Preston Hand Set 3

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Michael,

 

 

 

Odd, my unit arrived (seemed to be about the same time as yours) with the microforce bracket and cable, but I was told that the quick release grip was not ready. Anyway, is the quick release easy to install one's self or do I need to send the unit back to the factory?

[Erwin Landau]

Hey Alec,

 

It's straight forward, you just have to be very careful to not touch the board.

 

Remove the back cover by loosing the 6 screws. (4-40x3/8")

Unplug the 4 cables from the PCB board, remember the exact location and orientation.

Then with a 3/32" Hex unscrew the 2 screws that are holding the grip and replace the grip with the quick release. (Look out the screws are very close to the board. It was never designed to be opened by the owner.)

Put everything back together again and make sure it works.

 

I love to take stuff apart... I never touched the inside of any of my FF system... to much can go wrong.

 

But good luck.

 

 

Michael I'll give you a call later.

 

 

See ya,

 

Erwin

[Michael Stumpf]

Alec,

 

The simple reason I didn't get my microforce, bracket and cable until a few days ago is I "added" them to my order only a few days before they shipped out our first batches of the HU3.

I think they shipped my HU3 to me on December 20th and I added the other items on like December 17th or something like that.

Leticia is a miracle worker and I thank her for that.

 

As for "installing" the quick release hand grip.

Well, you probably could just do it yourself. But Preston did mine for me.

They actually had my HU3 ready to ship out first up in the morning the day they were releasing them

and Leticia called me to let me know this and I said "awesome" and she said, "oh by the way, we have this new quick release handgrip that you'll need now that you've added the digital microforce."

 

Once I told her I wanted it, she said, "we can install it for you tonight so it's already on there when we ship it in the morning."

I said, "perfect"

She did say that it can be done by owners themselves who want to add the quick release later.

I just removed my quick release hand grip and looked at it.

 

Looks like you'll have to remove the 6 screws on the backside of the HU3 to do it.

There are two screws that hold the quick release plate onto the HU3, but they are threaded from

the INSIDE of the HU3, hence the need to remove the back cover.

 

Take care.

[Erwin Landau]

One more issue: Batteries.

 

I received my single channel Preston back from a longer rental job and had to find that both housings of the M-series Batteries where crushed. That was on the Focus Iris Unit... but the HU-3 uses the same, so look out for these puppies. They are Consumer grade and not very robust.

 

Yes they are only $60.- a piece, but why replace a battery with perfectly good cells because of a crushed housing. I gaffer taped the battery back together as they are going back on the same job.

 

Just a heads up.

 

 

Erwin

[Erwin Landau]

Rumor control:

 

You will not be able to do speed ramps and shutter compensation with the HU-3. You will still need the F/X Box to do so. You can remotely change an electronic shutter and change the frame rate while the camera is not running... (But for certain Cameras you will need the pricey F/X cable to do so...)

 

 

Erwin

[brooksrobinson]

I just received my new Preston HU3. Now that it?s been out for a while, I?m wondering how people are using the provided rings. Howard mentioned that on a normal show (in theory), one ring could be used for all lenses (he mentioned the C ring). That sounds great to me, but I?m wondering what the fastest, most practical means of using the new handset rings are?especially on day-playing gigs when you don?t have a prep day to set all the lens? up in advance. Thanks for any help.

 

Brooks Robinson

bandmj@pacbell.net

[Erwin Landau]

Hi Brooks,

 

The mostly used ring is usually the C-ring. The only difference between the A, B, C, D and E ring is the close focus that differs from 9" up to 6', Ring Number 6 is blank for special lenses or special needs AC's. Unless you are doing close ups you never need to change the ring that you chose at the beginning of the day. It will be different depending on the model Lens you use. For example the Cooke S4 are going as close as 9 inches... as the AC if he ever will get that close and chose a ring based on that.

 

The part that takes up the most time is naming the individual lenses. I pre-named mine (that takes up aaaaa lot of time, but once done, it saves a ton) for example:

 

Zeiss Super Speed 12mm --- in the Zeiss file: SS-12mm

Zeiss Ultra Prime 35mm --- in Zeiss file: UP-35mm

Arri/Zeiss Master Prime....

 

And so on... it cuts down on time. As the Lens Barrels will be different 5 out of 6 times (The Lens Manufacturer like Zeiss, use 6 pre-marked barrels and lines them up as close as possible) you just go to the lens you want to calibrate or re-calibrate and press edit (Don't forget to reset the lens by pressing the red button on the MDR, I can't tell you how many time the AC came over and said, it doesn't line up, just to admit that he forgot to reset the lens..) at what point you are re-calibrating the lens by finding 6 reference points. Once you have punched in the reference points (by finding the closest witness mark on the Lens Barrel) the lens is calibrated and will line up, every time the same lens is selected.

