Why can't Phantom power stay on????

[Steve Sherrick]

...although I can see your arguments and I don't mean to criticize anyone, but it is amazing to me the number of people that are hooking up microphones directly to the camera.

Although in most professional environments a sound person is hired and therefore mixes in the bag and sends a line level out to a digital audio recorder and/or camera, there are times when you need to run a mic to the camera and actually use that audio. Run and gun doc without a sound person, very low budget indy film, one man band corporate, nature shooters who grab audio as well.

I am finding that Red is a lot more versatile than I originally thought it would be. The new audio board makes this even more the case. In this kind of economy, being versatile is a huge benefit.

As for Phantom Power, almost all professional cameras have an on/off switch. My only guess as to why Red has elected to automatically switch this off on powerdown is that it's not good practice to hook a condenser microphone to an already phantom powered input. Therefore, maybe what they are thinking is you'll hook up your mic before you turn on the camera and then you will go into the menu and turn on phantom power, which is the safe method for doing this. However, reality is that there will be times you'll want to change mics with camera still on or switch battery and use the same mic. So, it kind of gets back to the way most cameras act which is when it's switched on, it's up to you to properly hook up the microphones and follow phantom power procedures.

[Kyle Mallory]

My understanding of this, recalling a long ago discussion with someone from RED, was that this was an intentional decision as a result of the audio hiss when using Phantom power previous to the audio board upgrade, and that once all the camera's were up to date, it would be changed.

Basically, RED wanted to make sure that clean audio coming from a mixer or preamp didn't get trashed because someone left the phantom power on a line.

Don't hold me to this exactly, the discussion was nearly a year ago, my memory may be failing me.

[Michael Morlan]

Having to re-ignite phantom power adds unnecessary seconds to a battery swap/power cycle. Please leave phantom power in the existing state through power cycles.

Michael

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

I own lots of audio stuff. On ALL of them the phantom power stays the way it was through a power cycle. ( Well, ok, most all of them have dedicated switches, but never the less....)

Jochen

[JanneJansson]

Agree, strange safety feature. The biggest danger is not to fry some pice of tech with 48V. A bigger tragedy is LOOSING audio!!!!

[Paul Hazlett]

I can honestly say in the 20 plus years of using broadcast equipment I have never fried a
mic for having phantom or T power on when not needed.

Probably more to do with bad audio on the old boards. I betcha dollars to donuts this will go away in the next build.

[Brent J. Craig]

You guys need to stop calling bugs features. Having ANY critical camera setting change when rebooting is just plain wrong. The Red reboot is already the most painful 75 seconds on set, but having to reprogram the camera afterwards?!?

It is my understanding that properly built audio gear cannot be harmed by phantom power so I don't get the "it's a safety feature" comments.

[Tom Visser]

You guys need to stop calling bugs features. Having ANY critical camera setting change when rebooting is just plain wrong. The Red reboot is already the most painful 75 seconds on set, but having to reprogram the camera afterwards?!?

It is my understanding that properly built audio gear cannot be harmed by phantom power so I don't get the "it's a safety feature" comments.

In addition to a design decision that a manufacturer might make to not actively protect against it, it also requires a flaw or failure on the cable / connector, such as a shorted cable. I don't think that there is as much of an uproar about it now, though, because so few people are really attaching mics directly to the camera and really... you should not be - even if you are using that excuse that your "just a doc" guy or doing "run and gun". Run and gun is even a more compelling reason to get an external pre/mixer. You have such chaotic and varied situations, that you need to be able to react fast to changing acoustic situations.

Imagine, if you will, if you AC had to go into a menu system to change the focus. That really is the best parallel that I can make about those that insist on using on board camera mic pres and probably also not using a proper boom op. It is at the end of the day, a simple disrespect of the audio production process. When talking about a $30k+ camera system (much more to be realistic), the excuse, "we can't afford an audio guy" doesn't hold a lot of credence to me. Or at least, it illustrates that you went out and bought a Ferrari but forgot to budget enough for the gas you'll need to drive it.

My excuses aside, yes RED needs to change the menuing / settings on the next build. They are definitely the odd man out when it comes to the way their camera is set up and I'd rather bill the production $1,500 when they blow up an MKH 60 than to have to reshoot something, as realistically the first scenario would be few and far between, if ever.

[ericyoung]

Just been away for a week doing a test shoot with no money and not enough time and prep. It happens! There wasn't physically room for a sound guy and mixer and cables in some of our shooting situations. This "feature" screwed several otherwise useable takes. :-(

[Brent J. Craig]

There wasn't physically room for a sound guy and mixer and cables in some of our shooting situations.

That's why there's timecode and radio mics.