I've spent the better part of the last hour trying to connect my UltraSync Blue with my second Fujifilm X-H2S body. The first body connected on the first attempt. The second however required me to try to connect from the UltraSync Blue over and over again until...FINALLY. I have a shoot tomorrow. It'll be a test for how reliable this system is.
Yeah it was definitely disappointing that it didn’t really work smoothly, but encouraging that Fuji is listening nonetheless. Thanks for checking it out!
One of the issues I found was if the camera is paired to your phone, it won't do pairing with the UltraSync Blue, and if it's synced with the UltraSync Blue, it won't sync with your phone. Disabling the phone pairing seemed to make it more reliable with the UltraSync Blue.
As a Nikon shooter that uses the ultra sync blue, it seems Fuji has some more work to do on the firmware side. It does work great when I use it for jobs. I do wish Atomos updates the product to Bluetooth 5.0.
As someone who works dedicated audio on shoots I don’t think Bluetooth is something I’ll be using for sync even with my ultrasyncs. The opportunity for it to go wrong with no fail safe just isn’t good enough. My timecode units need to be able to feed direct into the camera via cable otherwise there is just too much margin for error from my experience. Personally I would love to see more camera companies go down the route of black magic with accepting audio down the minijack input or having a full on dedicated port like on the arri, red and Sony high end cameras. Just my 2 cents, I’m sure for some this feature will be great but personally it makes me nervous 😂
Cool that you figured this out but I've been using three Tentacles on three X-T3s and one on my Mix Pre 3 for ages and it works great. The Tentacle Sync Studio Software is fast and easy, never any issues, drift or problems. Wireless anything and Bluetooth are always a glitchy time suck, plugging into audio is simple and it works. I agree, recording LTC to audio isn't ideal but it works and I don't like Fuji mic pre-amps anyway, it's too noisy for pro use so why not use it for TC?
Yep - I agree. While I wish you could Jam or have a separate TC input, LTC is the best and most reliable option. It's just more friction having more gear, so I was hopeful this would be a solution. Also, using davinci resolve, I'm able to change the metadata without having to use an external software which is nice!
Man! Fuji is trying. I was thinking about using this with a zoom f2 BT to get timecode synced audio from an external mic into a XH2S inside a water housing (not submerged completely, just very wet conditions).
Thanks for this. I'm just a video n00b tho, what is Time Code actually for, when would a videographer need it? Is it a feature that helps when recording audio from two separate devices or cameras? Syncing footage together more easily than studying waveforms or something?
Yep it enables you to sync audio and cameras instantly in post to the exact frame. For example I’ll have 4 audio sources and 4 cameras some times and those can sync perfectly even without a clean scratch audio source or audio at all. Timecode sync tells the camera or audio the exact time and frame that each device is at
what if u try to sync all the cameras with ur phone only? and keep connecting through out the day maybe once every 4 or 5 hours that doesn't have to be at a time anyway. Maybe I'm wrong, but u can try.
@@itsaaronmiller I tried it again(with just phone), it worked perfectly, it even worked after not connecting to the phone for more than 15 days. It was so good that I literally added geotag to all my photos with a gpx file with a 15 days old phone connection. I guess the key is to not remove the battery in between.
@@itsaaronmiller I do only shoot photos, but the timecode should stay the same anyway, unless u r using 00:00:00 on the camera itself. If fuji uses 2 diff time controller then it's just waste of money in my opinion. Also the timecode I'm matching with my gpx file with has milliseconds accuracy and the gpx matches with photos on my phone camera geotag.( Gpx file is from a gps watch and not taking the phone gps)
When I saw this in the firmware release notes, I was sooo excited! Less cables, also use the not-so-bad in-camera audio as backup... The windows things...is pretty annoying, but hey. The pairing, OK, at least that's once. The next thing that threw me off is that if the time code settings are not exactly the same, the camera doesn't sync at all but doesn't indicate it except if you turn on the time code display -- which is somewhat distracting. Then red is apparently ansynced, yellow it has some old TC and white means all ok. I can sync 24 with drop frame with 59 plus drop frame -- but then it is way off but doesn't display an obvious error. I wish Fujifilm would get these things right. There are some things that are genuinely hard to compete on with Sony and the like, e.g. Sensors, AF, ... But why not differentiate itself by providing an open SDK for their cameras? shutter angle? reliable time code?
I've spent the better part of the last hour trying to connect my UltraSync Blue with my second Fujifilm X-H2S body. The first body connected on the first attempt. The second however required me to try to connect from the UltraSync Blue over and over again until...FINALLY. I have a shoot tomorrow. It'll be a test for how reliable this system is.
Thanks for sharing this u bro! Saves me a headache but makes me happy that Fuji tried at all!
