Half Off on smallHD Focus 5 Wireless Monitors *Today Only/B&H Deal Zone*

James0b57 said:
Actually, that makes a lot of sense. If I didn't also need/want a wireless HD-SDI option, I would go that route. Although, now that you've said it, I may not be able to unsee how clever that set up is. In all honesty, the good AC's often have their own wireless setup, so I really only need an iPad for the director.

I mean, the Focus Bolt Rx is $1200, and an iPad Pro is $800... The iPad Air $500... Ancor battery a hundred bucks? And the iPads can do a lot of other stuff, and even multi task.

The Focus Bolt can rent though. And the Teradek can be used with a lot of industry standard gear. Man, you got me thinking. At the very least, I am going to propose that to all of my director friends.
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I already had a spare iPad Mini laying around collecting dust that I used to use for my Mavic Pro before I bought the Crystal Sky monitor for it. So for me,
the whole setup was almost free. The only thing it lacks is audio, I wish it had audio but that's what Comteks are for.
 
puredrifting said:
I already had a spare iPad Mini laying around collecting dust that I used to use for my Mavic Pro before I bought the Crystal Sky monitor for it. So for me,
the whole setup was almost free. The only thing it lacks is audio, I wish it had audio but that's what Comteks are for.
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Always a catch, eh? Haha, maybe the next version will have a way to get audio into an iPad.

I'll try to test the audio on the Vitec setup.
 
Messed around with it some more today. Played with some lighting in a small room with almost no airflow, and the SmallHD Focus Bolt RX got kinda hot. I reached for it and picked it up by the aluminium chassis, and was startled, but wasn’t actually hot enough to burn me, but nearly made me drop it. Yeah, no airflow in a warm room seemed to do it. Heat just builds. Outdoors in direct California sun was no issue because of the moving breeze. And indoors there is AC often. Only people that have to watch out is the indie filmers baking in a hot set location with no airflow and the whole crew’s BO.

And definitely would leave this thing running On the dash of a car. Between the heat in the car, the sun through the window, and the unit generating its own heat, the thing would like start melting the plastic bits fairly quickly. My brother melted a phone that way. He used google maps in a car with no AC in the Summer, and had it in a spot with no airflow, and the phone started bulging out.

Overall, the SmallHD Focus Bolt seems to be performing admirably. Now that the units are paired, i just turn them on and they auto sync. Has been awesome for light testing, as i can be the “stand in” and still see the screen any where. Was it Pure or RnG that said they’ll be using it that way possibly? In any case it totally works, and is a great tool so far. Will test the audio next.

Fleepin’ covid may make me have to go get a bit of sound gear for OMB interviews. I’ve been missing the MKH50 anyhow, was my favourite on cam mic. But everytime i hear an MK41 cap on a voice, i just love how captures in this sort of way that feels unboxed and present with a high end that sounds the way things sound by ear, and.... but the MKH50 makes you pay attention to whoever is speaking. The MKH50 and MKH70 have this tractor beam sort of pull. Very commanding sounding, and i love that for interviews. For a short time i had a stereo pair of MKH40 mics, and they were similar to the 50, but more open and natural sounding (at least to me). I really want to AB the MKh50/40 and Schoeps MK41. I know for camera that a banger mic is better, and the MKH’s are tanks.
 
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Yeah, I said I may use it to check lighting.

Finally received a reply from B&H earlier today. It still hasn't been scanned into their system that it has been returned. I know things aren't ideal right now, but if nothing shows by tomorrow afternoon, I may send a snippy email, because it will be a full week tomorrow. If it hadn't been a Deal Zone deal, I would have just returned it for a refund/credit and ordered a new one. I did that with a Ronin S that had a crooked/uncorrectable horizon last year, because you have to go through the distributor instead of directly with B&H. Although it actually ended up being a much less painful and quicker process than I thought. Actually quicker than this has ended up being, so far.

All of my stuff has been OMB the last few weeks. Audio straight into camera on 'auto'. Either hardwired or wireless(Lectro). Had a field producer yesterday, for the first time since all of this started happening. A pic of them actually made it into a newspapers slide show showing them holding the boom pole with the stick mic on the end during a gang-bang interview. Wireless butt-plug sending straight back to cam.
 
Run&Gun said:
Yeah, I said I may use it to check lighting.
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So crucial in a post Covid work environment.

