Underwater with the RED, Are Drives Ok?

[Noah Richoz]

I'm working on a show and our next episode is underwater for 5 days. We will be using Gates Deep Red Housing.
I'd love to be using drive due to the frequency of reloading cards (shooting 4K 16:9 max) but want to make sure it's safe to do so.

This thread some problems were experienced.
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30330&highlight=underwater

Has anyone experienced problems with drives underwater? Any other underwater tips?

 

[theinfantry]

Drives worked great on our last underwater shoot with the hydroflex housing. We tested the camera recording to the drives at the camera prep for about twenty minutes to see if we would have any temperature issues. Ended up keeping the fan on while in housing.

 

[Noah Richoz]

After day one underwater, we've had a few problems. We're shooing in a pool that is heated and the camera sometimes stays in the pool for up to 30 minutes. Whenever we get a break we take the camera out and try and cool it down. Having the camera in the Gates housing this long had caused a few problems, dropped frames, full corrupt takes and drives not being recognized. We've switched to the HOT fan setting and are now shooting on 16gb cards and that has seemed to fix the problem. I imagine shooting with this housing in the ocean, where the water is cooler wouldn't encounter these problems.

 

[Noah Richoz]

Here's a pic of it in action, taken from another RED.

 

[Carlos Prio]

Heated to what temp??? Few issues in the ocean... even in our subtropic water everything has been great! However, that may change in the summer.

Can you give me any critique on the Gates???

Thanks,
Prio

 

[Michael Hastings]

Here's a pic of it in action, taken from another RED.

What lens are you using? That looks like a pretty long extension on there.

After day one underwater, we've had a few problems. We're shooing in a pool that is heated and the camera sometimes stays in the pool for up to 30 minutes. Whenever we get a break we take the camera out and try and cool it down. Having the camera in the Gates housing this long had caused a few problems, dropped frames, full corrupt takes and drives not being recognized. We've switched to the HOT fan setting and are now shooting on 16gb cards and that has seemed to fix the problem. I imagine shooting with this housing in the ocean, where the water is cooler wouldn't encounter these problems.

We haven't seen many problems with drives - I haven't had any and with over 20 housings out there nobody has reported any to me or on the bubble blowers thread that I know of. Not to be too shameless but our unit it is quite a bit tighter around the REDONE body - i.e. less airspace so it seems like the fans blow directly on the aluminum wall rather than diffusing throughout the housing and may mean it stays a little cooler. We also have a cooling rod option - the rods run from the aluminum frontplate along the bottom right by the fan exit and either simply heatsink/transfer through the frontplate or if necessary they can be bored out so that water could enter the rods for further cooling.

 

[Carlos Prio]

The extension in the pic is a port extender for the for the Ang 15-40mm.

 

[GATES]

Deep red

Deep red

To all,

I visited the set on Friday to investigate the issues. At this point data is still being gathered.

One important note: the conditions of this shoot are stressful to *all* RED cameras, including those topside. Water is 91F / 33C, deck is humid and >95F / 35C. Cooling measures are in use for all cameras.

Those familiar with Gates know we will doggedly address our product issues and take all reasonable actions to resolve them to our customer satisfaction.

More to follow….

John

 

[Tøt]

I did a job a few months ago, we shot red drives and I was submerged up to 2 hours without problems.
It was in pool and the water was 80 (27) degrees.
The house is built in stainless steel here in Denmark, I would not be afraid to use red drives ...

 

[GATES]

DEEP RED and heat

DEEP RED and heat

To all,

After considerable investigation here’s the summary situation with DEEP RED and heat.

In water below 90°F/33°C DEEP RED will dissipate heat generated by the RED ONE and RED RAID – the worst case scenario. Gates tests and field data correlate on this conclusion. The limiting factor is battery life – about 90 minutes.

Above 90°F/33°C things become gray. The envelope becomes pushed on heat removal capability of DEEP RED. Our own test results are OK -- using our own camera and in controlled conditions. In the field both RED ONE cameras and shooting conditions vary. This means a ‘body hot’ warning will become more likely as the water temperature increases above 90°F/33°C. Field reports and anecdotal evidence suggest problems like drop frames, corrupt hard drive data and playback issues may arise in such conditions.

Gates recommendation for such conditions is simply replace RED RAID with RED RAM, or record to a Compact Flash card. Either recording device generates virtually zero heat, so the system remains notably cooler inside DEEP RED.

If you have further questions please contact Gates directly. www.GatesHousings.com

John

PS – Many thanks to Noah Richoz, Ian Seabrook, and Mark Weinhaupl for assistance on location and gathering field data. This was very valuable and greatly appreciated by Gates.