Length Limit for LANC?
 

Does anybody know what the length limitation is for a LANC cable? I have a need to control cameras from a long way away (say, up to 300 feet).

I've found threads where it has been done for up to 50' away, but I need to be a long way away from this...

All help appreciated...

jc

Hi John - not sure what the limitation is for the cable length, but should it turn out to be too short for you, have you considered a remote servo set up. We used to control a small video camera in a large (10' wing span) model aircraft using this method - a mate of mine is really into stills and video work using some pretty niffty set ups on a helicopter with ground monitoring - if you want his email address I can give that to you to see if he can recommend a set up for you - that is if you can't find a better way to do this.

Regards: Stu...
www.studioscotland.co.uk

John,

I've run my GL2 LANC out over 100 ft using plain 4 conductor phone wire. Worked fine. Don't know what the limt is.

In theory the max distance is only about 15 feet but it obviously works much farther than that. If you were to run a shielded cable (2 conductor with a ground shield) you might be able to make 300ft. The risk is twofold however.

First, any noise (transformer, lights, sound system) could bonk your control and the camera will stop responding.

Second, if you use a small guage wire (24ga or so) the voltage drop over the wire will be enough that the lanc controller won't work (lanc supplies 5.9v over the cable to run the controller). You could potentially get around that by supplying 6vdc at the controller.
Phil
www.grizzlypro.com