NEW CanaTrans Video Transmitter

[Emery Soos]

hey benjamin !

i tried the canatrans at cinec/munich and it worked absoutely great.

pille filmgeräte in wiesbaden has some.you should talk to ulli fischer and ask for his opinion.he probably will  tell me the same that he told me:

"it´s the best transmitter he has ever rented out !

just have a look at it when you are in wiesbaden the next time !

 

all the best

 

sebastian

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Thank you Sebastian!

 

Your comments are very much appreciated. Mr. Fischer is so far very impressed with the results coming from his customers. Your comments are very much in-line with those of other users.

 

Regards,

 

E. Soos

[Emery Soos]

Dear Steadicam Operators;

 

I welcome you (urge you) to view the feedback coming from the field in regards to the new CanaTrans video transmitter.  If you have any further questions regarding this innovative and groundbreaking device, please contact Lentequip, (416) 406-2442.

 

http://www.lentequip.com/products/canatrans.html

 

Regards

 

E. Soos

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How much?

 

Thanks

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...please request the order form from www.lentequip.com

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

...please request the order form from www.lentequip.com

 

Why can't you post it? Really it's easy, why the secrecy? It would have been much eaiser to post the price list once then to reply multiple times saying "Please request the order form..."

[Emery Soos]

...please request the order form from www.lentequip.com

 

Why can't you post it? Really it's easy, why the secrecy? It would have been much eaiser to post the price list once then to reply multiple times saying "Please request the order form..."

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It's no secret at all! I just like to interface with my clients. The US price is $3995.00.

 

regards,

 

E.S.

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

...please request the order form from www.lentequip.com

 

Why can't you post it? Really it's easy, why the secrecy? It would have been much eaiser to post the price list once then to reply multiple times saying "Please request the order form..."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It's no secret at all! I just like to interface with my clients. The US price is $3995.00.

 

regards,

 

E.S.

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Thank you

[Brad Hruboska]

Regarding the issue of poor signal quality with the yagi antenna, I have in the past had situations where the best picture was obtained by throwing the antenna totally off axis. In close proximity sometimes a simple antenna works best. Also I read in the post regarding poor signal and boosting the power, as a transmissin faux pas....try going up form the lowest power setting, and often in an interior, close transmission distance 1/16 or 1/8 watt often works the best. I had been in many situations where we were fighting with modulus 300 transmitters as well to get a good signal. there a re many causes of poor signal. Often building structures have metal, which can reflect etc....I have on occasion used blackwrap shileds to suppress some antenna sensitivi ty.....

the Canatrans is a very solid little unit, works properly on both 12 and 24V ( lots of modulus units shut down on me on 24v arri systemsn, and a few smoked in my hand.)

I myself am incredibly happy with canatrans serial number 0002, and look forwad to years of service with it.

Brad Hruboska.

 

B)

[JobScholtze]

Different story's :P

 

i stick with the modulus i think. Never failed me.

[Emery Soos]

Regarding the issue of poor signal quality with the yagi antenna, I have in the past had situations where the best picture was obtained by throwing the antenna totally off axis.  In close proximity sometimes a simple antenna works best.  Also I read in the post regarding poor signal and boosting the power, as a transmissin faux pas....try going up form the lowest power setting, and often in an interior, close transmission distance 1/16 or 1/8 watt often works the best.  I had been in many situations where we were fighting with modulus 300 transmitters as well to get a good signal.  there a re many causes of poor signal. Often building structures have metal, which can reflect etc....I have on occasion used blackwrap shileds to suppress some antenna sensitivi ty.....

the Canatrans is a very solid little unit, works properly on both 12 and 24V ( lots of modulus units shut down on me on 24v arri systemsn, and a few smoked in my hand.)

I myself am incredibly happy with canatrans serial number 0002, and look forwad to years of service with it. 

Brad Hruboska.

 

  B)

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Thank you for your comments Brad. Reports from the "field" are always useful.

 

Emery

[Benjamin Treplin]

Hi Emery,

thank you for the information regarding PAL and NTSC audio modulation and channel/frequency differences.

Hard to smoke up and no backup unit needed. Looks like fools proof.

You state that the PAL unit matches European channels and therefore is the way to go. But I'm not sure to buy a unit just to please folks in video village with consumer electronics like the Sony Watchman with the very rare not produced anymore tuner or the Sony 19" "often build in video combos" tuner. As you said, it is the tuner. BTW the really cheap handheld monitors work quite well with the Modulus.Transvideo has tuners that can be set at US-Modulus channels and work quite well and they are very common, diversity tuners are also an option.

