Firewire length with slr/c

[FrankWeber]

Greetings,
I am wondering what is the longest length of firewire cable without using a repeater. One company makes a 10 m cable ( 30 ft). That would save me on rolling around the computer.
Thank you

[BobSmith]

I've been usine a ten meter cable with my 14nx for a couple of years now. I have many many frames of reliable tethered shooting with such a setup. I can't imagine that a SLR/c would be any different.

Bob Smith

[FrankWeber]

Thanks for the info Bob. Was the connection straight or was it a right angle connection? I have been using a right angle connection on my dcs560 and it is great. It doesn't pull out or get caught.

[Paul_Kluber]

Hello:

On an irregular basis, I have run into my camera manager locking up while using the 10 meter fire wire cable. As I recall, the cable is a Granite type product. In talking with Kodak recently, they seem to feel it is the fire wire cable that is causing the program to lock up. They said that, during the research for the cameras, they were only able to economically produce the 5 meter cable capable of running the signal smoothly all the time. Kodak went on to say that, even though Granite is a fine cable, it is not to the standards they discovered were necessary to transmit the signals without failure. They determined the cost for building a 10 meter cable was very prohibitive and stopped at the 5 meter one they sell. Since switching back to the 5 meter cable, I haven't had a problem.

Kodak also said that putting repeaters into the system is just helping their profit margins. Since, eventually, you will be sending in the camera into Kodak for internal repairs. It seems that the camera, over a period of time, does not like the voltages the repeater generates.

Paul

[BobSmith]

[ QUOTE ]
Was the connection straight or was it a right angle connection?

[/ QUOTE ]
I have straight connectors but I've seen similar cables with angle connectors. That would probably be preferable but there's a number of ways to rig strain releif on any of the connectors to that you have fewer problems with cables coming loose during use.

Prior to getting the cables I have now, I always used shorter cables with a repeater. I'd done this for a number of years with first a Kodak 330 and then a 760. I used the 14n that way for a while. Until one day was jerking the cable around the studio as I always do and the repeater box took a hard jolt on the concrete floor. The repeater I was using had a translucent case. I happened to be watching it when this happend and noticed a visible arc in the box as it hit the concrete floor. It didn't cause any damage to the camera but it fried the firewire card on the computer. I swore off repeaters at that point. The single cable I've been using now for at least a couplel of years is easily the most convenient and reliable tethered connection of any I've used.

Bob Smith

[Ian_D_Griffiths]

Hi,

When we do Santas Grotto we use a 10m and a 5m cable using a Belkin 4 port firewire hub and have had no problems at all. The Belkin is powered and appears to 'boost' the signal.

I did have a 15m cable made by Videk but it didn't work neither did using a straight through connector to join the two cables.

Hope that helps.

[FrankWeber]

My 10m cable is on the way. I purchased it from Firewire depot . Nice people. I will keep you posted .
http://fwdepot.com/thestore/default.php/cPath/2_97