Yeah it was definitely disappointing that it didn’t really work smoothly, but encouraging that Fuji is listening nonetheless. Thanks for checking it out!
As someone in the UltraSync ecosystem, this is music to my ears! Thanks for posting... I missed the most recent update.
Can you do a video about the current tentacle sync workflow you are using now?
yeah man I'll see if I can't throw something together for that
I wish fuji would open their Bluetooth connection somehow to incorporate more Bluetooth devices from more 3rd parties .
One of the issues I found was if the camera is paired to your phone, it won't do pairing with the UltraSync Blue, and if it's synced with the UltraSync Blue, it won't sync with your phone. Disabling the phone pairing seemed to make it more reliable with the UltraSync Blue.
As a Nikon shooter that uses the ultra sync blue, it seems Fuji has some more work to do on the firmware side. It does work great when I use it for jobs. I do wish Atomos updates the product to Bluetooth 5.0.
Thanks for this video. I am curious with tentacle sync, are you able to plug the sync E into the USB port or just the audio port of the fuji xh2s?
As someone who works dedicated audio on shoots I don’t think Bluetooth is something I’ll be using for sync even with my ultrasyncs. The opportunity for it to go wrong with no fail safe just isn’t good enough. My timecode units need to be able to feed direct into the camera via cable otherwise there is just too much margin for error from my experience.
Personally I would love to see more camera companies go down the route of black magic with accepting audio down the minijack input or having a full on dedicated port like on the arri, red and Sony high end cameras.
Just my 2 cents, I’m sure for some this feature will be great but personally it makes me nervous 😂
Cool that you figured this out but I've been using three Tentacles on three X-T3s and one on my Mix Pre 3 for ages and it works great. The Tentacle Sync Studio Software is fast and easy, never any issues, drift or problems. Wireless anything and Bluetooth are always a glitchy time suck, plugging into audio is simple and it works. I agree, recording LTC to audio isn't ideal but it works and I don't like Fuji mic pre-amps anyway, it's too noisy for pro use so why not use it for TC?
Yep - I agree. While I wish you could Jam or have a separate TC input, LTC is the best and most reliable option. It's just more friction having more gear, so I was hopeful this would be a solution. Also, using davinci resolve, I'm able to change the metadata without having to use an external software which is nice!
Man! Fuji is trying. I was thinking about using this with a zoom f2 BT to get timecode synced audio from an external mic into a XH2S inside a water housing (not submerged completely, just very wet conditions).
Thanks for this.
I'm just a video n00b tho, what is Time Code actually for, when would a videographer need it? Is it a feature that helps when recording audio from two separate devices or cameras? Syncing footage together more easily than studying waveforms or something?
Yep it enables you to sync audio and cameras instantly in post to the exact frame. For example I’ll have 4 audio sources and 4 cameras some times and those can sync perfectly even without a clean scratch audio source or audio at all. Timecode sync tells the camera or audio the exact time and frame that each device is at
what if u try to sync all the cameras with ur phone only? and keep connecting through out the day maybe once every 4 or 5 hours that doesn't have to be at a time anyway. Maybe I'm wrong, but u can try.
The fuji's won't hold accurate timecode. It just has too much drift without having an accurate clock
@@itsaaronmiller I tried it again(with just phone), it worked perfectly, it even worked after not connecting to the phone for more than 15 days. It was so good that I literally added geotag to all my photos with a gpx file with a 15 days old phone connection.
I guess the key is to not remove the battery in between.
@@bose80085 are you syncing to audio or just basing it off the time of day? Audio drift will happen quickly and isn’t apparent unless syncing to audio
@@itsaaronmiller I do only shoot photos, but the timecode should stay the same anyway, unless u r using 00:00:00 on the camera itself.
If fuji uses 2 diff time controller then it's just waste of money in my opinion.
Also the timecode I'm matching with my gpx file with has milliseconds accuracy and the gpx matches with photos on my phone camera geotag.( Gpx file is from a gps watch and not taking the phone gps)
wow
When I saw this in the firmware release notes, I was sooo excited! Less cables, also use the not-so-bad in-camera audio as backup...
The windows things...is pretty annoying, but hey. The pairing, OK, at least that's once.
The next thing that threw me off is that if the time code settings are not exactly the same, the camera doesn't sync at all but doesn't indicate it except if you turn on the time code display -- which is somewhat distracting. Then red is apparently ansynced, yellow it has some old TC and white means all ok.
I can sync 24 with drop frame with 59 plus drop frame -- but then it is way off but doesn't display an obvious error.
I wish Fujifilm would get these things right. There are some things that are genuinely hard to compete on with Sony and the like, e.g. Sensors, AF, ... But why not differentiate itself by providing an open SDK for their cameras? shutter angle? reliable time code?