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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 :)

Is there a simple wireless or jammable timecode module?

Palmer Woodrow

Palmer Woodrow

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Hi all.

I want to use my Zoom F4 audio recorder as a timecode source and transmit the timecode to my camera. I'm seeing units (like the Tentacle) that you can supposedly jam to a source then stick on your camera... but they're useless for this and many other scenarios because there's no BNC timecode input.

I don't want to buy a generator/transmitter and two receivers, when I already have a TC source on hand. If there's a generator that I can hard-wire into the audio recorder as a source and also transmit wirelessly to a receiver on the camera, I guess that would be OK (being only two units instead of three).

Price is important. You can buy two Tentacles for only $360 (and I really only need one). That's the price range I'm targeting.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

UPDATE: Looks like there's a BNC-to-1/8" adapter to get TC into the Tentacle. So... I wonder if I can use the same cable from the unit into the camera's TC input.
 
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I use a Tentacle jammed to my F8. It feeds timecode reliably without drift all day. I have a Scarlet Dragon and use the correct cable. Tentacle also has a strategy for embedding timecode into the audio if you use a DSLR. What camera are you using that you can’t get a single jammed Tentacle and hang it on it to feed it timecode?
 
Palmer Woodrow said:
...

UPDATE: Looks like there's a BNC-to-1/8" adapter to get TC into the Tentacle. So... I wonder if I can use the same cable from the unit into the camera's TC input.
Click to expand...

Yes you can.
 
You really should post this over in the audio subforum:

www.reduser.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?32-Audio

Tentacle Sync was a major groundbreaker with TC when the came out a couple of years or so ago. Radically slashing the price of TC boxes down! (not just price, but size too!) And now they're cheaper than ever.

However the market responded eventually with a few other options with a low price point and small size. So timecode boxes these days are dirt dirt cheap, and but a small amount of your total gear budget.

I feel the pick of them all is the Ultrasync ONE (together with the :wave bundle), which is absolutely PACKED with features, all at a similarly low price and small size.

I own both Tentacle Syncs, and the new Ultrasync ONEs, and I use them a lot as I'm a professional sound recordist so this is my main focus and passion.




Palmer Woodrow said:
UPDATE: Looks like there's a BNC-to-1/8" adapter to get TC into the Tentacle. So... I wonder if I can use the same cable from the unit into the camera's TC input.
Click to expand...


Yes, you can get any possible TC cable you can imagine for the Tentacle. Ditto for the Ultrasync ONE or any of the other TC box options. Not a problem!

You will however need to also get an external battery (I use BP-U30, or BP-U60) for your Zoom F4, so you don't need to ever turn it off (otherwise you'll lose accurate TC).
 
I use both the Mozegear Tig Q28 and the Tentacle. I like them both but the Tentacle is just so small and light that it wins out over the Q28 most of the time. Especially when you're on a gimbal and everyone (Follow Focus, Teradek, wireless audio hop, etc.) wants to put their stuff on the camera.

As you mentioned yourself, yes there is a BNC-to-1/8". You can use it to both jam Tentacle from the F-4 and Tentacle to the camera.
 
Dragging this one up again.

I've used tentacles before, or rather my sound recordist has - boxes all over the shop and it was very successful.

But leading on from the OPs question - are we saying that if you jam a single tentacle to the F4 and then connect it to the camera we're all good to go for the day? Or are we needing two tentacles feeding to the camera and the F4?

So can i get away with a single tentacle? (or ultrastudio)

cheers
Paul
 
I went Tentacle and haven't looked back. Constant sync is superior to jam sync, eliminates risk of drift. The phone app is brilliant, and no need for a Wave which would drive the price up with Ultrasync, though I'm sure those are also excellent devices.
 
paulcurtis said:
Dragging this one up again.

I've used tentacles before, or rather my sound recordist has - boxes all over the shop and it was very successful.

But leading on from the OPs question - are we saying that if you jam a single tentacle to the F4 and then connect it to the camera we're all good to go for the day? Or are we needing two tentacles feeding to the camera and the F4?

So can i get away with a single tentacle? (or ultrastudio)

cheers
Paul
Click to expand...

Ideally, you want a box on every single piece of equipment that is running TC. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Just had a wake-up call yesterday and it looks like my Sound Devices 664 needs to go into service. We had a two-cam interview shoot (single subject/single mic) and fed both cameras from the mixer and the mixer was just an OMG/everything blew-up back-up. Pulled out two Tentacle E’s and sync’d them, jammed the mixer to one and then put the boxes on the cams. Didn’t bother pulling out a third, because the mixer was a back-up, back-up and the internal TC clock in Ambient(pretty damn reliable). At the end of the roughly 30 min interview, the mixer had drifted at least 3 seconds! Ran a test at home later and it drifted ~12 seconds in a little under two hours!!!

Anyway, my point, if everything had had a box on it, there would have been no TC discrepancy between the mixer and cameras*.


*There shouldn’t have been any issues anyway, obviously something is wrong with the mixers internal clock, but the TS would have prevented the drift.
 
Christopher A. Bell said:
Ideally, you want a box on every single piece of equipment that is running TC. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Click to expand...

Yes, that makes sense.

Rarely do we get to quantify the quality of timekeeping in all these devices. In some ways you'd prefer that a device doesn't have TC built in if it's not any good.

So there's a video with a guy testing the F4 and Sound Devices with a tentacle - jam them and leave them running (in fact he records the output of the tentacle) and then see drift after 8 hours - both the F4 and SD stayed on the same frame and both within milliseconds.

So the TCO in the F4 is good.

Your story sounds like something is actually wrong with the mixer, right?

I have no idea about whether anyone has done that with the Epic W, to see if that really is unusable after a days shooting (or less!) but the camera is more likely to drift.

Hence a very quick solution would be to Jam off the F4 and then drive the camera with a single tentacle. But yeah, i can see the point of multiples here.

cheers
Paul
 
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