Mike Kujbida

I haven't seen Dan Gibson's name mentioned. He was a Canadian photographer, cinematographer and sound recordist. He invented his own parabolic mic for nature recording and produced over 150 films/videos about nature and specifically its sounds.

Tyler has helped me out a lot over the past few years with all kinds of great advice and service. Good luck in your future endeavors!

Ty, I have two Tascam DR-70Ds and other than the fact that battery life is not that good, I'm very happy with them. They're less than half the cost of the Edirol that your friend is looking at. No TC but no noticeable drift either. I used it as an audio backup for convocation ceremonies last year and there was no drift after an almost 2 hr. ceremony.

Here are two possible links for you.

+1 to this suggestion. I've had two go bad over the past few years. Replaced them each time and everything is back to normal.

Tom, thanks for the clarification. I was surprised when they told me what they had to do and your explanation makes sense. I remain a happy DR-70D owner and have told others about how good it is.

Time to put this thread to rest. Thanks to the good folks at Trew Audio Toronto, I finally got my faulty recorders back - kinda When they called Tascam and described the problem to them, they were told to destroy the units and that new ones would be shipped to replace them. No explanation given so I can only assume that there was a manufacturing defect.

For all you Mac users, I just got this from iZotope. El Capitan Support Now Available http://bit.ly/1XeV3Dq

Christian, thanks for the idea. I'll definitely look into this as the Tascam eats batteries like crazy. I get a bit over 2 hrs. record time with one COS-11D plugged into it I have the AC adapter but it is a bit clumsy being tied to a long cable.

Bash, all I have are rechargeables and if I put in a just charged set into the defective units, the meter is at the bottom of the scale. Tom, the batteries slide in and out very easily so that's not an issue with me. The units have been sent back to Trew and I'm hoping that they'll tell me what the cure was when they figure it out.

My second unit acted up on a shoot yesterday (exact same symptoms even though it worked fine on a shoot earlier the same day) so back to the factory they both go. Tyler from Trew Toronto has been very supportive throughout this ordeal.

Olle, sorry for neglecting to mention it but that was the one of the first things I checked and it was set to NiMH. The battery indicator on the defective unit is barely off the bottom while the same set of batteries in the good unit is at the top of the scale.

This is a fairly new Tascam (purchased within the past year). I was on a shoot recently and every set of freshly charged batteries (Imedion Powerex 2400 ma) I put into it were supposedly low. I tested them in another DR-70D I had and they were fine. I went through the manual but it wasn't much help. I've been in contact with my dealer (Tyler Wade from Trew Audio Toronto) and tried his suggestions (clean the contacts and update the firmware) and still no success. Before I send it back for repair, has anyone had this problem and what was the solution? Thanks.

I'm in Windsor, Ontario (across the river from Detroit) and don't think there are but PM user ShubiSnax as he lives in the Detroit area and would know better than me. Mike

This forum is great!! Thanks to everyone for the replies, especially Vasileios and Constantin for the European side of things. The producer who asked the question hasn't been back on the video forum lately but I've been posting the information from here in the hopes that she'll eventually see it. Mike

UPS has always been a big rip off if you buy something from another country. I once got a $40 order from Markertek and UPS hit me with an additional $30 "brokerage" charge to ship to Canada. Now I only use FedEx as they don't add these charges - or buy in Canada if I can find the product for a fair price. Vasileios, can you buy a product such as these headphones and not get hit with all kinds of extra charges such as these? Mike

What's not to like are the extra charges when shipping to a different country. I checked at B&H and the headphones are $84.95, shipping is $75.60 and tax and duty is $70.82 for a grand total of $231.37. Can you say ouch Mike

Thanks very much Engin. I posted your question on the forum and will let you know what she says. Mike

In conversation with a video producer on another forum, she's interested in buying the Sony 7506 headphones but is not sure where to go to buy them as she lives in Cyprus and vendors are few and far between Ideally it would be a somewhat local place to avoid horrendous shipping charges. All replies gratefully appreciated. Mike

I came across these on a woodworking site I buy equipment from. The price is right (AAA & AA - $2.95 and $3.50 for 9V.) so I thought some of you might be interested. http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=72292&cat=51&ap=1

I'm a staff producer for the local community college in Windsor, know most of the local production companies and will say that there is very little spillover from Detroit. As Flipstar says, their work is primarily corporate videos and commercial work.

From the PortaBrace web site: Now and then, people ask us for advice on cleaning Porta-Brace cases. Since we recondition older cases, we have accumulated quite a bit of experience on this subject, so we thought we would pass along to you what we have learned. First, a word on what not to do: don't try to clean your case in a washing machine. It won't hurt the materials but it will beat up the case as a whole and distort its shape. Dry cleaning is also out of the question. In fact, there is no need for a machine to clean a Cordura® case. For removing accumulated dust and grit, use a regular vacuum cleaner with the window-blind attachment. It will brighten things up. We also recommend a brass bristle brush—the kind sold in super markets for scrubbing pots and pans. Cordura® is tough. A vigorous brass-bristle brushing won't hurt it. For dirt that simply will not brush off, we recommend upholstery cleaner which can be bought at most auto supply stores. Use it according to the manufacturer's instructions. Any stains that the upholstery cleaner won't remove—such as spots of tar, etc.— try removing with lacquer thinner. Dab it on with any piece of absorbent cloth or cotton and then wipe it off. Lacquer thinner will not harm Cordura nylon or interior foam padding, but it should not be used on vinyl, so keep it away from clear vinyl windows the white balance cards. To clean vinyl windows and white balance cards, use either soap and warm water or the kind of hand cleaner that you can buy in auto supply stores—the kind without grit. Gritty cleaner will scratch vinyl and should certainly be avoided in cleaning clear windows. "Novus" Plastic Polish will do the job for cleaning plastics and clear vinyl and it's available at most art supply stores. However, cleaning the removable white balance cards with a bar of (gritty) Lava soap will give them a "matte finish" that may be preferred. Once your case is clean, any surface wicking of moisture can be significantly prevented with a water repellent product like Scotchgard (made by 3-M and widely available). However, this will not make the case much more waterproof than it already is, since the real waterproofing is the urethane coating on the inside of the Cordura®. The only thing that you might do, if you are a stickler for waterproofing, is to treat the seams with Seam Seal (the gooey stuff that comes in a tube, sold by those who sell tents and rain gear). The cases obviously are not designed to be immersed in a river, but they are designed to shed rain effectively without further treatment—even when dirty. In fact, if you like your case just the way it is, proudly wearing the dust and stains of long and faithful service, there’s no reason to think about cleaning it at all. You can save yourself the cost of a brass bristle brush and a can of upholstery cleaner-carry on.

From the extensive description at http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/ca/products/blackmagicursa For audio, there are 2 professional XLR connections with 48v phantom power so you can use the audio industry’s best quality microphones.

The only decent article I could find online was this one. http://www.tvtechnology.com/channels/0081/nbc-expands-olympics-multiplatform-coverage/223514 Mike