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Focus Motor / UltiBox Performance Degraded by High Humidity

CONFIRMED ALL RIGS

Summary

In very high humidity environments (tropical shoots, monsoon season) UltiBox performance degrades — focus motors become sluggish, intermittent, or unresponsive. Lining the inside of the UltiBox with desiccant packets and storing the spare in a sealed dry box significantly reduces recurrence. This was confirmed by a rental house that regularly shoots in Vietnam.

Symptoms

  • Focus motor response becomes slow or intermittent
  • Issue appears on humid days or in humid locations
  • Swapping focus motor or UltiBox temporarily helps but the fault returns
  • Problem worsens over the course of a long shoot day

Fix

[CONFIRMED] Desiccant inside UltiBox + dry storage

2022-01-23 — joel.spezeski (Vietnam shoots)

  1. Open the UltiBox and place small silica gel desiccant packets inside, secured so they don't interfere with connectors
  2. Store the spare UltiBox in a sealed dry box (e.g. a Pelican case with fresh desiccant) between uses
  3. On humid shoot days, store the arm-mounted UltiBox in the dry box overnight and remount at call time
  4. If a UltiBox shows poor performance, swap to the dry-stored spare — allow the damp one to dry fully before returning it to service

Tip

Desiccant packs for camera gear (the type used in camera bags) are suitable. Replace or regenerate (heat in oven) after each shoot.

confidence_score: 0.82

WhatsApp Excerpts

[23/1/2022, 7:15:47 pm] ~ joel.spezeski: Is the humidity very high on your set? Shooting in Vietnam, we have had a couple times where we had similar issues. In the end humidity seemed to cause our Ulti-boxes to be less performant. We're not 100% sure, but lining the ulti box with desiccant on the arm and storing the spare in a dry box has helped.

Official Documentation

Flair Classic Manual — Ch.5 Setups: Axis Setup / Network Setup