Shooting in extremely hot and humid conditions

[Corrado Silveri]

Dear Friends, I'm planning to shoot in West Bengal in India in May and June.
Temperature quite often goes beyond 100° F with relative humidity over 85%...

Has anybody else gone through these kind of conditions successfully before?

Any advice? What can I do to make it reasonably feasible?

Thanks in advance,

Corrado.

 

[Moir]

I'm sure you know this already, but your timing will probably coincide with the start of the monsoon season. Once this arrives arrives, the heat isn't too bad - it's the rain that is likely to give you problems if shooting outside. NE India is particularly wet, and you should be prepared for incredibly heavy and prolongued rain.

 

[Jason Sturgis]

Hi Corrado,

I was shooting on an atoll (very close to the equator) where the humidity was extremely high. The whole time Red performed flawlessly. In many instances I was even shooting in direct sunlight with no shade- still no issues. The temperature wasn't as high as 100 so you will want to keep some shade on the camera. Anyway, that was my experience shooting in areas of high humidity. One thing that I was conscious of was not taking the camera and lenses from an air conditioned room straight outside. In fact, I may have left the kit at the ambient temperature the whole time just to avoid those fluctuations. Hope that helps a bit.
Best, Jason

 

[gbalaji]

Dear Friends, I'm planning to shoot in West Bengali in India in May and June.
Temperature quite often goes beyond 100° F with relative humidity over 85%...

Has anybody else gone through these kind of conditions successfully before?

Any advice? What can I do to make it reasonably feasible?

Thanks in advance,

Corrado.

Corrado,

Its West Bengal and not Bengali. I'm from this part of this world from Chennai, Tamil Nadu down south. The camera works very well for me on more than 15 hot sunny days shooting for two feature film I working on with two different cameras and we dont find issues so far.

 

[Corrado Silveri]

Corrado,

Its West Bengal and not Bengali. I'm from this part of this world from Chennai, Tamil Nadu down south. The camera works very well for me on more than 15 hot sunny days shooting for two feature film I working on with two different cameras and we dont find issues so far.

Bengal, sorry. Going to edit my post.
Btw, do you own a camera setup (or two?)
maybe we can get in touch for this .

So, no need of gel packs? What about fans? I need something to keep cold the camera body in order to prevent fan noise during the shooting?

Btw, thanks in advance.

 

[gbalaji]

Bengal, sorry. Going to edit my post.
Btw, do you own a camera setup (or two?)
maybe we can get in touch for this .

So, no need of gel packs? What about fans? I need something to keep cold the camera body in order to prevent fan noise during the shooting?

Btw, thanks in advance.

No need of gel packs as of our experience. If you still insist you can use to reduce the fan noise.

My friend Nirav Shah owns one and he rents out. I work as DIT for digital cinema camera shoots and if you need my assistants on that front, i can help you out. Will ask Nirav to email about the camera details.

 

[Corrado Silveri]

Perfect, thanks!

 

[Steve Gibby]

Hey Corrado,

A few years ago (before RED), I worked in India for a production - in Madras, Bangalore, and other places in the south. India is truly fascinating. Keeping the cameras clean, dry, and protected is very important.

I agree with what gbalaji posted. With the usual precautions, RED does fine in heat/humidity. I've used my REDs in those tropical conditions many times. For rain protection for RED, check out the ET rain cover.

B&H, and other camera supply houses, sell small umbrellas that clamp onto your tripod (or shoulder mount rig), which are great for shading from the hot sun. I bought several of those, and use them whenever I can when using RED in extreme heat.

On our recent 10-RED camera Journey concert in Manila, the cameras were running for 2.5 hours nonstop in 87 degree heat, with about 85% humidity. We set all camera fans to the "High" setting in menus - and had absolutely no overheating problems.

As mentioned, don't store and/or transport the cameras in cool, air conditioned environments, then expect to fire them right up. They'll need to be brought to the outside temperature for a while before starting them, to avoid condensation problems.

Trash bags are also an inexpensive and quick fix for covering bags and cameras in wet conditions. I always keep some in my camera bags and backpacks. If you use them, be sure you don't close the bags all the way or you'll form condensation on the equipment.

Ciao paisano

 

[Corrado Silveri]

Thanks Steve,
so I'm more confident about this shooting, now...
Aniway, I think that could be better if we plan to carry with us some gel packs (just in case, and to avoid fan noise).
Any suggestion about Brands, dimensions, caracteristics?

 

[Jonathan Smiles]

You can get the 3M gel packs from medical supplies stores here in India.

I have a freezer on set with dry ice put in it every morning to help get it cold.

Don't put the dry ice on the camera as it's too cold and be careful with freezer burns.

 

[Jonathan Smiles]

Hey Corrado,
2.5 hours nonstop in 87 degree heat, with about 85% humidity.

87° F is only 30° C, if it was 87°C then it would be 188.6°F

Today shooting in Hyderabad India it was 105.8° F (41° C), but only 40% humidity.

When we shot our teaser trailer (www.unnaipoloruvan.com) on a roof in Chennai it was 100.4° F (38°C) and over 80% humidity.

At these temperatures you need to take all the precautions, gel packs, shade, fans/coolers etc.

Jonathan.

 

[Steve Gibby]

87° F is only 30° C, if it was 87°C then it would be 188.6°F

That was 87 degrees fahrenheit we shot in at Manila.

In Fahrenheit, we've shot RED in a temperature range from 114 degrees (Death Valley), down to minus 15 degrees (Rocky Mountains).

In the dry heat, umbrellas were fine - no overheating problems. In the tropical humid heat, an umbrella can help, but yes, gel packs can also help for extended running - where you have the camera powered up for long periods of time.