Blackmagic 5" video assist repair costs

P

patrickbaldwin

Well-known member
My BM 5" video assist stopped working using battery power. It works perfectly with the mains but the battery circuit has died. I asked BM's repair facility in the UK for a quote to repair it. They quoted £405. A new one is just £395 and in fact currently is £30 less than that on cvp.com.
I have asked them to explain why I would spend more repairing it than buying a new one but I don't think for a second I will get a reply.
Personally I think it's ridiculous.
 
That's not unique to BM. The repair department of companies is typically a gravy train. I was product manager for global products. We unabashedly charged a fixed-price repair fee for the equipment that was at least 50% of the cost of the equipment and sometimes the same price as the equipment. Since the equipment could not be repaired anywhere else, it was put up or shut up.

If it is a standard battery pack (likely), you or any electronics repair shop should be able to open it up and replace the batteries.
 
Paul F said:
That's not unique to BM. The repair department of companies is typically a gravy train. I was product manager for global products. We unabashedly charged a fixed-price repair fee for the equipment that was at least 50% of the cost of the equipment and sometimes the same price as the equipment. Since the equipment could not be repaired anywhere else, it was put up or shut up.

If it is a standard battery pack (likely), you or any electronics repair shop should be able to open it up and replace the batteries.
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The batteries are external. It's something in the circuit that has failed. The quote was to replace the entire pcb. I have had a look inside and it all looks lovely, nothing obvious to me or a mate with knowledge of these things. I have a battery sled for it that then plugs into its mains socket and runs off Sony BPU batteries so I will carry on using it like that. I was just amazed that they were actually suggesting I spend more than the new price to repair it.
 
I'm guessing there is a little surface mounted fuse that went bad, probably white in color. But it could be something wrong with the switching circuit that switches power between battery and wired power. It is odd that both battery holders don't work, they should be mostly independent from each other.
 
Greg_E said:
I'm guessing there is a little surface mounted fuse that went bad, probably white in color. But it could be something wrong with the switching circuit that switches power between battery and wired power. It is odd that both battery holders don't work, they should be mostly independent from each other.
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They do charge batteries independently as far as I know but that's all I know! It hasn't even had that much use. Oh well, it still works with my accessory battery plate and in someways is better because I can stick a great big Sony battery on it rather than worrying whether the little Canon batteries are going to crap out.
Thank you for replying. I appreciate it everybody.
 
I feel your pain. I had some internal power board get fried on my Panasonic BT-LH 910 years ago and I believe it was at least $1,000 for the repair(I really think it was well over that). I believe at the time, the monitor was still selling for $3K+. I went through something similar with a Litepanels Sola ENG, too, that got damaged. Because of the way they were built(internal PCB) it was either right at the cost of a new one or maybe a few bucks more(over $700). I remember tossing it in the trash and buying a new one. There's an old saying about something being greater than the sum of it's parts, but if you ever had to buy the parts individually and build it, it would cost you 10x-20x what it costs to buy it already assembled. At least with production gear... And cars.
 
My serious suggestion is see what you can get on amazon for £150

It seems that all (sub £2k??) monitors are disposable so you might as well only despose of £150 not £500 next time.
 
morgan_moore said:
My serious suggestion is see what you can get on amazon for £150

It seems that all (sub £2k??) monitors are disposable so you might as well only despose of £150 not £500 next time.
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Thanks Sam. I do actually use it for recording a lot as well so I need that ability otherwise I would do as you suggest. Pretty sure I am going Atomos next to use with my Z6. Watching the Prores raw development with interest.
Cheers. Patrick.
 
I have had a good year with my Atomos .. it has lasted thus far. We are interested in one for our Z6 so interested to hear how that works for you..
 
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