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First time buying lectrosonics


swaneon

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They’re not my favorites. They work fine and have some advantages like the menu navigation and wideband tuning. I think they’re overly large and chunky and I dislike the battery door which sounds trivial but when you use it every day…
 

Personally, I think you should buy a couple of used SMs (SM, SMa, or SMv) and either 411as or an SRb or SRc. Then you’ll really know what Lectro is all about. 

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6 hours ago, Derek H said:

Personally, I think you should buy a couple of used SMs (SM, SMa, or SMv) and either 411as or an SRb or SRc. Then you’ll really know what Lectro is all about. 

This.

 

Lectrosonics have never failed me in the field due to malfunctioning units; whenever there's been a problem it was operator error. I remember there was a video where they shot an SMV out of a potato cannon into a wall (?) and it held up. 
I've repaired an SQMV in the field in less than 15 minutes (a broken display that time), and countless times been impressed with how much abuse they can take. 

 

Once every year, except these last two years because of covid of course, I've used SMQV and 411 to make a radio show where the show hosts go on a wonky self made raft into a stream. They wear wet suits with the transmitters on their arms (using one of those arm bands you put your phone in when running) inside a loksak. The receivers go in a waterproof bag inside a pelicase, just next to the broadcast transciever (basically a huge cell phone with 5 individual 4G transceivers). The pelicase goes in the raft.

So they're pretty close to the receivers, but we've had the case go in the water more than once, and still not a single drop out of any kind. So you can't go wrong with Lectro. 

That said, I have very limited experience with the L series. But you get what you pay for, I guess. A used lectro will be great for a LONG time. 

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7 minutes ago, Derek H said:

I like SMVs the best. Or SMa either one is fine. 
 

SMQV is too big for me but if you’re going for long battery life it can’t be beat. 

SMV for most use cases, SMQV for those "Oh man I can't tolerate a battery failing, this is really really important" and/or "I've got to roll for a very, very long time on this one".

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I've never bought any of the lower-end Lectro stuff.  The L series were/are big and I never really liked the design.  All of my transmitters are "old school" 400 series or SMQV's and SMDWB's.  If you're going used, I'd look for a UM400a(if $ is really tight) or SMQV.  Yeah, they're only single block units, but the SMQV's can run at (up to) 250mW, if you need it.  And the nice thing I like about the old 400 series, the physical power switch.

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33 minutes ago, RunAndGun said:

I've never bought any of the lower-end Lectro stuff.  The L series were/are big and I never really liked the design.  All of my transmitters are "old school" 400 series or SMQV's and SMDWB's.  If you're going used, I'd look for a UM400a(if $ is really tight) or SMQV.  Yeah, they're only single block units, but the SMQV's can run at (up to) 250mW, if you need it.  And the nice thing I like about the old 400 series, the physical power switch.

Absolutely. And note, the single band stuff is still compatible with the wideband receivers!

 

No one has seemed to mention the new digital transmitters as an option by the way. I don't have any first hand experience.

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The 400a is still a great transmitter and very reliable.  Kind of big for drama work now--you may get some looks from talent used to newer smaller sleeker TX, but they still work great.  But...no sexy remote features...  One of the best deals going from Lectro were the LMa TX.  Just as chunky as the 400a and without several features of same, they worked pretty much as well as those for me at a far lower price.

 

 

 

 

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On 10/11/2021 at 7:07 PM, BAB414 said:

Absolutely. And note, the single band stuff is still compatible with the wideband receivers!

 

No one has seemed to mention the new digital transmitters as an option by the way. I don't have any first hand experience.

Yep.  I'm using my SMQV's with the 822 receiver, while I "migrate" to 'full digital'.  I had fully intended to buy a set of DBSMD's this month and probably a set of DPR's by the end of the year to make a complete 'fully digital' set, but I just bought a new lens, so my plans may have changed.

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I for one have been having lots of troubles with my SRc and SSMs and have no idea why.

