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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Cinegears New Ghost Eye 600M and 800T.Code Wireless Video Transmission Kits

Matt Hardy said:
Ok, thanks. PLease describe to me why this product is cheaper than your other wireless systems. This one claims to have more range than your 150, 300, 400, but is $2000 cheaper. Why is that?
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Hi Matt,
Thank you for the questions, your are not the fist one had this question.

Cinegears has been developing new wireless video transmission technology since year 2014, at 2017, Cinegears had released 8 new high-end model for film and broadcast industry, the new generation wireless video transmission has many improvement and upgrade on hardware and software.

600M is the new entry level wireless transmission product from Cine Gears Inc. The Ghost-Eye 600M has been tested by many industry professionals from early 2017, enjoy a special promotion for the month.

Cheers,
 
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If I'm reading correctly, the 600M transmits on an open channel (not encrypted), meaning anybody with a compatible receiver can hop on the same channel and get your feed. Not very likely, but possible. Is this correct?

Most other units have to be paired to get the feed, so even if someone has a compatible receiver, they can't just hop on the same channel and see your feed unless you pair them from the transmitter end.
 
Hi Kyle,

The cinegears 400me is an encrypted wireless video transmission system.
The encryption feature of 600m will be an optional upgrade model or accessories down the road. An universal External SDI video encryptor has been designed by Cinegears, the kit price is under $400.
However, to be able to be compatible with other ghost eye models is a big advantage of Cinegears wireless video transmission systems.

Cheers,
 
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Tom Bostick said:
Hi there, I was reading the documentation on the 600m, and it says there is a fan on the Transmitter.

Can you please give me an idea of how loud it is?
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Got mine today. The fan noise seems pretty noticeable, with a high pitch (small diameter fan). I don't have a db meter to measure it, so can't really be specific other than I think it would be distracting to actors when shooting closeups, and possibly even medium shots if on a quiet set. Hopefully I'll be shooting a comparison tomorrow (Bolt 600 vs Bolt 2000 vs CG 400M vs CG 600M) and I'll attempt to capture the noise it makes.

To put my interpretation of the noise into perspective, fan loudness seems to be fairly subjective to some people, as many people say their RED is absolutely silent in adaptive mode on long takes, but my experience has been that the fan noise is very obvious if rolling longer takes. The Alexa Mini, I never hear it. The RED (both DSMC 1 and DSMC 2) is only moderately silent for the first few minutes of rolling, then slowly gets louder and louder as the sound guy starts shooting me dirty looks. So the guys that say their REDs are always totally silent may not find the transmitter fan to be an issue, but I notice those noises and they drive me nuts.

I don't recall seeing the manual on their page before I ordered, but it's there now (revealing that it contains a fan, something I wasn't aware of when ordering). Oddly, the manual says transmission distance is 1500 ft, which is a fairly significant drop from the 2000 ft the webpage claims. I guess I'll see tomorrow how it holds up compared to the competing units.
 
Okay, got back from testing the units. I'm not sure if the 400M was a v1 or v2 (and oddly enough, the guy that bought it wasn't sure), so I'll have to give Cinegears a call tomorrow when they're open to see how to tell the difference.

Performance wise, I tested all the units in an area with semi-industrial buildings on one side and residential on the other. In line of sight testing, all four units got about 275-278 meters or so (about 900-912 ft) before losing signal. There were some definite patches of interference through the corridor I was walking through, as the signal would drop as I walked through certain areas before getting stronger. At the farthest point I could go, most of the units may have transmitted a little further (though the signal seemed to be on the very edge of dropping), but my line of sight only extended that far so I couldn't test any further. What I found interesting is the Bolt 600 should only have a range of about 600 ft, tops. It made it 171 meters (561 ft) on my first test, which I found surprising since that was near the maximum advertised range. But on the second test it got within a few meters of the other units, or about 900 ft!

I didn't measure distance during my indoor test, as there were multiple walls and lots of metal and other objects in between the transmitter and receiver, so distance is fairly meaningless. But I will say that they all performed similarly in a non line-of-sight situation, with the 400M getting about 6' further before losing the signal. Pretty negligible in my opinion.

I shot the whole test on a GoPro (so I could mount it on my receiver monitor to show my progress). Unfortunately, it doesn't record great audio. The 400M has some fan noise from both the transmitter and receiver. The receiver was audible to about 10', while the transmitter was audible from about 3', so as long as talent is further than that you should be okay. The 600M receiver is silent (possibly fanless), but the transmitter was audible out to over 20', but probably wouldn't interfere with audio until about the 10-15' range, which is not acceptable for me.

For the price, the 600M transmits just as far as units costing 2-3 times as much. Pretty impressive if you ask me. But the high pitch and loudness of the fan is what kills it for me. It's not a piece of gear that I would feel comfortable bringing on set, as the camera spends way too much time within 10-15' of the talent, where the fan noise would prove distracting to talent and likely make the sound team angry.

