Vertical Lines in RED files

[Von Thomas]

Yesterday I experienced vertical lines in some RED files. It was a long and hot day in the studio, the AC went out in the morning and was not fixed until the early afternoon. Right before lunch was called, the 1st AC noticed lines on the monitor, and we hoped it was just a display issue, but they were on the files. We broke for lunch and I ran black shading, after lunch all was well. Within an hour the lines came back, but in a different place, this time I called RED for an update on the cause. I was told to black shade, I did, and I did again, and to make sure all vents were not being blocked, and that also the ports on the right side of camera (audio, HDMI, USB) were also not blocked as they act as vents to expel heat from the camera. I also applied cold packs and aimed the AC vent right at the camera. All of this helped, but it did not fix the problem. In all I ran black shading 4 times yesterday, after each run, the problem was gone, only to return a short time later.

Is this a heat issue, or a camera defect?

Von

 

[BigLu]

I have not seen anything like this in extreme heat.
I have how ever seen problems like this with a bad graphics card on the computer, try other computers for fun.
I see your problem Von. I feel you need to go directly to Deanan and the RED guys.

Best of luck, please post what the problem and solution was.
See ya soon.
Luis

 

[Mike Jacks]

I recently saw this EXACT same issue on a project I was working on at my post house. 4 vertical lines just like you posted. Although, they were always in the same spot. They saw it on set and switched out the camera. When asking red about it, they didn't know what it was. And I didn't have the camera to send in. After color correction, I brought the footage into a composting app to get rid of the lines. Not sure what else to tell you, but RED may need to look at the camera. Also just FYI, some of the shots were not in a high heat environment when we saw the lines.

Another interesting note is to try this. If you open the files up as QT references, you will see the lines. If you open them up in REDCINE you will see the lines. But in Red Alert, I didn't see anything. But if I rendered from Red Alert, they were there.

 

[Cail Young]

Those don't look like any "normal" heat lines like I've seen - generally they're unbroken from top to bottom. Camera needs a service.

 

[Johnny Friday]

Vertical lines in RED footage ALSO

Vertical lines in RED footage ALSO

Well,
I just had this same thing happen to me on some underwater footage. I also don't think it was related to overheating....unless the fan or something is not working properly.

what i can tell you is that I had just recently sent my camera back to RED for the audio board and I-pin upgrade. That was the last time it was out, then in my hands just now for a shoot. Frustrating as hell to have that happen. And i also was told by Nate that i need to send the camera back to RED. I can at least say that i'm happy for the fast response from Nate at RED on a Saturday night (last night) and telling me same---to do some blackshading, but the camera definitely needs to come back home for a fix.
So, pack my bags get on international flight and hotel etc....and hope that it's not a major problem requiring my camera to stay weeks. AND is it something that i would need to send back my second camera??? Have not been shooting it....
But, is this an issue on only a few cameras or something all cameras should come back to RED for a fix?

Had you recently sent your camera back for the upgrades?

Here is my thread with photos attached:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34168&highlight=vertical+lines

photo attached as well.

 

[Mark de Blok]

do these lines only show in playback or can you see them 'live'

thanks

mark de blok

 

[Jarred Land]

Hey Von.. did you do a master camera reset then blackshade? That has fixed this before... but unfortunately the camera may need to come back as if a master-reset and a blackshade combo doesn't fix it, it is possible an internal connector has come loose.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Simple:

If you get any vertical line just restart the camera and if you get it again and then again restart the cam...

Also if you have all proper cables and so on... then it's gone forever... but if not then you would always have the same problem(s)...

That's it.

 

[Magnus Peterson]

I have had the same problem but this was in an ice hockey arena, not hot at all. It was just one shot that had the line. Straight in the middle.

 

[Johnny Friday]

do these lines only show in playback or can you see them 'live'

thanks

mark de blok

can not live with them. They destroy the image. Guess you could spend load of time trying to paint them out, but too much time and $$

 

[Johnny Friday]

Simple:

Also if you have all proper cables and so on... then it's gone forever... but if not then you would always have the same problem(s)...

That's it.

Sanjin, what exactly do you mean by "if you have all proper cables and so on" ??

you mean all cables connected properly or something else?

 

[Brent Carter]

Von, did you submit a support ticket? I did not find one in the system...

BC

 

[Andrae Palmer]

This is a common problem brought up recently in the complaint section:

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31219

And May of last year in the Bugs / Problem / Help section:

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13597

Generally known as the heat issue albiet it maybe much more than that. In cases of my cam it has always shown up in hot environments with the fan set to AUTO. On a few occasions the problem occurred indoors in environments that were not hot. I've become more aware of the cameras fan settings per the environment that it will be shooting in now. Since RED is not exactly very helpful with this I cannot say for sure if your problem is heat related.

 

[Mark de Blok]

can not live with them. They destroy the image. Guess you could spend load of time trying to paint them out, but too much time and $$

question is if you can see them on the monitor directly (live feed) or only in playback

thanks

mark de blok

 

[Johnny Friday]

I never saw them in the monitor. In fact only saw them when i was doing color correcting in Redcine and even then it was not until i got way down the R3d files where the lines were very predominant. that made me go back and look at previous footage and what seems to happen is the lines show up very little and as time passes they get more and more visible---at least in my case. But now i know of it and will have a keen eye out for it in the future. I would hate to have to continue doing a camera reset and then blackshade to avoid this problem. As a quick interim fix it's ok, but not as a matter of normal use.

 

[Andrew Walker]

The only time that I have seen lines in my footage was when I first got my camera and didn't let it complete the black shade process. Sounds like the black shade isn't holding or something like that.

 

[Johnny Friday]

The only time that I have seen lines in my footage was when I first got my camera and didn't let it complete the black shade process. Sounds like the black shade isn't holding or something like that.

If you look at the thread that Andrae posted.....here:
http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31219

Looks like someone else had this problem, sent the camera back to RED and had some circuitry replaced. Seems it is only happening to a few cameras and RED knows the fix. Although i keep hearing the echo that blackshading works to fix the problem, but not for long and the camera eventually needs to go back to RED for a fix.

 

[Mark de Blok]

I never saw them in the monitor. In fact only saw them when i was doing color correcting in Redcine and even then it was not until i got way down the R3d files where the lines were very predominant. that made me go back and look at previous footage and what seems to happen is the lines show up very little and as time passes they get more and more visible---at least in my case. But now i know of it and will have a keen eye out for it in the future. I would hate to have to continue doing a camera reset and then blackshade to avoid this problem. As a quick interim fix it's ok, but not as a matter of normal use.

thanks for your explanation,
looks like a big problem if you can only see the lines in post because you will never know when they show during a shoot unless you view everyhting

 

[Andrae Palmer]

I've never had multiple lines like the OP. It's fairly safe to say that a single line in the center of the image is related to heat problems, all the cases I've had were just one single uninterrupted line in the center of the image. Multiple lines like what the OP poster has would have me worried and lead me to think it's a hardware issue.

 

[Rocco Schult]

same problem here, got it fixed through RED support, but they were very unclear what it was. 'internal component' was the only answer.