 

I raced every AC that said it was to complicated and I was faster every single time. It will take a little longer the first time the AC does it and until all the lenses are dialed in, but once you had all the lenses on the camera that you are using for that day the reprograming takes 15 seconds and by that time the Follow Focus Motor has not even reset it self... At least it doesn't take longer then if the AC had to do all the lenses at the beginning of the day by marking the rings individually...

 

I found that if you decide to change from one ring to the next, the marks do not always line up and a re-calibrating of that lens is necessary. That's due to the fact that the company that printed the Strips seams to have used the wrong tolerances...

Howard is aware of that and is looking currently into that problem to make sure that it is not a software problem but in fact a Hardware issue...

I had issues but at the same time I know of a couple guys that don't.

 

I hope that helps... it's late, so if you need clarification, give me a call.

 

Erwin

 

PS: I know that Howard has received a lot of input over the last couple of months what led to a couple of software revisions... So make sure if you have issues with your unit that you in fact have the latest firmware on your Unit... it makes a huge difference. Also most of the earlier units do not have the CineTape and PanaTape or Sniper interface update. If you want to be able to read the focus distance on your hand-unit display... you need the latest software AND the interface cable of course.

[Michael Stumpf]

Brooks,

 

I have found that on many day playing gigs, if time is of the essence, I turn the Mapping OFF and use

the HU3 like the old HU2 and just mark a regular disk.

This is easist too if the AC hasn't used the HU3 before, which is often the case since it's so new still.

 

Of course, if you have time, program the HU3 for the required prelabelled strip (yes, often "C") and go.

But I have noticed, and need to speak to Howard about it too, that often 1 or 2 lines are off by a bit.

3 feet on the "C" ring seems to be miss marked by a line or line and a half width.

 

It may just be my strips as I got the first production set of them.

[Lawrence Karman]

Just a reminder to select the camera you are using (Panaflex Platinum or Liteweight vs XL for example) in the Hand Unit 3 software so the on/off switch functions correctly. Some cameras have a "momentary vs constant" switch for turn-over. Found this out the hard way when the camera didn't turn off when the AC hit the button on the XL and it was set for a different camera. 300' "camera test"

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Doc,

 

I thought the momentary/continual was taken care of in the cable with the Preston (and for that matter the LW & the XL were both continual). I don't recall switching this, but I'm the first to admit I may be mistaken!

 

Where I have had issue is with a Canon HD ENG style lens. When plugged in, the camera continually rolls and will not let you shut it off from any of the switches. I didn't think to even check which camera it was set to, but in this case the MDR2 is plugged into the lens because the lens takes the sole "run" port on the camera. This allows control of start/stop (in theory) as well as the microforce to control the lens' zoom motor. I assume my problem to be with the cable and sent it to Preston to get checked out. I know I have used the Fuji cable without issue (in order to control the zoom function, you need to change the setting in the HU3 to "video" but I don't think this has any bearing on the remote run feature).

 

As for the rings? Some ACs do prefer to do it the old fashion way, but if we are on a job with primes (I seem to be doing a lot of HD lately with zooms), I do encourage them to take advantage of the HU3's lens mapping and pre-marked rings. Like Erwin, I have seen the AC forget to calibrate the motor (i.e.push the little red button) and wonder why the marks are not lining up for them after they changed the lens in the hand unit.

 

So far, I'm very pleased with the system though.

[Erwin Landau]

Michael, they had and still have some issues with the tolerance of the Focus Rings (That was also the initial delay in delivering the first batch of hand-units) One of my strips has in fact a corrected FF mark. It's buried in my van but next time I pull it out I will check, if it is in fact the C-ring...

 

Doc, the selection of the Camera in the HU-3 menu has only merit if you are using the FX cable for run stop and not the regular run cable, it's used to control the frame rate and the shutter angle. The run will always work because it's based on how the run cable is wired on the MDR side. I had one issue with the run function on the FX cables so far. The FX cable for the Arri 24 Volt cameras (not including the ArriCam's as they have a different interface) worked without problem on the 435 and the SR-3. The 535 being the oldest of that batch sometimes uses a different pull down in the body to run the camera (depending on the software update, the age of the camera and the rental house that owns it) so even as the shutter and the frame rate manipulation work fine, it will not turn over the camera. Again I talked to Howard about that and he is investigating that problem... to find out if he can solve it as a software solution.

 

Also the Preston was designed with Film cameras in mind, the Video market was an after thought and actually Howard was surprised about the amount of Video guys that were and still are buying his system. He doesn't have that much experience with specific Video equipment and he is more than thankful for any serious input on his product. I had to point out that there was no file for Fujinon or Fuji Prime lenses, because nobody had told him... etc. So keep that in mind and if you have trouble call him and he will take care of it. All of the issues that are coming up were not malicious but things that he was not aware of. The Software came a long way since December with I believe 6 official and in-official revisions. That's one a months guys... that is telling me that the guys at Preston are hard at work on pleasing as many owners as possible.

