LANC cable
 

I'm about to purchase a jib for my XL-1 and I need at least a 10 foot extension for my LANC cable from my ZR-1000 zoom controller. Does anyone know where I can buy such a thing?

They look suspiciously like 1/8" stereo cables, but there's probably some impedence change or something that makes it specialized. Varizoom makes a 10 foot cable that runs about $30. Check with your favorite forum sponsor to get one.

www.zotzdigital.com
www.zgc.com

FYI, the standard LANC connector is 2.5mm (sub-mini) cable, stereo.

The 1/8" is really 3.5mm, not the same size.

Going back a number of years (to around 1990 or earlier) the alternate LANC connector was a 5-pin mini-DIN connector.

I went to Radio Shack and bought a 2.5 mm to 1/8" converter (one for each end) and a standard 1/8" extension cable. It works like a charm. Just be sure they are ALL stereo!

1 2.5mm Male to 1/8" Female adapter
1 2.5mm Female to 1/8" Male adapter
1 1/8" Male to 1/8" Female extension wire (whatever length you desire)

"...there's probably some impedence change or something that makes it specialized."

Nope! Just standard stereo micro plugs! And LANC signals propagate just fine over at least 50' of cable--maybe more! You can buy 25' and 50' LANC cables from http://www.studio1productions.com. A 25 foot cable has the correct micro jacks at both ends and will set you down $17.95 plus $5 shipping (last I checked).

"...there's probably some impedence change or something that makes it specialized."

The LANC signal is a 9600 bps serial data signal. The LANC cable is 3-wire, one is ground, one is data, the other is 5 VDC power.

The main down side to using adaptes is that you have more components and connections to lose or fail and a longer thing hangng out of the LANC connector at the camcorder body. Being so tiny, the LANC connector is not especially robust.

<<<-- Originally posted by Edward Troxel : I went to Radio Shack and bought a 2.5 mm to 1/8" converter (one for each end) and a standard 1/8" extension cable. It works like a charm. Just be sure they are ALL stereo!

1 2.5mm Male to 1/8" Female adapter
1 2.5mm Female to 1/8" Male adapter
1 1/8" Male to 1/8" Female extension wire (whatever length you desire) -->>>

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I needed a 20-foot LANC extension for my XL-1S mounted on a Cobra Crane II, so I tried the "Radio Shack" route.

To make a long story short, it didn't work, and I'm not sure why. My camera does not respond to any of my Varizoom controller's commands when the homemade LANC extension is connected.

Anyone have any ideas?

My extension is only about 8 feet and it works GREAT with the Canon zoom controller. It could be that there is a distance limit seeing how they are non-powered units. We did not need one on our Verizoom controller as it already had a longer wire sufficient for our needs.

One other IMPORTANT factor to note (which I did not mention previously) is that ALL of the connections MUST be stereo! So, here is the revised list:

1 2.5mm Stereo Male to 1/8" Stereo Female adapter
1 2.5mm Stereo Female to 1/8" Stereo Male adapter
1 1/8" Stereo Male to 1/8" Stereo Female extension wire

Were all of your connectors stereo?

Edward,

Yes -- the cable and the adapters on each end are stereo. I'll try a shorter cable and see if that does it. Perhaps there's an attenuation problem over the 20-foot length of extension (plus the five feet of cable that's already attached to the zoom controller.)

Thanks for your input! I'll post the results here in the next day or two.

Cheers,
Buck

Well, I did some troubleshooting, and here's what the problem was: It was a defective cable!

I thought I was going crazy -- I had the right parts, and everything was connected correctly, but it simply would not work. When I substituted some different, shorter stereo cables, it worked, so I initially thought it might be related to the length. However, since it worked at 8 feet, then at 12, I couldn't understand why 16 wouldn't work, too.

Lo and behold, Radio Shack's brand-new, fresh-out-of-bag cable was the problem. A new one cured the problem, and now my "homebrew" LANC extension works great at amazing lengths. I've tested it to 40 feet myself...

I guess the lesson learned is: Never assume that a brand-new electronic device or product will work.

:-)

Glad to hear it works for you as well as it does for us. Definitely a LOT cheaper than buying an extension cable and more flexible - you can make it ANY length you want - and vary it per job!