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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

longest take on a RED Raid ???

J.Burger

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Hi
here is a question to experienced RED shooter:

What was your longest take (in minutes - 4K 16:9 RC36 ) you ever recorded on a RED Raid you felt save with?

In other words: How many minutes in 4K 16:9 RC36 are save to record in one take on a RED Raid you would say?
 
Interesting question, I can't contribute an answer yet but I *will* be doing some remarkably long takes at some point.

I shoot volcanoes. Erupting volcanoes. Now sometimes, when a volcano is erupting, it's episodic - you know it's going to let fly a blast, but not when - maybe in ten minutes, maybe in an hour, maybe in twelve hours. So I may have to shoot a twelve hour take to get a few minutes of footage.

Obviously that's far beyond the capacity of anything RED make, so I'm developing my own much larger array which I'll tether to the camera when I'm doing that kind of work. I'll post the results of my development here; maybe there will be a small market for people who want to do similar work - I can see other applications, more in science than traditional cinematography, where this capability could be useful. Wildlife too maybe, when you're trying to capture an occasional/intermittent event - or anything else that starts so suddenly you can't sit there and roll when it happens, you have to keep rolling *until* it happens.

Question for any RED folks reading this: is there anything in the camera - code limitations, file systems, .r3d file naming conventions - that would preclude multi-hour takes with a suitable external storage device?

Mike
 
I once shot an entire 320GB Red Drive on one take at an event. Didn't feel comfortable doing it and POST took forever.
However, Red records R3Ds in 2GB chunks, so even if POST fails and corrupts the Quicktime proxies, you should still have most of the R3Ds intact.
 
I have done four hour uninterupted takes. No problems. Nice thing about 2gb file system is that I can delete half of the R3D files and keep only half of the scene. Also it is very safe. For example if I loose power, only last 2gb R3D is lost.
 
Pre-Record wouldn't be an option for some of the unpredictable stuff like vulcano?

Just wondering.


Interesting question, I can't contribute an answer yet but I *will* be doing some remarkably long takes at some point.

I shoot volcanoes. Erupting volcanoes. Now sometimes, when a volcano is erupting, it's episodic - you know it's going to let fly a blast, but not when - maybe in ten minutes, maybe in an hour, maybe in twelve hours. So I may have to shoot a twelve hour take to get a few minutes of footage.

Obviously that's far beyond the capacity of anything RED make, so I'm developing my own much larger array which I'll tether to the camera when I'm doing that kind of work. I'll post the results of my development here; maybe there will be a small market for people who want to do similar work - I can see other applications, more in science than traditional cinematography, where this capability could be useful. Wildlife too maybe, when you're trying to capture an occasional/intermittent event - or anything else that starts so suddenly you can't sit there and roll when it happens, you have to keep rolling *until* it happens.

Question for any RED folks reading this: is there anything in the camera - code limitations, file systems, .r3d file naming conventions - that would preclude multi-hour takes with a suitable external storage device?

Mike
 
I would only want to do 20 minutes at a time maximum. I've done a couple 30 minute runs and one of them cut the camera and gave me an error at about 30 minutes and I had to use a recovery program to get that clip to work. Also another thing to keep in mind is the camera fan setting. The camera WILL overheat if you're doing extended takes, especially if they are in succession. If sound isn't a concern turn it to Hot and you'll be fine.

I've received temperature warnings on a couple of shows when we did 5-7 takes in a row that were about 5 minutes long while being in a warm room (about 80 degrees). The fan was set to Auto too, which is the recommended fan setting for that situation but we still had problems. If you're in a cool sound stage you probably won't have a problem leaving the fan on Auto mode and doing long takes.
 
I would only want to do 20 minutes at a time maximum. I've done a couple 30 minute runs and one of them cut the camera and gave me an error at about 30 minutes and I had to use a recovery program to get that clip to work. Also another thing to keep in mind is the camera fan setting. The camera WILL overheat if you're doing extended takes, especially if they are in succession. If sound isn't a concern turn it to Hot and you'll be fine.

I've received temperature warnings on a couple of shows when we did 5-7 takes in a row that were about 5 minutes long while being in a warm room (about 80 degrees). The fan was set to Auto too, which is the recommended fan setting for that situation but we still had problems. If you're in a cool sound stage you probably won't have a problem leaving the fan on Auto mode and doing long takes.

OK HEAT... Since I plan to do a couple of long interviews - with sound ;-) - that is a think to worry about...

Will I damage the camera if I do this long takes more often?
How does this temperature warnings look like - does the Camera tell you if it gets to hot???
 
I've never had a problem with heat, even on a salt lake at more than 90 with full fan (the camera was protected with a silver umbrella).
But for an interview, you can't go full fan, of course. But you don't risk damage to the camera, it will switch off a while after giving the warning.
 
We shot a 2.5 hour Journey concert with 10 Red Ones a couple of years ago and most of the cameras rolled continuously until the end without issue. None of the drives had any problems except the one about 3 feet from the base drum which lost some frames due to vibration, as you might expect. Last year we shot a Heart concert with 7 Red Ones for about 2 hours without stopping. We were shooting 4KHD @ 29.97 but I don't think you would have a problem shooting in any format for the full length of the drive. Of course, any drive could potentially have a problem so always good to have another shot to go to or some other form of backup.
 
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