DanieldH

We've benn using a hollow foam (originally with some generic foam from dynamic mics) glued to a printed ferrule. Now we use the Bubblebee foam for medium movement that is aparrently more effective (but not hollow).

Yes, thnx, I already edited my post. The German Referenzhandbuch v1.32 p28 only mentions on the option for switching it on and the warning: "Manche Kondensatormikrofone funktionieren möglicherweise nicht mit einer Phantomspannung von 24 Volt. " meaning "Some Mics may not work with 24V phantom power."

So, as I understand from the tech specs and the chapter about phantom power, this tascam X8 thing delivers 24V phantom power only. No wonder your professional mics arent hot enough. One shall be advised to be suspicious if a prosumer brand advertises phantom power without mentioning "48V". If some phantom-passthrough-fethead-cloudlifter-device works at all at 24V it will surely amplify the higher self noise of your professional condenser too. Get some external phantom box first. E.g. Ambient UMP or Xvive P1 to mention some different price ranges. Edit: I double checked, it does mention 48V. It might still be worth making sure that it is set to the right voltage.

They are not, and if, not yet pro level.

The Cosi I have ist the standard one that is pictured everywhere. I guess from your upper quote Cinela calls that medium pile length. I called it felty because it is a bit felty out of the factory, compared to longer fur. The only one with longer fur I've ever seen was on Monday at my dealer when I checked the MKH50 holder. Maybe this is a new thing, demo unit or just a different "batch". The Cosi is very nice on the boom for before mentioned reasons. As THE standard outdoor tool it is not effective enough but only in mildly windy situations, don't quote me in Bft, IIRC the lab video demonstrates it. It is more a convienience alternative to a bigger WS. I mean the exact same thing as Cinela with "decent wind protection". Just less public relations speak. It is limited. IMHO Cinela makes superior products to Rycote (to a higher price). Get the Piani 1st, ideally with the raincover and Bubblebee fur, so you have the best there is against the elements. get a Cosi, when you saved more money to have a more sleak option. I rarely use a cardioid supercardioid outdoors and I don't know if you mainly record sound for video and a camera is around.

There are at least 3 types of outer surfaces for the Cosi. Fabric, short felty fur and medium long fur. This may not be advertised on the website, but fabric and felty are mentioned in the video. I have the felty for an 8060, a miniCMIT and in the future possibly a MKH50. It is an excellent tool for booming if low winds allow it (weight, shadow profile, handling noise). I'd doubt that the medium fur version allows significantly more wind. If there is even medium wind you'd want a piani or even something bigger. Piani has a good raincover. Bubblebee also offers a fur for the Piani (and Rycote modular WS 3/4) that appears to be more wind effective than any Cinela fur and is easier to apply/remove. If you only intend to use it on tripod-like situations (that is my assuption) when you don't need a high quality suspension system a Rycote modular WS or something cheap and similar in size) plus optionally a Bubblebee jacket would cost significantly less (even though I have a lot more sympathy for Cinela than for Rycote).

Vac cleaners use high power slip rings and are kind of crude for a mic signal and difficult to isolate from EMI. Their systems are quite big, for longer and thicker cables. Some even only have 2 "channels". The better ones come with constant torque springs rather than power springs. Over all, they are not made to be taken apart and I have given up attempts to harvest them from old units before. A DYH-1703 may have the right dimension, though also not small and the breaking system would probably need some modification to be quite. I do not have or have used one. I do use a DYH-1816 without the break on the boom but 3m max is probably too less for a bag to boom scenario.

Where is the boom resting on? Or what?

What is going on in the first photo? Found on Ambients website

Is that actually an issue in the 1.8m-2.7m range with e.g. a Piani as mentioned? I hardly have the need of such a pole outdoors. I see the disadvantage over more sections in pre operation handling and in overall weight (and rather slight, when fully expanded) balance advantage vs transport and occasional horizontal storage on a sound bag.

Great work! Thank you for sharing.

I suppose, this would have an influence on the 788t used market. Though I do not operate a 788t, but did many years, I would prefer to see a cabled android device, RaspberryPi with touchscreen or similar.

Bavaria is not in France.

The DYH re-tractor is far from ideal. It has a power spring, but a constant force/torque spring would be far more feasible. Also, it comes with a locking mechanism that is useless and leaves behind some dead air in the enclosure. The whole thing is not very service friendly and for the full 3m expansion slightly smaller than one would wish. I have not found a material / construction platform to develop something optimised for our needs from scratch. In the end, it would most likely be some router/mill processed aluminum alloy, like camera cages or cheeseplates. But prototyping with it is very expensive and resins as tough as they are advertised have viscose properties under permanent tension. I might end up with plywood or end up working with what is there. The last image shows the smallest of the "washers" in the upper segment of the Quickpole.

The black holder is the current version, the blue greyish a previous version on my 2nd / fallback boom.