I am currently in pre-production for a feature, using the Sony Venice 2 and my WCU-4, C-Force Mini RF, C-Force Mini, C-Force Plus, LCube, ERM and OCU-1.

Currently, I have the Mini RF motor connected to the camera with a CAM to RS connector, feeding the LCS with 24v power and allowing remote recording without a tally light on the WCU-4. The lack of a tally light on the handset is less of an annoyance than not being able to supplement power on the opposite end of my LCS system with D-tap power from the on-board 12v battery. When I attempt this, the camera shuts down and I need to reboot after removing all power and the corresponding D-tap to LBUS cable. My guess is that some or all of that 12v power leaks into the 3-pin Fischer on the Mini RF end of the chain back into the camera. The camera shuts down as a result of an overload. Ok, so no additional power for the LCS system, despite it running on only 1A from the 3-pin Fischer with the camera in 12v mode. I can run the camera in 24v mode and receive 2A out of the 3-pin Fischer, however, I'd have to make a "dangerous" 4-pin female XLR to 3-pin male XLR cable.

I have tried the new CMotion CAM to Sony Hirose 8-pin/D-tap, unsuccessfully. This cable plugs into the Venice 2 Hirose remote port (Sony has replaced the Venice 1's 4-pin Hirose with a 2-pin Lemo on the new Venice 2). To use this port, the RM/RCP Paint Control has to be turned on in the Special Configuration menu under Technical in the main menu. However, this resets all camera settings (which will have to be set individually, cannot be done with simply loading a user file) and activating the Paint Control will deactivate the use of False Colour and the loading of LUTS. To make matters worse, it doesn't do what it supposed to do and roll the camera and provide a tally light on my WCU-4. Switching the Paint Control off, doesn't yield the desired result either. This seems like a firmware issue with the Mini RF motor? I also tried with a Hi-5 handset with the same result.

Any comment from Arri would be greatly appreciated.