So what's the deal with the blackshade?

[Shawn Nelson]

Upgrading to 3.2.19 release right now and currently my camera has started the epic journey known as the blackshade calibration.

Tomorrow I plan on doing 5k HD at 24fps and 120fps at a variety of shutter speeds. Do I really need two diff blackshades? Please someone tell me I DONT, because I really dont want to sit through another damn shade and then have to toggle between them on the day, because trust me, I will forget to.

On Red1 I'd only re blackshade after each fresh build install and that worked great.

[Johnny Friday]

I think i hears chatter on another thread that you can save different black shade calibrations,,,,,,and most was meant just as you propose. One for standard timeline shotting and another for over-cranking. If this is not true, then it was a beautiful dream.

[Michael Notar]

from what i understand you only need to recalibrate if you are using longer shutter times. i just use the default and never had a problem. i have shot under pretty normal environmental conditions all the time

[Mike Lary]

When to blackshade, from Deanan / RED:

1) upgrading to new firmware
2) big ambient temperature changes
3) long exposure times (longer than ~1/15th sec)
4) very short exposure times (shorter than around ~1/1000th)
5) beginning of a project
6) as often as you feel like

[Victor MOREIRA]

Started shooting with my Epic without doing any blackshading. Everything was grainy, even at 800 ISO. I started looking at my investment with some doubts. After blackshading, i was like : WOOOOOOW !