25 Metre firewire!

Alex Maxim · November 10, 2009, 05:40:37 AM

Quote from: robertpoll on November 09, 2009, 07:26:50 AM
Has anyone tried this..

http://www.kenable.co.uk/product_info.php?referer=froogle&products_id=1002

Sounds too good to be true, and probably is, but for a tenner it's worth a shot..

I wish there were reviews on it. Too cheap to be true. I wonder if has any wires inside for this price

robertpoll · November 10, 2009, 07:43:43 AM

It looks like Lindy do one that's very similar if not identical for £25...

http://www.lindy.co.uk/firewire-extension-cable/32908.html

...rob

Alex Maxim · November 10, 2009, 08:30:50 AM

Quote from: robertpoll on November 10, 2009, 07:43:43 AM
It looks like Lindy do one that's very similar if not identical for £25...

Has anyone had any experience with them? Are they sold in US or Canada?

Alex Maxim · November 10, 2009, 08:35:02 AM

I've found one like this, but for $68

http://www.cablek.com/catalog/product_info.php?&products_id=3922&Cablek=23dde1a7d82ac565b69ed12517743c84

And this one has reviews:
http://sewelldirect.com/firewireextension.asp

Might be worth trying... But I still doubt it will work with a Hasselblad.

Alex

robertpoll · November 10, 2009, 11:25:27 PM

I've ordered one so will let you know how it goes.

...rob

robertpoll · November 14, 2009, 01:44:14 AM

Re: the £15 firewire extension cable - http://www.kenable.co.uk/product_info.php?referer=froogle&products_id=1002

Much to my surprise, it works. I haven't given it a full day in the studio yet, but it seems to handle connect/disconnect and bursts of shots with no problem.

The part with the firewire socket is a bit flimsy - if you stood on it it would break. It's a pity that that part's not a bit more robust otherwise it would be perfect. I'm sure you could get some kind of a box to put around it though, or just tape it up somewhere off from the floor.

Inside it has a little circuit board with some convincing looking bits and pieces so it's definitely an active rather than passive device.

I've tried it with:

PC desktop - dell 9200. Not sure who the make of the firewire card is and there's nothing else plugged into the card (I've found that if I have disks plugged into it they disconnect when I plug in the camera even without the extension).

15" MBP (the old one) on battery and mains, again with nothing else plugged in to the FW (or USB actually).

The extension is FW400, so I'm using a 5m FW400->800 cable to connect to the extension. Not sure of the make but I got it from the Pro Centre.

...rob

Alex Maxim · November 14, 2009, 04:26:05 AM

Hi Rob, thank you for the review! Glad to hear it works.

Alex

Mats E · November 23, 2009, 04:38:12 PM

I have now successfully been able to connect my Dell XPS M1210 laptop using a PC-Exress card with 2 x 4.5 meters FW to the camera. The only general issue, I have even when just using a short FW cable, is to get the CF card recognized by Phocus. Normally, Phocus finds the camera immediatelly without thinking in what sequence you have to connect cables and turn on camera/load Phocus. But to recognize the CF, it is much harder.

To get it work last time, I had Phocus up running, camera on and then finally connect the FW to the camera and immediately the CF was there! Anybody else having similar problems with Mac and/or PC?

Mats