybody,

 

I am the Product Specialist Lens Control at Chrosziel. It is great to see that the MagNum receives your interest and I would like to answer some of your questions.

 

Regarding Motor Speed, the MagNum has a power booster built in. This means independent of the power source, motors are always running and reacting in a way like a 24V battery. Only the first version of the MN-100 (1channel entry level) had no power booster. If you own a MN-100, you can get an upgrade, please get in contact with us for this. Todays version is MN-101 and the power booster is build in. Jarrett, do you remember which version you worked with?

 

Regarding latency, there were some early issues but we solved them very soon with a new firmware release. Lately we did a test comparing various Lens Control Systems (LCS) and found out that the MagNum was very responsive. But we did not test the Bartech (which is not so common in Germany). It would be great to hear other opinions of users and how they feel. Within our office, we were not able to experience the problems. But as always, we only can learn from you even with 25 years of LCS experience.

 

In case you want to get in contact with me, I will be here in the forum or am available via email to timm.stemann@chrosziel.com (and mobile offlist).

 

Wishing great Steadicam-Days,

Timm

[Tony Gutierrez]

anyone who has this system or used it to say some more words?

 

I'll preface this post by saying I've been pulling focus since 1992. I have this system. I have two handsets, a Betz, Heden, and a Chrosziel CDM-100 motor. I have been using it for about a month now and have had not problems. The handset is very ergonomic and lightweight. The menu system is simple and no harder to use than the Preston 3. This device offers a lot especially for the money. The handset can do things the Preston 3 cannot. It can calibrate motors from the handset and the user can calibrate motors individually. You have all the same functionality you would expect. You can change direction of the motors or the scales. You can control all three channels (FIZ). You can "change the scale" of any of the channels using 4 programmable user buttons. Once you program them, they can be turned off and recalled. You can't do that on a Preston. I like this A LOT because this is a function I use a lot. For instance, when I am on the long end of a 12:1 lens, I throw away a large portion of the focus scale I don't need. If I need to focus from 20-60 feet, I'll use this function to make this the entire range of the focus ring. This makes fine adjustments of focus a lot easier. As you probably know, you can do this on almost any remote focus system. What you can't do on others however is turn this off and then recall it. Which is great when the slate is 10 feet from the camera buy my new "minimum" focus is 20 feet. I revert the focus to it's full range, grab the slate, then expand my scale again. I can't tell you how useful this is. Works the same way for pulling stops while I'm pulling focus.

 

You can also choose whether to work in the Mhz or Ghz range. It'll interface with the CineTape. I've used the 2nd handset as an Iris control for the DP. It does everything I want, so far.

 

That's my experience. I'm happy to engage anyone in a conversation about this device if someone is interested. PM me and I'll give you my phone number.

 

Thanks!