Tilta Nucleus-M II Wireless Lens Control System Hand Wheel Kit

Four axes from one unit

The FIZ Hand Unit drives up to four wireless motors at once: focus, iris, zoom and ND. The fourth motor can be fitted to the variable ND filter of the Tilta Mirage Pro matte box, so exposure can be changed on the fly without anyone touching the camera. The unit has a 2.4" colour touchscreen, a detachable hand wheel with adjustable damping and a detachable Electronic Focus Marking Disk that shows depth of field alongside the focus distance.

Lens mapping and focus marks

A lens can be mapped by hand — logging each marking into the unit, roughly five minutes per lens — or you can load a profile from the manufacturer's library. The unit holds 128 presets and keeps the marks through a power loss, so nothing has to be recalibrated after a battery change.

Camera control

Over Bluetooth or by cable the hand unit also sets the camera — ISO, white balance, shutter speed and run/stop. The range of functions depends on the camera model and firmware; Tilta names the Sony FX3, Blackmagic Pyxis and ARRI Alexa 35 as examples.

Motors, gears and mounting

The motor delivers 0.48 Nm of torque at 14.8 V at a noise level of 15 dB. Motor gears are swappable — 0.5 Mod with 63 teeth and 0.8 Mod with 39 teeth — so the system fits cine lenses as well as photo lenses with a gear ring fitted. The rod mounts take both 15 mm and 19 mm rods. Both 7-pin ports carry power in and out, so several motors can be daisy-chained from one source.

Power

The FIZ Hand Unit and each hand grip run on a single Sony NP-F550 battery; Tilta quotes 8 to 12 hours of operation. Motors are powered from a P-Tap on a V-Mount or Gold Mount battery, or over the 7-pin cable from the unit. Hand unit and grips have USB-C for charging and firmware updates. The NP-F550 battery is not included.

Wireless link

The system transmits on 2.4 GHz with selectable channels and a dedicated interference-resistant channel; the display can be switched off (Stealth Mode). The 2.4 GHz band is licence-free in the European Union. Tilta does not publish a range figure in metres for the base system, only "up to hundreds of metres"; with the optional Range Expansion Module it quotes 1900 ft (about 580 m) and up to 4900 ft (about 1490 m) in open environments.

What it works with

The Nucleus-M II is backwards compatible with the first-generation Nucleus-M, with the Nucleus Nano II and with the Mirage matte box motor, so you can upgrade gradually. Over the DJI protocol it works with the RS 2, RS 3 and RS 4 gimbals and the DJI Focus Motor. The lens needs a gear ring — photo lenses take a universal focus gear ring.

Three kits of the same system — how they differ

The Nucleus-M II is sold in three configurations and the names do not tell you which is which. The difference is what you control it with and how many motors you get:

• WLC-T06-K1 Hand Wheel Kit — FIZ Hand Unit with the hand wheel and one motor, no hand grips. The classic focus puller setup: unit in hand, motor on the lens.
• WLC-T06 Ultimate Kit — FIZ Hand Unit, both hand grips, Zoom Module and two motors in a waterproof hard case. The top configuration: focus can be pulled from the hand wheel or from the grips, and two motors cover focus and iris (or zoom).
• WLC-T06-K2 Control Handle Kit — right hand grip with the Zoom Module and one motor, no FIZ Hand Unit. Controlled straight from the gimbal or rig handle; if you want the hand wheel you have to add the FIZ unit.
• WLC-T06-MK Motor Kit — the motor on its own with rod mounts and a cable, to add another axis to any configuration.
• WLC-T06-HG-L and WLC-T06-HG-R — the hand grips sold singly (left and right), to add or replace.