Will have to do some rudimentary calibration though. Was seeing magenta in the shadows and was thinking it was the RED camera, but peaked a look in the OLED EVF and breathed easier. The 1080 OLED EVF's by Arri, Sony, Canon, and Red lately have been absolutely stunning. (Just a colour cast issue, not the same as the purple edge issue on the Cine 7. That is a horrid QC issue)

Finally received a reply from B&H earlier today. It still hasn't been scanned into their system that it has been returned. I know things aren't ideal right now, but if nothing shows by tomorrow afternoon, I may send a snippy email, because it will be a full week tomorrow. If it hadn't been a Deal Zone deal, I would have just returned it for a refund/credit and ordered a new one. I did that with a Ronin S that had a crooked/uncorrectable horizon last year, because you have to go through the distributor instead of directly with B&H. Although it actually ended up being a much less painful and quicker process than I thought. Actually quicker than this has ended up being, so far.
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I am only buying local from here on out. (going to avoid looking at those daily deals too, haha)

All of my stuff has been OMB the last few weeks. Audio straight into camera on 'auto'. Either hardwired or wireless(Lectro). Had a field producer yesterday, for the first time since all of this started happening. A pic of them actually made it into a newspapers slide show showing them holding the boom pole with the stick mic on the end during a gang-bang interview. Wireless butt-plug sending straight back to cam.
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If I don't have to hide a lav mic on someone and the camera is made for direct audio in, I actually don't mind doing sound. But two system and wireless lavs on top of everything else, and I just don't have the muscle memory right now. Respect to anyone that has that skill sharp right now. Definitely going to be loved by producers.
 
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I've probably spent way more of my career working as a OMB, even at the net level, than as a two-man/multi-person crew. Obviously having a second(or third or fourth, etc...) person is going to make things easier for set-ups and load-ins/outs and usually just better overall, but some things I'm fine with being a OMB and can actually work faster or at least be more nimble. I'm sure that most people watching the end/on-air product of what I've done over the last few weeks wouldn't be able to tell if it was done by a camera & audio guy or just a camera guy that knows what they're doing. It's great for those of us that can do it, because it makes us valuable, but unfortunately it will make those in-charge think about making this SOP going forward. Those of us that are doing it are now guilty of "encouraging bad behavior", as I've said in the past, numerous times.

I feel bad for some of my friends. I was originally told to put audio on-hold for my shoot yesterday, but Friday when everything go nailed down, I was told it was just me and had to cut my buddy. It's still a big deal, right now. This shoot had to go through lots of levels of approval and more than what has been normal the last few weeks, including their legal department, because of the nature of this shoot. So many of these companies, especially the big ones, are worried about liability and the less people involved, the better, for them.
 
Well... Not good. 21 days after originally ordering, I still don't have one. They actually sent me a "satisfaction survey" on returns/customer service late last week... You can imagine how I filled it out. I actually told them what they did well and what they didn't. I ended up emailing them over this again today. At this point it's pretty ridiculous. In my opinion, exchanges of defective/broken/incorrectly shipped merchandise should be handled with at least the same priority as a new sale. Not this "whenever we get around to it" attitude that it seems to be. One of my audio guys has actually been going through a similar comedy of errors with them since last week over some pieces he needed(and paid extra to get them overnighted by Friday, which he didn't receive). He still hasn't received them so he contacted FedEx and told them he was refusing the shipment and to return it (still in-transit).
 
Run&Gun said:
Well... Not good. 21 days after originally ordering, I still don't have one. They actually sent me a "satisfaction survey" on returns/customer service late last week... You can imagine how I filled it out. I actually told them what they did well and what they didn't. I ended up emailing them over this again today. At this point it's pretty ridiculous. In my opinion, exchanges of defective/broken/incorrectly shipped merchandise should be handled with at least the same priority as a new sale. Not this "whenever we get around to it" attitude that it seems to be. One of my audio guys has actually been going through a similar comedy of errors with them since last week over some pieces he needed(and paid extra to get them overnighted by Friday, which he didn't receive). He still hasn't received them so he contacted FedEx and told them he was refusing the shipment and to return it (still in-transit).
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That is not fun.

Vitec and BH are slipping. But also, other than the daily deals, it has been cheaper to buy local. And returns. are just a quick drive back to the shop.

But this year, I am realizing I probably should stay away from deals as well. They really aren't doing much for me, as all the work I have been soft booked for ends up getting cut last minute. I kept stocking p getting ready, and then I get the call that they are worried about Covid and do it some other way.

Been hearing about these Hayden 5 drop kits going out even. Which aren't exactly "cheap", but have that peace of mind.



