You’ve invested a lot of time and money in your camera set-up. Here’s how to look after it to the best of your ability (and when to talk to the experts).
In the long list of things you can spend money on, the chances are that your kit is amongst one of the biggest investments you’ve ever made. You will probably spend more on a house at some point, that’s true, but it’s very easy to turn up at a job with gear that costs as much as the average family car.
And a car is a good thing to compare your kit to too as, just like a car, it needs servicing and maintenance to keep it operating in its best condition.
We talked to the ProRepairs team at CVP about best practices for maintaining and getting the most out of your gear, before delving into a bit more detail on individual bits of equipment. So, let’s start with a snapshot of their top six tips:
Last thing you want when you’ve got a new job is to find out your kit is not working on the morning of a shoot. Here’s what to do to make sure your kit always works when you do..
You should check firmware is up to date every three months or so, but do proceed with a little bit of caution here as there is plenty that can go wrong with the update process. Interruptions to the power supply, for instance (a power outage or not enough charge left in the battery) can lead to a failed update, and a failed update usually results in the unfortunate situation of a bricked camera. In the same spirit, make sure you are using known and quality media to initialise any update for the same reasons.
CVP offers a firmware update service for a fixed £80 charge that operates as an insurance policy against failure. In other words, if something goes wrong anywhere along the line, they will fix it. And the fact that it’s a popular service tells you everything you need to know. By way of an illustration, if you have a failure on a Sony FS5 update the chances are that you will need a new board — and they cost around £2500.
As for lenses, remember a case does not make them indestructible. Even cocooned in a Padi case, they're still sensitive bits of equipment. and while the suspension in the cases will protect the externals if they get knocked, the internals are another matter entirely. You never know what damage has been done by impact shock and whether it has caused the optics to misalign. If a lens has been dropped in any way, it’s best to have it looked at.
But, don't drop them in the first place. Or get them wet. But you knew that.
Discharge batteries down to 30% for storage, especially if you’re not going to be working for a while due to holidays/pandemics — around three months. If you leave them either charged or discharged, you can end up with degradation of the cells. And if you allow them to discharge beyond what’s known as the cliff edge, then you’re at the point of no return and you can’t recover that battery. Check them monthly as in the tips above and store them in a nice, clean, and moisture-free environment as well.
Tripods are an area where a bit of routine self-maintenance can pay off in the long run. Check that the legs are fine and have no cracking by gently rubbing your hands up and down the shaft to make sure they’re still good, and give them a squeeze as well to make sure the integrity of the tube is still intact. To replicate the payload, lean down carefully on each leg to make sure that it holds. You can also load the head up to its maximum payload with weights and check it has its full range of smooth movement with no bumps or grinds.
In fact, that goes for any mechanical device with moving parts such as tracks, rails, and so on. Simply run them through their operational movements now and then with a payload that replicates your working set-up attached to check they haven’t got any nasty nicks or developed problems with worn bearings.
Finally, monitors. Check these yearly or even every six months if their use is critical. Unless you have invested in your own calibration probes, that means you will have to take them to a dedicated facility. Somewhere like CVP is going to take a couple of hours to make sure that white is white to potentially D65 (which is what most monitors are set to), ensure that the colours that are reproduced are correct and accurate, that uniformity is good, and that the contrast ratio is being resolved correctly. They will also check the inputs, because so many people only ever use one input and have no idea whether the others work or not.
And, as with everything else we've talked about here, finding out that the input you really need doesn’t work when you’re on set is definitely not the way you want to go about it.
Looking after your kit might seem like a tiresome chore, especially at the end of a hard day’s shoot, but when it comes down to it, it’s your money and your time you’re saving in the long run. Think of it as investing in the future of your business and your career. And, if you come across something that you can’t solve yourself, the CVP Pro Repairs team is on hand to help you out with information or advice. Contact them on 020 8380 7401 or email pro.repairs@cvp.com.