Store where I bought it helped me troubleshoot, suggested the sna600a, so I got two and it didn't help.

Settings are all correct (they checked). Smart tuning doesn't help, sometimes I get disturbances at 3m.

Ridiculous. My G4 sadly have almost as much range, but have less disturbances at close range.

 

Not sure I can recommend lectro yet... something seems very wrong with my system, or maybe its the SSM that apparently nobody uses?

 

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted!

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4 minutes ago, Spin360 said:

I for one have been having lots of troubles with my SRc and SSMs and have no idea why.

Store where I bought it helped me troubleshoot, suggested the sna600a, so I got two and it didn't help.

Settings are all correct (they checked). Smart tuning doesn't help, sometimes I get disturbances at 3m.

Ridiculous. My G4 sadly have almost as much range, but have less disturbances at close range.

 

Not sure I can recommend lectro yet... something seems very wrong with my system, or maybe its the SSM that apparently nobody uses?

 

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted!

It sounds as if something in your equipment setup or location is interfering with the RF signal. Take the SRc and the SSM, by themselves, to a different location and see if they then act normally. And by themselves, I mean the SSM with just a lavaliere and the SRc with nothing hooked up to it but power. If you have to have a mixer to listen to the SRc, use a long cable (10 foot+) to get the mixer/recorder away from the SRc. By a different location, I mean a quarter mile away from any camera gear, lighting gear, remote control gear or other electrical devices. If the units work properly in a sanatized environment, you then start adding stuff to find the culprit.

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6 hours ago, Spin360 said:

I for one have been having lots of troubles with my SRc and SSMs and have no idea why.

Store where I bought it helped me troubleshoot, suggested the sna600a, so I got two and it didn't help.

Settings are all correct (they checked). Smart tuning doesn't help, sometimes I get disturbances at 3m.

Ridiculous. My G4 sadly have almost as much range, but have less disturbances at close range.

 

Not sure I can recommend lectro yet... something seems very wrong with my system, or maybe its the SSM that apparently nobody uses?

 

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted!

What mixer/recorder are you using? 
 

is the SRC in a SL6 or SL2? 
 

If using SD 8 series, make sure the filtering is not set to wideband.


Try it on 580 - 700MHz. 

 

Regards

Peter 

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On 10/14/2021 at 4:17 PM, LarryF said:

It sounds as if something in your equipment setup or location is interfering with the RF signal. Take the SRc and the SSM, by themselves, to a different location and see if they then act normally. And by themselves, I mean the SSM with just a lavaliere and the SRc with nothing hooked up to it but power. If you have to have a mixer to listen to the SRc, use a long cable (10 foot+) to get the mixer/recorder away from the SRc. By a different location, I mean a quarter mile away from any camera gear, lighting gear, remote control gear or other electrical devices. If the units work properly in a sanatized environment, you then start adding stuff to find the culprit.

I'll definitely try that, I'm shooting abroad right now with company's equipment, but I'll have to figure out how to separate these things. Or how to monitor the SRc.

 

20 hours ago, Peter Mega said:

What mixer/recorder are you using? 
 

is the SRC in a SL6 or SL2? 
 

If using SD 8 series, make sure the filtering is not set to wideband.


Try it on 580 - 700MHz. 

 

Regards

Peter 

I'm using a Mixpre 10T II in an Orca Bag, which technically has an rf insulated divider.

I'm on Block A1.

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10 minutes ago, BAB414 said:

If you have a transmitter in the bag too close to your receiving antennas, you're gonna have a bad time.

Not the case. I do have transmitters, but I can guarantee that's not the problem, because they weren't in use when I had issues. Didn't even have batteries.

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Spin - Early versions of SRC had some problems with out of band RFI, like walkies. After I sent mine back to the mothership for some surgery, they have been solid ever since. Contact Lectro service department, they can check the serial number to see if your unit needs an update.

 

- Do you scan for clear frequencies and coordinate with something like FreqFinder?

 

 

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