So the NP-F batts are on sale:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1475115-REG/core_swx_npf_shd_npf_l_series_style_pack.html

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._8675_0109_np_f976_7_2v_6600mah_l_series.html

Also, the SmallHD Focus Bolt RX is on sale for $750 again, both from BH and SmallHD direct. But on the SmallHD site they are B-stock. I'd assume BH is getting a type of B-stock as well.
 
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Saw that today. I’m half tempted to just order another one and tell them to cancel the exchange and just credit the amount back to the card.

I’m not 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure they have to disclose if an item is b-stock.
 
Run&Gun said:
Saw that today. I’m half tempted to just order another one and tell them to cancel the exchange and just credit the amount back to the card.

I’m not 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure they have to disclose if an item is b-stock.
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It's not B-stock unless noted (at least for the most part and at least that's what they would like you to believe).

Margins are just a rip-off as we see day-in and day-out with almost everything year-after-year but that's business and competition is beyond brutal.
 
Run&Gun said:
Saw that today. I’m half tempted to just order another one and tell them to cancel the exchange and just credit the amount back to the card.

I’m not 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure they have to disclose if an item is b-stock.
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When I returned the second Cine 7 for the same purple edge issue, the one that the repair guy brought out already opened from the back, and he asked me to also return the card board shipping box. And for some reason, he told me he was going to re-sell it. Not only did he tell me it was new, he also was telling me that he was going to pass it off to someone else. Pretty bold guy. He scoffed at me and said "the purple doesn't record to your image, it is just on the screen!" ....haha, I enjoyed that statement too much at that point to even be mad. If it weren't for the other guy being so awesome, I might have lost faith in SmallHD or Vitec all together. But they still have good people. But yeah, I was already on the fence before this, because of the quality of the 702HB being so mediocre.
 
Ok, here is the odd thing, the Cine 7 promo video appears to have the purple edge issue in one of their shots.

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It is something that can be ignored, but it is still quite annoying. Considering the monitor costs as much as an iMac, EIZO, or FSI entry level, one would think that with the sales numbers and Vitec behind them they could do better.

From looking at the Cine7 floor models, all of them had a purple glow if viewed from an angle, similar to the angle in that screen shot above. Then when looking dead on straight, the purple can't be seen. However, some of the screens had the glow even when viewing dead on. The first one I opened and tested was bad. too obvious. the second one was still seen dead on. but not horrible, just annoying. The one on the showroom floor that I was looking at was tolerable. None of the other models had the purple issue that I could see, or have seen.

The odd repair guy said that it was an issue with the anti-glare, or something. But he said it to try and convince me that purple edge issues are totally normal for a $2000 "Cine" monitor. But that conflicted with his earlier statement that they "need time to burn in".

If I can get a Cine 7 that only has the purple glow when viewed from an angle, I'd be ok with that. But dead on is difficult to accept.
 
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So, tried to call B&H to get to the bottom of this and the automated phone system says, "Your wait time is approximately 84 minutes". Yeah, no.

Then tried the Live Chat on-line feature to try talk to someone about my return, only to receive a message that that department is so busy that it is unavailable.

Sitting at T+ two weeks and counting to exchange a broken-out-of-the-box monitor. Ridiculous. I wanna say F it, but there's not really much going on right now, so it's not like I have to have it for a shoot immediately and they're over $50 cheaper than anyone else legit even if they matched the price, because of their PB CC. And another kick in the stones, the CC bill is due in a few days and I don't have the monitor that I'm going to have to pay for.
 
Connect via chat to another department that's open and ask to be transferred.

Doesn't matter which one, pick one randomly out of a hat.

It's difficult on purpose...they are very backed-up right now as you can imagine.
 
NorBro said:
Connect via chat to another department that's open and ask to be transferred.

Doesn't matter which one, pick one randomly out of a hat.

It's difficult on purpose...they are very backed-up right now as you can imagine.
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I'm not completely unsympathetic or un-understanding(is that a word?) to what is going on, but where I sit, merchandise that is defective/broken upon delivery should be prioritized and a replacement sent out immediately/as soon as possible(if that's what the customer wants). Kind of like if you go into a restaurant and they screw-up your order, burn your steak for example, they immediately fix you a new one. You don't wait until everyone else that ordered after you gets their food before they fix yours(not a perfect example, but you get the idea). If you are shipping new orders in a timely fashion, then these types of things should be handled the same. If I was just returning something that I didn't like or changed my mind on, I'd be fine with the "slow boat" treatment.