IMO the CanaTrans is the better unit. But why spending twice the money just to have a better picture on a poor tuner? I think to a great extend there is an environment in Europe that fits the Modulus and it's frequencies. Why not build a Canatrans "light": US channels, no sound, PAL & NTSC compatible, closer to the competitors in price.

Best

[Emery Soos]

Hi Emery,

thank you for the information regarding PAL and NTSC audio modulation and channel/frequency differences.

Hard to smoke up and no backup unit needed. Looks like fools proof.

You state that the PAL unit matches European channels and therefore is the way to go. But I'm not sure to buy a unit just to please folks in video village with consumer electronics like the Sony Watchman with the very rare not produced anymore tuner or the Sony 19" "often build in video combos" tuner. As you said, it is the tuner. BTW the really cheap handheld monitors work quite well with the Modulus.Transvideo has tuners that can be set at US-Modulus channels and work quite well and they are very common, diversity tuners are also an option.

IMO the CanaTrans is the better unit. But why spending twice the money just to have a better picture on a poor tuner? I think to a great extend there is an environment in Europe that fits the Modulus and it's frequencies. Why not build a Canatrans "light": US channels, no sound, PAL & NTSC compatible, closer to the competitors in price.

Best

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Hi Benjamin;

 

Sadly everybody wants me to be compared to a "competitor". I do not match my manufacturing to a competitor, I match my quality to what the unit should do to keep the customer happy and satisfied.

 

At the outset of the project I interviewed many(!) of my rental house and Steadicam customers, after which, a wish list was established to not only outperform the "competition" but to give the customers the features they could only dream of. That unfortunately does not come in a "light" CanaTrans version. I can only support my comments with those of customers currently using my unit and express their unanimous endoresement for it...and their repeat orders for more!

 

At Lentequip we try to make the best, period. Sometimes that takes time and of course, a lot of money, but ultimately the benefits go to the customer! And that in my view is worth everything.

 

Regards,

 

E. Soos

[Benjamin Treplin]

Emery,

Sadly everything and more sadly everybody is compared to a competitor.

I respect your point. Less compromises, better product. I guess I'm not ready for the CanaTrans at the moment but I'm sure that I will get back to you.

 

Best

[Emery Soos]

Emery,

Sadly everything and more sadly everybody is compared to a competitor.

I respect your point. Less compromises, better product. I guess I'm not ready for the CanaTrans at the moment but I'm sure that I will get back to you.

 

Best

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Thank you Benjamin for your understanding. I certainly hope that you will soon be able to enjoy the benefits of the CanaTrans - it's worth it!

 

E.

[Emery Soos]

...please request the order form from www.lentequip.com

 

Why can't you post it? Really it's easy, why the secrecy? It would have been much eaiser to post the price list once then to reply multiple times saying "Please request the order form..."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It's no secret at all! I just like to interface with my clients. The US price is $3995.00.

 

regards,

 

E.S.

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Thank you

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Anytime! I have heard enough horor stories about poor service in the transmitter domain, I am not one of those companies and want to make that absolutely clear. Good service and support starts with good dialogue.

Regards,

E.S.

[Larry McConkey]

I did not want to post anything about the Canatrans until I had some experience with it. I am thrilled by its performance. There were several issues I had with the Modulus: Interference with other things on my sled, including video assist camera, remote stage, even the focus system. I found a particular way to run the power cable and place the transmitter antenna to make everything happy - this with my own more carefully shielded power cable as there is a lot of RF coming out of it. The Canatrans is perfectly clean in this regard, so no more worries about interference. It also only transmits on the intended frequency instead of generating several harmonics like the Modulus does, sometimes causing poor reception when using scanning receivers and finding what looks like the primary signal.

 

I am especially happy with the variable video gain menu for the transmitted signal. In the past I would set the video iris and gain for the best image on my monitor only to have video assist ask for "more iris please". This would satisfy the people watching the video but compromise the operating video! With the Canatrans I just change the output gain and leave my settings alone.

 

The amount of power output is very important, and I now routinely set for 1/8 to 1/4 W for small interiors and 1W when outside. I tell the video assist operator that I can change this if needed. So far all of them like the Canatrans signal better than the Modulus.

 

I was concerned about the reduced number of frequencies available, but to date I have always found a good channel. The only time I had trouble with the signal, a change to another channel resulted in dramatically better performance even though there did not appear to be a broadcast signal on the original channel. It pays to do a quick range test in each location to get maximum performance.

 

I have been assured by Emery that service is a very high priority and he will turn around repairs in as little as 24 hours. I cannot comment on this as I have had no problems so far, but this promises to be far better than Modulus repairs which routinely take 3 months or so. I have rarely gone more than a year without repairs being needed on the Modulus 3000 so I am hoping the Canatrans will change this routine.

