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Denecke SB-4


Jack Norflus

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5 hours ago, ryanpeds said:

What kind of battery life are you getting? Does the screen turn off after a set amount of time?

I just got it and haven't done any real battery tests.

It's specs are 30 + hours without back light and 15 + with back light constantly on. There is a menu setting that allows you to choose how long the back light stays on after the last key press. You can choose 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 min, 10 min, and always on.

1 hour ago, VAS said:

Can you power the unit through USB port?

Yes

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  • 1 month later...

I just picked one of these up. Seems great so far after 1 day of use however it emits an aubile high frequency sound almost like smpte code. I triedlowering the output level with no change in the sound it emits. I think it is the display as it corresponds with the rolling timcode numbers on the diaplay and the sync-blink of the green led on the front. Anyone else have this on their unit? In reality i suppose it is probably too quiet to pick up from a mic more than a few feet away but it seems weird for pro audio gear designed to be on a quiet set to make noise. Might alo drive an operator nuts if it ends up mounted the camera close to their ear.

 

Thanks

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22 hours ago, millar said:

I just picked one of these up. Seems great so far after 1 day of use however it emits an aubile high frequency sound almost like smpte code. I triedlowering the output level with no change in the sound it emits. I think it is the display as it corresponds with the rolling timcode numbers on the diaplay and the sync-blink of the green led on the front. Anyone else have this on their unit? In reality i suppose it is probably too quiet to pick up from a mic more than a few feet away but it seems weird for pro audio gear designed to be on a quiet set to make noise. Might alo drive an operator nuts if it ends up mounted the camera close to their ear.

I have one and I don't hear any noise.

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I got mine a couple weeks ago. One issue of note is I bought a set of rechargeable EBL AAA's for it and had to pull all the wrappers off of them before I could get them to power the unit.  I do love having rolling TC on the unit's display.  So much easier to check TC now.  

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I assume you mean they can short if the casings touch a each other or another metal object. Hadn't thought of that with the AAAs. I had assumed that the outer casing was isolated from the reactive innards of the battery.  So buyers be aware that some rechargeable batteries don't play well with the SB4 and don't remove wrapping to solve the issue.  That is unless you like playing with fire.

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Oh, I was just checking out some different batteries.  There were 8 in the pack for not very much money.  Figured I'd try them out.  The problem appears to be that the wrapper wraps around the bottom edge of the negative end on the battery and interferes with good contact at negative battery contact on the SB4.  Haven't looked into whether Eneloop batteries will have the same issue.

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Whenever you are buying anything that goes into expensive gear that you count on, never be swayed by  "not that much money"  It WILL eventually catch up with you and end up costing 300X the perceived amount of savings by doing so. This goes for actual gear, cables etc.  There ARE exceptions of course, but if you steer clear of this thought process for the majority of things you buy for this job, you'll be much better off...

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Very rarely is price point my top consideration.  My intent was not to buy the cheapest recheargables I could find but all recheargable AAA are fairly cheap so I could afford to experiment with other brands.  I have Eneloop AA (no AAA), which I'm happy with, and the wrappers on them appear to be adhered to the battery in the same fashion.  The wrapper extends around the bottom of the - terminal.  I'm interested in knowing 2 things.  First off do all SB4s have this issue with rechargeables or is it just mine.  Secondly is it all rechargeables with similar wrapping or just the EBLs.  The ability to use rechargeables is important to me. 

What I like about the SB4.  It's a Denecke and it keeps time very well.  They also have great customer service.  At least 10 hours without re-jamming if needed (I know always re-jam at lunch).  I love having rolling TC on the screen.  It has TC out on both BNC and LEMO.  Great battery life.  It's very small and light so slightly less Cam Op complaining.  Possible firmware updates are user serviceable through USB.

I'm a little ambivalent about the 4-way toggle on the front.  If you don't pull batteries it powers up unintentionally very easily. Also it seems like it could be a weak point in it's construction but time will tell on that front.  Also I don't like the battery door.  It's fiddly. When you slide it closed you're pushing down as well which makes it hard to slide across the battery ends.  I usually end up pushing down on the batteries with one hand and sliding the door closed with the other.  I admit it's a minor gripe but still...don't like it.

Anyways that's my $0.02 worth.

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