 

About turning off the lens mapping...

Everybody that used to be one of the first to own the BFD will remember how we had to teach the AC to calibrate the lens, and I know to this day a bunch of ops that still do the lens calibration them self. If the AC is not familiar with the calibration proceeder I will do it as I show it to him or I will do it my self because I'm faster then any AC as I have had to do it hundreds of times before. Once they had to do it a couple of times they usually just do it the next time and it takes not longer then sharping it onto the ring. Again once you had every lens on the camera you don't have to do it ever again on that show unless the FF motor position changes drastically.

 

I had an AC that just on principle refused to use the lens mapping and on top of that insisted of using tape and new tape everytime there after... that's how he was doing it since he started and that's how he is going to do it. The lens changes where so long that even the Director started to ask why it took so long and I had to fend off accusations that the new Preston was delaying us... I was pissed to say the least.

 

I'm getting the AC the latest piece of equipment with all kinds of toys like the Cinetape interface etc., to make his life easier and he is blaming me for delays do to that equipment because he was to lazy to read the PDF manual that I had e-mailed him a week earlier.... (BTW: You can get a full size manual from Preston in PDF format. I send it to all my AC's that I usually work with and most of them actually read it).

 

Sometimes I was asking myself why I bought it (The most expensive piece of equipment I never touch) but the reality is that if I don't, I will have to work harder by doing redundant takes because of bad focus... it doesn't matter how good the performance was or how perfect you nailed that whip pan if it's out of focus you will have to do it again...

So if I can help the AC to nail it as often as possible... that makes it worth every penny I spend on it!

 

 

Sorry for the rant,

 

Erwin

[Lawrence Karman]

Doc, the selection of the Camera in the HU-3 menu has only merit if you are using the FX cable for run stop and not the regular run cable, it's used to control the frame rate and the shutter angle. The run will always work because it's based on how the run cable is wired on the MDR side. I had one issue with the run function on the FX cables so far. The FX cable for the Arri 24 Volt cameras (not including the ArriCam's as they have a different interface) worked without problem on the 435 and the SR-3. The 535 being the oldest of that batch sometimes uses a different pull down in the body to run the camera (depending on the software update, the age of the camera and the rental house that owns it) so even as the shutter and the frame rate manipulation work fine, it will not turn over the camera. Again I talked to Howard about that and he is investigating that problem... to find out if he can solve it as a software solution.

 

Erwin

 

Well thanks for the reply. I could have been mistaken, but it sure seemed like it happened that way. I rarely get to press the on/off button on the hand control. I know the MDR 1 and 2 don't care about the momentary switch thing, it seemed different in conjuction with the HH3. What it does do that I don't like is take away the on/off capability at the camera switch when the turnover cable is plugged in. I suppose this is done to keep the on/off function in sync with the led on the HH3, but I'm used to turning the camera on and off when I operate in conventional mode.

[brooksrobinson]

A big thank you to Erwin, Michael, Alec, and Lawrence for the detailed insight. It's good to know how others are using the HU3 day-in, day-out. I really appreciate your time and help.

 

Brooks

 

If anyone else has any thoughts on the subject, please feel free to post.

[Erwin Landau]

I finally had the chance to get to Preston to upgrade to the newest firmware... I have MAC... so no online upgrade unless you are running Windows... (Hell No!).

 

Anyhow, If you haven't yet, get upgrade #9. Solves a lot of issues that came up and he implemented a bunch of new features. Larger size font for the Cinetape function. Easier access to commonly used features. Pulled to the front... other rarely used feature are now further down the menu. Light on/off and new auto. etc.

 

If you haven't yet get the upgrade/software update. (it's free).

 

Will use it tomorrow for the first time...

 

 

Later,

 

 

Erwin

[Frederic Chamberland]

Just wondering if the owners of this new toy are happy with it. I read about the software updates and all, but I am wondering about simple things like reliability and hardware behavior. Is it still a workhorse like it's predecessor? I'm asking because I am looking at my options right now. My gear was stolen last week and I am just waiting for the insurance company to resolve my case so I can send checks to my suppliers.

 

I am considering the Preston since my canadian looney is almost at par with the american dollar right now. I had a Scorpio until the robbery and I was very happy with it. I got quotes from Service Vision and compared them to the Preston price list and I can get the same setup for less money on the Preston side. And of course, Service Vision has yet to unveil a new generation of remotes.

 

Thanks to guys like Erwin who shares every bit of info with us, I will continue reading this thread until my case is resolved with the insurance.