Advice required for shooting in heat

[praviin arora]

We have shot in Jaipur - India ,its a desert at temps going to 48C.Not a problem at all we did use ice bags though.Recently we shot in the mount everest tops No problem at all.Our Epic has been sturdy in extreme cliamates.Dont worry at all.-

 

[Mike Lary]

what about strong tropical humidity is that something to be concerned about?

To my knowledge humidity has not affected our camera's operation.

 

[Andrew clemson]

Ive been working red in the conditions mark mentioned for nigh on 5 years now. Never had a single heat problem.

Ted has a good metaphor, treat the camera like your crew. If the focus puller needs shade and water to cool him down, then afford the camera similar accommodations.

Give your gear time to acclimatize after moving in and out of cold/hot environments.

Also, if you can, set the fans to max all the time.

 

[Roy Rossovich]

I just came back from shooting cambodia... 48C and 90% humid. cranked out quite a bit of corrupt footage even though fans where running 115%.... good luck, our computers shut down, EX1's failed and it was miserable.. but the food was really really good.

 

[Phil Holland]

Things I've done in daylight/hot/hell situations:
-always have an umbrella, shade, hat, or towel
-really handy to have them on a clamp - Manfrotto Super Clamp used above.
-what my favorite thing to do is bringing an extra french flag with flex arm and attaching it on the back side or rods on top of the camera and shading it.

I've only had issues when the camera has been on/rolling in the sun for way too long. But once I started giving her the "Cleopatra" treatment, she's been good to me.

 

[Spencer Norris]

I am in central and south Florida for the hottest part of the year and the only advice I have is the keep the fan rolling about 35-40% while recording. I know the sound comes into play but for the past three months I have not had an issue with over heating or random shut downs. I mainly shoot extreme sports where audio doesnt come into play but I have never had a problem with my system.

 

[Joel Mielle]

I just came back from shooting cambodia... 48C and 90% humid. cranked out quite a bit of corrupt footage even though fans where running 115%.... good luck, our computers shut down, EX1's failed and it was miserable.. but the food was really really good.

48 degrees, wow that is a lot of heat! But if the food was good...

 

[Bob Gundu]

Always wear protection when shooting in heat.:sifone:

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

I just shot two days ago in the 90's (Fahrenheit). Fans at 35% while rolling, 75% while not rolling. Even in the sun a good amount, the camera temp stayed around the same all day. And I could barely hear the fans at 35% with my ears right next to the camera. Sound recording was fine; you really can't hear the camera in the audio, even when the actors were only a few feet away.

 

[Jack Allred]

I have had issues with fan kicking on in the middle of multiple interviews. Here's what I did:
1. Originally I had the fan set to manual: 35% record, 90% standby. Recording 4k 24 7:1. Outside in Utah temp in the 90s F, fan kicks on after only 8 minutes of recording. Multiple times.
2. Letting the fan run full power for 30 seconds bought me another 5-8 minutes of recording. Meanwhile, Danny Trejo (interview subject) is sitting there waiting for me to get my shit together.
3. Over the next few interviews (indoors and outdoors) I adjusted the manual fan settings to 38% recording, 100% standby. I would still reach 74c in the camera within 15 minutes and the fan would kick on. It was a consistent issue. I never used ice packs, or any other cooling mechanism, but we were in a large interview room (maybe 80F).
4. I switched fan settings to auto. Still had the same problem. Fan came on after 10-15 minutes of interview.
5. I was running out of space on my redmag, and was trying to get the most footage out of the remaining free space. I adjusted the redcode to 14:1, then 18:1 to buy me time. Majically, the temperature sustained itself and never went over 69c. The fan never kicked up to high.
6. I've shot a handful more interviews at 12:1 with fan at auto, and the fan has not come on, and the internal temp never gone past 70c. Longest interview was about 65 minutes with this setup.

MORAL OF MY POST: Reducing Redcode helped me prevent overheating, and prevent fan from kicking onto high mode.

 

[Joel Mielle]

I'm still in shanghai now, we wrapped up the shoot, worked on the hottest, most humid days and the scarlet worked a treat.
The only problem we had was the wooden camera battery plate stopped working so we had to shoot in revolts for the remainder of the day. We managed to rent the RED one battery system which we just attached to the tripod and all went well.
these were pretty extreme conditions, especially with hot lights in tiny rooms and eight people, I actually had a dissy spell and blacked out. But the scarlet kept going!

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I'd be nervous about attaching an umbrella directly to the camera though. One good gust of wind and your otherwise steady camera rig could become a glider.