- Posts: 733
- Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 3:16 pm
Wed Feb 08, 2023 5:40 pm
A cautionary tale of minor misadventure follows.
I have been called the pet refuge for sick and injured Ursa cameras. I like it. It sounds better than inveterate scrounger - bottom feeder - poor b----d. I might have got in just in time as the population of failed cameras has dwindled away.
I am also one generation behind again. Only the very occasional bowlegged G2 shows up on the eBay. Kudos to Blackmagic. It seems the Ursa Mini family has matured and wrinkles are far fewer.
In the course of healing two broken Mini Pros into one functioning camera, I struck one anti-reflection cone which was a bit tight. I had a can of WD40 handy with its cute little plastic straw to release just one drop into the bound threads. With the lens spanner the cone then came out with no problem.
I conducted the marriage ceremony and towards the end of the union, I reached out for the canned air to dust out the throat of the camera and the IR filter. Did I look where I was reaching? Nohh.
The IR filter got itself a good dose of WD40 and that stuff is the oiliest most penetrating substance known to mankind this side of a whaler's explosive harpoon. - Trust me. Getting that filter clean and smear-free was a 90 minute mission.
I had to take it out and massage it with raw dishwash liquid detergent then massage it some more underwater in the sink, then go the usual course of lens cleaner. It took five goes to get it right again.
Just wiping it clean in the camera throat did not work. The WD40 penetrated between the glass and its frame and simply wicked out again with each clean. Long-term, what the chemical has done to the coating of the filter is anyone's guess but for now it is fine once more.
So the cure is simple. One should pay attention to what one is doing and stow stuff away when it is no longer being used instead of having the whole armoury close handy but doing nothing.
Because most of what I film is in bright outdoors and unforgiving sunlight, I have gone the route of fitting an indwelling IRND filter in the throat of the camera as I did with the Mini 4.6K.
This allows me a little more highlight protection whilst remaining within the aperture sweet spot of my lenses without having to lug matteboxes and filters around.
The inbuilt filter wheel is sweet but the green grass still seems to remain a trace on the khaki side and undersides of sunlit leaves still seem to grey off just a little without the IRND.
For those who might be tempted to follow my foolishness with indwelling Formatt IRND and NC8 filter disks, be aware that the mount has to be shimmed forward to restore infinity focus.
This is likely to cause the pins connecting the autofocus circuits to the EF-Mount to no longer reach far enough to engage. For me it is not an issue because I use dumb lenses.
I have been called the pet refuge for sick and injured Ursa cameras. I like it. It sounds better than inveterate scrounger - bottom feeder - poor b----d. I might have got in just in time as the population of failed cameras has dwindled away.
I am also one generation behind again. Only the very occasional bowlegged G2 shows up on the eBay. Kudos to Blackmagic. It seems the Ursa Mini family has matured and wrinkles are far fewer.
In the course of healing two broken Mini Pros into one functioning camera, I struck one anti-reflection cone which was a bit tight. I had a can of WD40 handy with its cute little plastic straw to release just one drop into the bound threads. With the lens spanner the cone then came out with no problem.
I conducted the marriage ceremony and towards the end of the union, I reached out for the canned air to dust out the throat of the camera and the IR filter. Did I look where I was reaching? Nohh.
The IR filter got itself a good dose of WD40 and that stuff is the oiliest most penetrating substance known to mankind this side of a whaler's explosive harpoon. - Trust me. Getting that filter clean and smear-free was a 90 minute mission.
I had to take it out and massage it with raw dishwash liquid detergent then massage it some more underwater in the sink, then go the usual course of lens cleaner. It took five goes to get it right again.
Just wiping it clean in the camera throat did not work. The WD40 penetrated between the glass and its frame and simply wicked out again with each clean. Long-term, what the chemical has done to the coating of the filter is anyone's guess but for now it is fine once more.
So the cure is simple. One should pay attention to what one is doing and stow stuff away when it is no longer being used instead of having the whole armoury close handy but doing nothing.
Because most of what I film is in bright outdoors and unforgiving sunlight, I have gone the route of fitting an indwelling IRND filter in the throat of the camera as I did with the Mini 4.6K.
This allows me a little more highlight protection whilst remaining within the aperture sweet spot of my lenses without having to lug matteboxes and filters around.
The inbuilt filter wheel is sweet but the green grass still seems to remain a trace on the khaki side and undersides of sunlit leaves still seem to grey off just a little without the IRND.
For those who might be tempted to follow my foolishness with indwelling Formatt IRND and NC8 filter disks, be aware that the mount has to be shimmed forward to restore infinity focus.
This is likely to cause the pins connecting the autofocus circuits to the EF-Mount to no longer reach far enough to engage. For me it is not an issue because I use dumb lenses.