Chapter 10: Support
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Phantom Flex4K Manual
basic troubleshooting
This is most likely caused by dust particles stuck on
the sensor or OLPF (optical low pass filter) surface. The
best way to check is to remove the lens and look at the
glass surface with a bright light source. Vision Research
recommends not to use canned air or cotton swabs to
clean the sensor surface. It is safer to use a manual
bulb-style air blower and/or sensor cleaning brush for
removing loose dust particles.
Additional tips for cleaning sensors can be found in the
maintenance section of this manual.
The camera might be set to R/S mode (direct recording
to CineMag), which will cause the camera to reduce the
maximum frame rate.
Check the video output format. Most Sony viewfinders
will only work with 1080i & 1080psf, not with any 720p
formats.
If the image is non-responsive and scrambled, the camera
may be set to an external sync without a sync source
connected. In the FPS menu on the side of the camera,
check the Sync to ensure that ‘Internal’ is selected.
If the camera is stuck in an unusual state it may be useful
to restore the camera’s factory defaults. This returns the
capture parameters, image processing, video modes, and
image calibration back to the original settings.
To do this, navigate to the Camera menu and select
‘Factory defaults’ / ‘OK’. It will take approximately 30
seconds for the camera to return to an operational state.
There are fixed black
spots on the image,
particularly at
small apertures.
I cannot set the maximum
frame rate I’d expect to
have at this resolution.
There is no image in a Sony
HDVF viewfinder
The live images look
scrambled and the frame
rate can’t be set
Restoring the factory
defaults
How does the Flex4K
work with SMPTE
timecode?
timecode
All Phantom cameras use IRIG-B timecode internally,
which is a military standard that provides timestamps on a
sub-microsecond level. In addition to IRIG, the Flex4K can
accept and also output SMPTE timecode.
The implementation of SMPTE tries to balance high-
speed characteristics of Phantom cameras with “normal”
timecode for standard frame rate recording.
When capturing at standard frame rates (up to 30 fps)
the camera can be synchronized with a SMPTE source
connected to the timecode in port. The camera can also
be set to output SMPTE timecode.
When used at high frame rates the camera will embed
SMPTE over the video playback. The Cine Raw files can
also be processed with SMPTE being embedded in the
converted files.
At high speeds, the SMPTE timecode output is calculated
based on an arbitrary timecode being applied starting with
the trigger frame (frame #0).
The camera will always display IRIG timecode on the
camera’s screen and the monitor display. However, the live
video and video playback will embed SMPTE over the SDI
feed when available.