I just received an email within the last hour that shows that the exchange has finally been processed. 15 days after receiving it and 8 days after acknowledging that they had received it. At the very very least, a replacement should have shipped last Tuesday. Once the return was scanned into the system that it was back in their possession, then a replacement should have been released to ship from the warehouse. And I'm willing to bet you a Coke that it will be next week before I finally receive it, because new orders placed today are showing as Monday delivery in my location(which was only two days ground/free prior to CV-19).
 
Progress. A polite lady from B&H responded to my email that I sent earlier this week, that my refund had been processed. What? I wanted an exchange. So I responded thanking her for reaching out and told her that I had wanted an exchange, not a refund. She then explained that because of the way the PB CC works, they have to refund/credit back to the card instead of making a store credit to handle the exchange, otherwise the sales tax would not be handled/credited properly. I thanked her again for the explanation and said next time I'll just request a refund and then re-order it immediately myself. Then I get one more email, that in-fact a replacement order had been placed for it and was scheduled to ship out Thursday, so there was no need to re-order on my part.

This was almost a Rube Goldberg Machine of a process/ordeal. Next time I will definitely just ask for a refund and order the replacement myself. Especially if using the PB CC.

And on a side note that is sorta related: Amazon just lost their first order ever for me. Had a few small things that were supposed to be delivered on Sunday and one of them was there when I got home from my shoot. I checked the tracking on the others and it said they were supposed to be there that day, still, despite not shipping yet. A little while later it says they shipped and would be there by that evening(we have three Amazon distro warehouses here). Nothing... No big deal, nothing pressing. Next day, nothing. Tuesday, nothing. Today it says that the package is probably lost, but still MAY be delivered, it can't be replaced and to click the REFUND button. Refund initiated and I reordered them with (supposed) delivery tomorrow. In the scheme of things, this one is pretty low on the totem pole, just kind of funny with the B&H situation.
 
Run&Gun said:
Progress. A polite lady from B&H responded to my email that I sent earlier this week, that my refund had been processed. What? I wanted an exchange. So I responded thanking her for reaching out and told her that I had wanted an exchange, not a refund. She then explained that because of the way the PB CC works, they have to refund/credit back to the card instead of making a store credit to handle the exchange, otherwise the sales tax would not be handled/credited properly. I thanked her again for the explanation and said next time I'll just request a refund and then re-order it immediately myself. Then I get one more email, that in-fact a replacement order had been placed for it and was scheduled to ship out Thursday, so there was no need to re-order on my part.

This was almost a Rube Goldberg Machine of a process/ordeal. Next time I will definitely just ask for a refund and order the replacement myself. Especially if using the PB CC.

And on a side note that is sorta related: Amazon just lost their first order ever for me. Had a few small things that were supposed to be delivered on Sunday and one of them was there when I got home from my shoot. I checked the tracking on the others and it said they were supposed to be there that day, still, despite not shipping yet. A little while later it says they shipped and would be there by that evening(we have three Amazon distro warehouses here). Nothing... No big deal, nothing pressing. Next day, nothing. Tuesday, nothing. Today it says that the package is probably lost, but still MAY be delivered, it can't be replaced and to click the REFUND button. Refund initiated and I reordered them with (supposed) delivery tomorrow. In the scheme of things, this one is pretty low on the totem pole, just kind of funny with the B&H situation.
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Yeah, the pandemic has made everything awful. I also imagine they are selling a lot too. So many people gearing up, refining, catching the sales, becoming streamers/inflencers, transitioning to live streaming setups, and likely an influx of those that are figure out that they really wanted to be a film maker and finally taking the plunge.

I'm upset with SmallHD and BH, but I am already not happy with them, but they really are not possible to replace. I still use them. But lately I am trying not to think how I might save $30 on an item, if it means I am not supporting the companies that are right up the street when I need them. I know in Charlotte there isn't a whole lot available, but maybe one of the rental houses could start stocking a few things?? Tennessee and Georgia are not too far away and probably not nearly as swamped with sales. They should be able to ship and support better in this time. But again, no one is going to completely replace the he Amazon style library yet absolute industry focused product catalogue that is BH. Also, SmallHD is located right in NC, and they generally have the same sales as BH, though they call it B-stock, and is less appealing.
 
Support local, but - B&H is not Amazon. They're a massive resource for our industry. And they're practically a family business - almost everyone you see working there is a Hasidic Jew
 
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