Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • 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 :)

...and then there's over hot.

J

Joel Kaye

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
2,962
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Managed to have my camera shut itself down due to the heat protection function. It works works in build 16. :-) I think the message is something to the effect of "Dangerously Overhot Camera will shut down in 10 seconds" and then it counts down and powers off.

That was at about 8:30am of a shoot starting at 7am - outdoors. Ambient temp high 90s. I had a cool pack on it, but it may have turned into a warm pack through my lack of attention on it.

We gave the camera a break for maybe 20 minutes and I shot on and off till 3:30 with ambient temps around 110 keeping cool packs on without another shutdown. 2 HVX's that were out, uncovered in the sun the whole day had no problems. So RED's got a cooling challenge to solve for EPIC. That really needs to be tested in real heat 110+. Things really do get shot in that temp as people can generally weather it pretty well.

Had one record error and no playback errors. Mostly shot 2k 120FPS all day. Not a bad performance all in all.
 
kinobairn said:
Something I learned from shooting outside is that if it's warm outside, you should switch the fan to "HOT" and leave it there until you go inside. That will prevent the camera from getting too hot.
Click to expand...

I have done that on other shoots but today there was dialogue being captured by the other cameras and the fans in hot mode are too noisy... of course the fans kick back into "HOT" when you stop recording. I really think the key is having about 20 cold packs and swapping them every 10 minutes. Pain in the butt... but even in HOT those fans aren't doing tons when then ambient air is 110.
 
Comparing to an HVX is very apples to oranges. Processing power = heat and red is processing about at least four times as much if not more. It's a bit like saying that a tower pc with 8 cores should process at the same speed but still use the same power as a laptop.
 
reality said:
Comparing to an HVX is very apples to oranges. Processing power = heat and red is processing about at least four times as much if not more. It's a bit like saying that a tower pc with 8 cores should process at the same speed but still use the same power as a laptop.
Click to expand...

True, and that's pretty much how I explained it. But the reality is these cameras get used in tough environments and that's what they need to be designed for.
 
I made a custom sunshade for mine out of a shiny spaceblanket similar to the ones for Panavision mags. It managed to keep my camera super cool on a shoot in LA that was in the 90's on a hot tarmac. Also you should ALWAYS have the grips give you a courtesy flag.
 
Mike Prevette said:
I made a custom sunshade for mine out of a shiny spaceblanket similar to the ones for Panavision mags. It managed to keep my camera super cool on a shoot in LA that was in the 90's on a hot tarmac. Also you should ALWAYS have the grips give you a courtesy flag.
Click to expand...

Can you post a pic please of this custom sunshade?
 
Shawn Nelson said:
Can you post a pic please of this custom sunshade?
Click to expand...

Ditto - you beat me to it.

@Mike - I was shaded a lot but not always. We were moving fast, working with a bunch of kids who could only go for about 20 minutes at a time in the heat. Wasn't it you who built the groovy protective LCD cover too? I built one within a day of that post and it saved my LCD the next weekend. It's been on ever since.
 
Joel,

Great to hear you saved your LCD! and yes that was me.

Shawn, I'll post pics tomorrow once I get into the office. It really is nothing fancy, just a $6 space blanket with some strategic slits and velcro.
 
Maybe it is, but it shouldn't be. You normally don't need your computer out there on a hot tarmac or in the desert, but you may need your Red.
I agree that with the Red One the balance between technical sophistication and price is very favourable for us.
But if Red wants to take on all of the professional markets with the Epic, they'll need new concepts in cooling, maybe even fluid or Peltiers or whatever. That much power in a small housing is quite a technical challenge.
 
nomad said:
Maybe it is, but it shouldn't be. You normally don't need your computer out there on a hot tarmac or in the desert, but you may need your Red.
I agree that with the Red One the balance between technical sophistication and price is very favourable for us.
But if Red wants to take on all of the professional markets with the Epic, they'll need new concepts in cooling, maybe even fluid or Peltiers or whatever. That much power in a small housing is quite a technical challenge.
Click to expand...

well agreed...
 
Sue, they may be useful only locally, not for a whole body.
 
Cooling is an issue that needs to be sorted out for Epic.
Perhaps instead of trying so hard to make Epic SMALLER, they should make it a similar size to Red One (though more ergonomic shape as per Brook's post in the Epic forum)
More space inside the body for liquid cooling, or more fans (magnetic, silent, varispeed) or heat sinks all over the outside, like the D-21.
It's true. DP's, directors, and producers don't care that it's a computer. They just want it to work, just like every other camera.
I will say that I had my Red One on a job a couple of weeks ago, 95-100 F outside, exterior shots (yes under a location umbrella), likely even hotter in the cramped practical interior. No gel packs.
And no problem! I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it's a batch-to-batch issue and I got a "good" camera? Or maybe Build 16 has a slightly lower threshold for the shutoff?
I'm sure the Red Team is working hard on it. Did you have a chance to send the log file?
Cheers,
Harry
 
Heat management is critical, of course, but I think this problem is best solved by a third party provider or even some good ol' yankee ingenuity. Also, the second your cold pack reaches ambient temperature it becomes a big thick blanket and has the opposite effect. Someone needs to make a small elliptical umbrella about 12 inches on the short side and 18 inches on the long side with a 2 inch hole in the middle for venting that shades the camera. It should attach to the camera and ride about 6 inches above the body. It should be white or very light grey to avoid soaking up too much sunlight. Cold packs should be applied for very short duration, because the temperature transfer through that metal is quite rapid. Apply a new cold pack every three to four minutes to avoid transferring the camera's heat to the cold pack because then it just becomes a blanket. We had our RED running all day at CineGear in 115 degree heat without overheating because we were diligent about keeping it in the shade as much as possible. In high humidity you may have to change the cold packs more frequently. Remove the pack while it is still cold and replace it with a fresh one, otherwise you're wasting your time.
 
On a shoot in Vegas last week. It was very hot. 105 or so in the parking garage at night. I got my first heat warning with my Red. Each take was about 4 minutes and we needed audio so I couldn't put the fan on high.

I hadn't planned for the heat, so I didn't have cold packs. Instead I took a water bottle out of the cooler drank about 1/4 of it and the squeezed it under the top handle of the Red. I ended up swapping between two small water bottles both a little more than half full about every 15-20 minutes. I would put the warm bottle back in the cooler. This worked great. I just had to wipe the water from the cooler off the bottle before putting it on the camera.

So cold water bottles under the top handle in a pinch.


Mahalo,
Dusty
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top