 

The Canatrans is much more expensive, much bigger and much heavier than the Modulus, so although I sold one of my Modulus 3000's I kept the 2nd. I use it as a backup and on my video finder (Telefinder) and on conventional cameras - it is certainly easier to mount the Modulus than the Canatrans. I am very happy with both for different reasons, but for the very demanding situations with my Steadicam I am definitely sold on the Canatrans.

 

I have seen a couple of Wifi systems and the signal was unbelievably good without any glitches, although when there is a problem the image either freezes or goes away completely. It is all or nothing. Still this is a very intriguing new technology that may prove to solve most of the problems we have with a moving camera. However, both systems had considerable delay, 1/4 second to 1/2 second, rendering them unusable. We often depend upon the real time nature of video assist both to hear synced audio and to react to the camera or actors' actions for focus, lighting cues, etc. We have evolved TV broadcast usage to the point that many members of the crew use their own receivers to do their job. With a Wifi system a TV transmitter would need to be part of the base station to supply all of them with a signal. Still, if a realtime Wifi system comes around I would be very, very interested, but until then I have the best performance so far with the Canatrans.

 

Larry

[Gustavo Penna]

I have to second Larry on all his points. i got this camera package from CSC that came with the canatrans camera A(steadicam) had my moduluz, and camera B the Canatrans after one day of watching the 400% + better image cuality signal coming from camera B, we switched the canatrans to my steadicam. and never went back on the rest of the 2 weeks after that. the only thing that turns me off is the price tag, mostly becuse production hardly pays for video transmiters arond this city. but if your concern is customer service Lentequip has saved my Butt in many shoots from south america to korea emery always saved me.

 

 

I did not want to post anything about the Canatrans until I had some experience with it.  I am thrilled by its performance.  There were several issues I had with the Modulus:  Interference with other things on my sled, including video assist camera, remote stage, even the focus system.  I found a particular way to run the power cable and place the transmitter antenna to make everything happy - this with my own more carefully shielded power cable as there is a lot of RF coming out of it.  The Canatrans is perfectly clean in this regard, so no more worries about interference.  It also only transmits on the intended frequency instead of generating several harmonics like the Modulus does, sometimes causing poor reception when using scanning receivers and finding what looks like the primary signal.

 

I am especially happy with the variable video gain menu for the transmitted signal.  In the past I would set the video iris and gain for the best image on my monitor only to have video assist ask for "more iris please".  This would satisfy the people watching the video but compromise the operating video!  With the Canatrans I just change the output gain and leave my settings alone.

 

The amount of power output is very important, and I now routinely set for 1/8 to 1/4 W for small interiors and 1W when outside.  I tell the video assist operator that I can change this if needed.  So far all of them like the Canatrans signal better than the Modulus.

 

I was concerned about the reduced number of frequencies available, but to date I have always found a good channel.  The only time I had trouble with the signal, a change to another channel resulted in dramatically better performance even though there did not appear to be a broadcast signal on the original channel.  It pays to do a quick range test in each location to get maximum performance.

 

I have been assured by Emery that service is a very high priority and he will turn around repairs in as little as 24 hours.  I cannot comment on this as I have had no problems so far, but this promises to be far better than Modulus repairs which routinely take 3 months or so.  I have rarely gone more than a year without repairs being needed on the Modulus 3000 so I am hoping the Canatrans will change this routine.

 

The Canatrans is much more expensive, much bigger and much heavier than the Modulus, so although I sold one of my Modulus 3000's I kept the 2nd.  I use it as a backup and on my video finder (Telefinder) and on conventional cameras - it is certainly easier to mount the Modulus than the Canatrans.  I am very happy with both for different reasons, but for the very demanding situations with my Steadicam I am definitely sold on the Canatrans.

 

I have seen a couple of Wifi systems and the signal was unbelievably good without any glitches, although when there is a problem the image either freezes or goes away completely.  It is all or nothing.  Still this is a very intriguing new technology that may prove to solve most of the problems we have with a moving camera.  However, both systems had considerable delay, 1/4 second to 1/2 second, rendering them unusable.  We often depend upon the real time nature of video assist both to hear synced audio and to react to the camera or actors' actions for focus, lighting cues, etc.  We have evolved TV broadcast usage to the point that many members of the crew use their own receivers to do their job.  With a Wifi system a TV transmitter would need to be part of the base station to supply all of them with a signal.  Still, if a realtime Wifi system comes around I would be very, very interested, but until then I have the best performance so far with the Canatrans.

 

Larry

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