Strange DVX100B issues - camera? user? Poltergeists?

stephenvv

stephenvv

Well-known member
Okay, I'm DP a shoot with a city-owned DVX100b. I have a DVX100a (and a DVX100 before that).

This is our second shoot and we keep having strange things.

(1) First shoot with it a year ago: Iris would just "bloom" open then close down to orignal f-stop without user touching camera. Camera in full manual. Setting double-checked. Power on/off, all troubleshooting had not effect. Problem just stopped after that - we just watched it for a while and it stopped. Never reoccured for the next day and half.

(2) Today - camera was running in preset timecode starting with all zeros. 6 minute into tape, during take on dolly shot, timecode reset to all zeros and we don't believe anything was near camera buttons although can't swear to it. It happened twice.

(3) Shutter speed changed to 1/24th and zebras changed

(4) Today - camera would engage end search when menu stick was bumped by hoodman.

(5) Today - Detail/Peaking would just turn itself off.

There was a hoodman LCD cover on it but we could not manually get hoodman to press buttons even when smashed against camera.

All the above were without a tape or battery change but multiple tripod changes. I've never seen any of this on my DVX100a.

Any ideas?
 
stephenvv said:
Okay, I'm DP a shoot with a city-owned DVX100b. I have a DVX100a (and a DVX100 before that).

This is our second shoot and we keep having strange things.

(1) First shoot with it a year ago: Iris would just "bloom" open then close down to orignal f-stop without user touching camera. Camera in full manual. Setting double-checked. Power on/off, all troubleshooting had not effect. Problem just stopped after that - we just watched it for a while and it stopped. Never reoccured for the next day and half.

(2) Today - camera was running in preset timecode starting with all zeros. 6 minute into tape, during take on dolly shot, timecode reset to all zeros and we don't believe anything was near camera buttons although can't swear to it. It happened twice.

(3) Shutter speed changed to 1/24th and zebras changed

(4) Today - camera would engage end search when menu stick was bumped by hoodman.

(5) Today - Detail/Peaking would just turn itself off.

There was a hoodman LCD cover on it but we could not manually get hoodman to press buttons even when smashed against camera.

All the above were without a tape or battery change but multiple tripod changes. I've never seen any of this on my DVX100a.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
1) This happened to me on my last feature length shoot. Drove us nuts because the iris will just change (close usually) or jump up or down a few stops in the middle of a long take. After consulting a few people, they told me it's a common problem with old DVX (old as in been used a long time not older versions of DVX)

2) Sounds like the internal battery is dead. Use the external power for a few hours to recharge the internal battery and you should be fine.

3) Never encounter this before but my guess is the same as above.

4) Never encounter this before so no comments.

5)In the B model, the peaking will need to be turn on again each time you turn off the camera. It will stay permanently on in the A model but not the B.
 
Vincent - thanks for the helpful pointers. I didn't think about the internal battery being a problem.
 
The iris problem can be caused by dirt or dust in the iris wheel. A cleaning could help that problem.
 
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