Expensive lesson

[Rick Diamond]

Regardless of the amount of tension relief or cable wrapping, I feel as if, due to the fragility of the connection, the connection would break again. Why pay $600 for a repair that, in all likelihood, would not last very long. Either a monitor with an SDI connection or using the adapter to get to HDMI seem to be a better solution.

Rick

[Thomas Kist]

I have the Black Magic SDI to HDMI adapter.
works great for setting op a large consumer monitor to let clients/directors watch the shoot or footage.
Because HD shows so much detail its nice to see it big.

Thomas Kist
Freelance D.o.P
Amsterdam,The Netherlands
http://www.thomaskist.com

[Ryan Johnson]

Was your Camera (EX-3) under the extended warranty ?

[Joe Tyler]

No extended warranty, I bought it almost 3 years ago.
Thanks to everyone for the comments.

I love the ex3 and I own PDW-350 (and conisdering a 700), I disagree with the Consumer tag for an EX3.
A broken connector on any camera would cost you some $$, especially if you end up replacing a board and paying an engineer. That one board is not well designed, should probably be mounted with a right angle connector, but the BNC works great, and I was able to continue shooting because of the camera’s multiple output choices. Flipped the monitor to Composite and went BNC out, clients got a little less pretty picture, but the shoot didn’t miss a bit. That alone puts the camera much closer to Professional than consumer.

http://www.killianthered.com
DP in the Washington DC Area
EX3 Owner

[Jim Watt]

Bottom line…always stress relief ALL cables connected to equipment. How much effort does it take to attach a good tie wrap to your tripod leg and use some throw mats to cover cable in any traffic area or tape it down.

jw

Producer/DP, HD series, “Discoveries…America”, “Discoveries…Ireland”, “Discoveries…Spain”,
“Discoveries…Argentina”, Discoveries…India”, “Discoveries…Asia”, “Discoveries…Africa”

[Dean Sensui]

[Don Greening] “They’ve saved many a camera connection when shooters walk away from the cameras with their headphones still on their heads, me included.”

And now the camera’s just fine but half the crew are wearing neck braces…. 🙂

That’s a good idea. I’ll have to do that to my own gear, even if it’s 1/8 to 1/8. The headphone cable is always getting snagged.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Bala Chandran]

Same thing happened to me this weekend! My monitor fell down and it yanked the component connector loose! Monitor works but the connection is dead.
Thank you for this post (even though I did not heed the warning), I think I will go the Black Magic route and monitor thru HDMI, rather than spending $1000 to fix the socket.

[Bala Chandran]

Could somebody tell me if there is any time lag between the camera LCD and SDI to HDMI monitor? Like firewire has? Thanks.
-BC

[Bala Chandran]

Hello Joe
Did you end up getting the Black Magic SDI to HDMI adapter? I got one from B&H and tried combination of wires and menu but nothing showed on the monitor. Thought may be a bad unit so got a replacement today and still no picture. I have tried everything in the menu and tried different BNC and HDMI cables and monitors, no luck. Used tested working cables. Tried SD and HD in the menu. Tried EX1 and EX3 cameras. The BM box lights up. What am I doing wrong? Anybody? Thank you.
-BC

[Bala Chandran]

Hello Thomas Kist
Could you tell me how you have hooked up the BM SDI to HDMI? I have tried everything I could think of but no picture on the monitor. I can’t figure out what I must be doing wrong. I have tried from EX1 and EX3, SD and HD.
Thanks
-BC