I'll try to get my footage edited into a useful video (it's my first time making a review video, so I don't know if it'll be any good), but since I shot it on a GoPro, the sound it captured wasn't a very accurate representation of what I was hearing from the fans.
 
FWIW, I emailed Steven and he informed me there will be a firmware update which will address the fan on the 600-M transmitter. Something along the lines of a fan speed adjustment. Still waiting to here back as to when this will be available.
 
Kyle,

Thanks for your feedback on the unit and the comparison with similar products.

Just a couple of questions for our research on the issues you are having with the fan noise;
1. How long is the unit running before you noticed the noise?
2. Are there any variables was far as room or outside temperature on the shoot?

New fan units are to be installed in the 600m with controls for the fan motor as well as new firmware.

We are shipping you a new unit today and will test for any fan noise before shipping.
 
Nathan Richards said:
Kyle,

Thanks for your feedback on the unit and the comparison with similar products.

Just a couple of questions for our research on the issues you are having with the fan noise;
1. How long is the unit running before you noticed the noise?
2. Are there any variables was far as room or outside temperature on the shoot?

New fan units are to be installed in the 600m with controls for the fan motor as well as new firmware.

We are shipping you a new unit today and will test for any fan noise before shipping.
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Thanks for the reply. I noticed the fan noise at home when I first powered it up. Room temp was about 72 degrees F. When I turn it on, I can hear the fan spinning up over the course of about 20 seconds, so it hasn't had time to heat up yet.

When I took the unit to the rental house to test against the other units, I found the same thing on both the showroom floor (didn't check the temp there) and on the soundstage (thermostat said 78 degrees, but it felt a bit cooler than that), with the unit spinning up the fan immediately upon turning it on. My rental agent was there and I demonstrated it to him and he was surprised by how loud the unit was and said he wouldn't be interested in keeping it in their rental department (which is where I leave my gear when I'm not using it).

Unfortunately when I ordered the 600M, I don't believe the user manual was up yet (I see it's up now) and there was no mention of a fan in the description, as I tend to stay away from accessories with fans (such as wireless video, on camera monitors, etc.). Maybe I just shoot a lot of interviews and dramas with close-ups during quiet moments, but fans seems to always cause grief. The 400M unit what was on hand for the test, while not totally silent, was at least a lot quieter.

I gotta say, the transmission range and reconnect time is pretty good on the 600M. One thing I find annoying about my Teradek is when it disconnects, you only have a couple seconds to reconnect automatically or else a power cycle on the unit is required to get the receiver to seek out a signal again.
 
I would be careful buying from CineGears I bought there follow focus and it was not professional grade and the customer service was just down right horrible, I waiting for 4 months for an RMA email to send in a motor (which died after 3 months) bought another one and that died too!!! I still have never gotten that email or an apology from Cinegears...
 
Kyle Wright said:
Was this just added? I guess ordered my unit a week too early, as only V-lock was an option at that time. All my stuff is gold mount. Is it possible to buy the gold mount plate and swap it out myself? If so, I might look into doing that.
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I too would like to swap out my V-mt for gold mount if possible. Is there a way to power the receiver on AC as I don't own any v-mount batteries?
 
Neil,

CineGears is working hard to improve our customer service. We now provide a team to focus on North America customers for products and trouble shooting. I do apologize for any inconvenience you experienced in the past. Please contact support@cinegears.com for any questions you may have.

Thank you.
 
Kyle Wright said:
I used my AC adaptor to 2-pin lemo from my Teradek kit and it powered mine just fine.

https://teradek.com/collections/bolt/products/bit_056?variant=1151427625

I'd guess the Paralinx power supply to 2-pin lemo would work equally as well, and at a lower price.

https://www.paralinx.net/store/ac-power-supply
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Kyle,

A word of caution. Please be mindful that polarities could be different on these cables.

My only recommendation would be to use our AC adapter, which can be found here: https://cinegears.com/product/dc-adapter-for-wireless-video-transmitter-400m/.
 
Nathan Richards said:
Neil,

CineGears is working hard to improve our customer service. We now provide a team to focus on North America customers for products and trouble shooting. I do apologize for any inconvenience you experienced in the past. Please contact support@cinegears.com for any questions you may have.

Thank you.
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I had heard bad things about customer service in the past as well, but so far I've had great communication and fast replies both in this thread as well as via email. No complaints from me!

Nathan Richards said:
Kyle,

A word of caution. Please be mindful that polarities could be different on these cables.

My only recommendation would be to use our AC adapter, which can be found here: https://cinegears.com/product/dc-adapter-for-wireless-video-transmitter-400m/.
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Ah, didn't see the power supply on your site. I made sure to verify that the pin1 was GND on the Ghost Eye before using my power supply. Don't want to blow up my stuff! ;)
 
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