Jamming Timecode Between Two Reds

[dev.doyle]

Hi all!

This forum has been a wealth of info - but now I must end my lurking and make my first post...

Yesterday I was RED-teching a music video w/ 2 cameras on build 17, 23.98 timebase, with free-run timecode. Because it was a music video the D-Code slate was obviously jammed to playback and there was no jam to the cameras thru that system. To make editorial's life easier I wanted to jam the cameras together so that they'd easily line up in the timeline for cross-cutting.

We had ambient clock it boxes but were unable to get the clock running thru the playback guy's gear. I figured we could - at the very least - jam directly from one camera to another (much like any pro shoulder mount these days w/ a run of BNC). I had 5 pin lemo to BNC adapters that I barreled and ran from one camera to another. I selected timecode ouput on one, and jam sync on the other - to no avail. I'm assuming the issue lies in barreling to BNC...if I had the 5 pin to 5 pin lemo cable would I have been able to jam without a hitch? Or are you simply unable to jam one camera directly to another?

I'm a little perplexed by this and would love to hear any input before the next job.

In addition - 3/4 of the way thru the shoot I noticed that one of the camera's color space had switched from REC709 to REDspace. Could this have happened when a battery got knocked off when going handheld? Any one else experience this? The operator might have made the switch and not told me. Unfortunately I was up to the gills in REDRAIDs and caught the issue too late...

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Shawn Booth]

Not sure about your jam question. But as far as REC709 to REDSPACE, I've noticed some settings reset on power up from battery switching. I check ALL settings after swapping bricks.

BUT with this particular setting, it's only metadata for viewing so it doesn't really matter. You can just switch back to REC709 in RR/RA/RC...

 

[dev.doyle]

Interesting...what other settings have you seen change?

 

[J. Eric Camp]

The only setting I have seen change is the audio phantom power.

Yes you can jam from one camera to the next, or from the lockit box or any timecode feeding device. 5 pin lemo wired the right way can be sent down a BNC but must be wried correctly.

 

[Brent J. Craig]

Check the TC plug pinouts in the manual. In and out are on different pins.

 

[dino g]

5 pin to 5 pin works perfectly, they are 75 bucks at coffey sound.

clockits work great too but they are a little tricky to set up.

buy the cables and have them in your kit....it is a requirement of the job!

without those cables and others you are not a tech, but a data wrangler. so charge accordingly.

 

[dev.doyle]

Thanks for the input guys - I appreciate it!

 

[Dave Neathery]

Be assured that it does work

Be assured that it does work

I use jam sync at all times with my Reds. I have 4 Lemo to BNC cables.
I have 2 sets I bought from Trew Audio and 2 sets I made. As someone already said, you need to make sure which is in and out. (The pinouts in the manual are correct.)
But there is a catch: Unless you use a common source for Tri Level sync, you will only be within one frame on sound and image. Worse yet, the cameras will drift apart with time, even when the display is showing them locked. They resync each time you start to record, but most of my clips are 1 hour long.
They say they have improved this with the newer builds, but I haven't tested it yet, so that problem may not exist anymore, but the up to one frame difference without Tri Level is true with the current release build.

Dave

 

[Cail Young]

They say they have improved this with the newer builds, but I haven't tested it yet, so that problem may not exist anymore, but the up to one frame difference without Tri Level is true with the current release build.

Drift aside, this will occur whenever you are not using Genlock to the TC source; the camera simply reads the current TC at the top of the frame so you can be up to (but not exactly) one frame out. This is why occasionally you'll see TC slates that are showing multiple values of TC on one frame.

 

[dev.doyle]

Interesting...this has been a great resource. I'm 99% certain that both of those BNC>Lemo adapters were wired for input - as both were included in the clock-it kits. Next time I'll carry a 5 pin Lemo to 5 pin Lemo jam cable.