Single Channel Preston Issue

[Ryan Booth Film]

Hey everyone,

I am working on a feature right now, (pretty low budget), and recently the Preston follow focus system kind of stops working at random times. There is power running to the MDR, the battery in the hand unit will be very much charged, but the system will not work. I have tried changing frequencies, changing out motor and power cables, repositioning the MDR, and I am running out of ideas.

A little more info on my set up; we are shooting on an Alexa Mini, we have a Teradek Bolt 300, and sometimes we put the camera on a steadicam. Whenever the system stops working, I unplug and plug the motor or power cable back in and then it works fine until it goes out again. When it stops working, the MDR will have its lights on, but no one is home.

If anyone has experienced this or has any advice, please let me know. Thank you so much!

[Miguel Angel]

I had the same problems years ago.

 

After trying a lot of things we thought that it was the Teradek the one which was creating the problems, we changed the position of the teradek, it worked and then a couple of weeks later the MDR stopped working again.

 

It ended up being the MDR, it was faulty, we got another MDR from the camera rental house and it worked perfectly all the way through the end of the movie.

 

We had the FIZ 3 and the MDR 3 for your information.

 

Ask for another MDR and try changing it.

 

Good luck!

[Ryan Booth Film]

Thanks Miguel, I will try that.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Yeah, I would just call the rental house and get a replacement unit to set ASAP. Definitely not worth holding up production while trying to figure this out.