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  • 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 :)

How to shoot with the Red One in hot areas?

S

Safin Saliman

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Hi,

I am going to be shooting a feature in Iraq in June-August later this year. I heard its going to be very hot. Between 35-45 degrees celsius in the shade. How will the Red handle this? Is there any way to cool down the camera while shooting besides keeping it out of direct sunlight?

BR,
Safin Saliman
 
I believe in another thread some tips were mentioned such as: you can use ice-packs wrapped with a towel that you place on and around the camera, and you should keep the camera fan running at all times.
 
Get "granny Ice packs" the kind that are sealed and have a cloth outer skin. This kind will not "perpire" or sweat from condensation making it safe to gaff tape it to your cam body.

We shot a 3D feature last year under 110 degree sun on a blazing hot runway in Reno, NV. I had the fans on "hot" and got a temp warning. I imediatly grabed my granny bags filled them with Ice and gaff taped them to the side of the camera by the CF card read right where it says "red". Within a min. or so the warning went away and we continued to shoot all day for 14 days in this intese heat never had any issues again.

In extreme conditions I have heard of people "spacing" the back section of the camera allowing for an air gap. But given all the sandy condition in Iraq I highly recommend you do not do that and stick with the dry ice pack method I described.

other than that, take alot of canned air or a small air compressor and always blow thecamera clean of dust sand as often as you can.
 
Thanks for the replies! Where can I buy these kind of ice packs? Do you have any pictures of your Red with these ice packs? Also I have seen some picture of white dust covers for the Red, will these help keep the Red cool? Anyone know where to buy these dust covers?
 
I have shot in extreme heat with red and not had any problem. That being said, If I was going to put cold packs on my camera, I would buy a cooler and fill it with dry ice pellets. Put them in a mesh bag and apply to camera with no wet issues whatsoever.

Nick
 
Nick Gardner said:
I have shot in extreme heat with red and not had any problem. That being said, If I was going to put cold packs on my camera, I would buy a cooler and fill it with dry ice pellets. Put them in a mesh bag and apply to camera with no wet issues whatsoever.

Nick
Click to expand...

Hi Nick thanks for the tip, any ideas where I could buy dry ice pellets?
 
In the states, you would just look in the phone book. I would think that in a place like Iraq, it would be the same. Where are you shooting? I would think any decent sized city/town would have dry ice, particularly with the damaged infrastructure, it would be handy to keep frozen food frozen during power outages and transport.

Nick
 
Not sure there'll be ready available dry ice in Iraq. But nice if there is.

All good advice above and then there's the obvious, keep the camera umbrellaed from direct sun -- there are even small very light umbrellas you can rig to the camera itself.

In Iraq any moisture will be gone in a twinkling.

I've shot in extreme desert and no problems even without ice or cooling when I kept the camera shaded and ran the fans constantly. Up to about 115 F.
 
I am shooting in a city located in northern Iraq called Kirkuk. I have never been there so I can't say what they have available. Think I will have to ask the producer who has been there several times now if they can buy some. Or maybe I can buy it here in Sweden and take it with me to Iraq. Does dry ice last a while or will it melt during transit? Think I must research this a bit.
 
I see some of you guys have shot in temperatures ranging from 110-115 F which equals about 43-46 C. This is basically as hot as I expect it to get (in the shade). Did you encounter any problems. Did you have to turn off the camera often to cool the camera or could you shoot until the batteries were empty? Sorry for asking so many questions, just trying to imagine shooting in this kind of heat (I am from Scandinavia you know...).
 
on that note, Im also going to be shooting in the desert on Red soon, and for a select few shots we will be going through the desert at pretty high speeds, and obviously with the notion of keeping my glass unscratched, any recommendations for optical flats aside from what I could rent?
 
Safin Saliman said:
I am shooting in a city located in northern Iraq called Kirkuk. I have never been there so I can't say what they have available. Think I will have to ask the producer who has been there several times now if they can buy some. Or maybe I can buy it here in Sweden and take it with me to Iraq. Does dry ice last a while or will it melt during transit? Think I must research this a bit.
Click to expand...

its impossible to find ice packs in kerkuk :sifone:
 
Ricky depends on what lenses you have but you could always use a screw in UV filter or optical flat in your matt box and "bag it" back from there.Also tape up all openings on the camera
I shoot a lot in the desert and the sand WILL go everywhere,
In the summer we are normally at around 50 C and 85% humidity here. But have never had a Red camera go down (as yet) But I always have a couple of large fans blowing on the camera (and me :) when we are MOS or in between takes.
Have not needed the ice packs yet, but I do have them standing by also a large umbrella
 
i haven't used my Red in really hot temperatures, but these things will definately help some. Its pretty obvious stuff..

i) if covering ice packs to avoid condensation, make it white, rather than black material. White cloth should be better than mesh as it will reflect heat from the ice packs, as well as the camera

ii) Umberella/ sun shade to hide camera from the sun. Again, preferably white, with dense light proof material (you could bodge together and extra layer of white material and gaffer it onto umberella if needed.


I suppose you can get special sun shades already, but im in the UK, so don't know :)

The effect of using white material to block sun, over other colours etc is quite extreme, I think I saw an experiment on TV where two pieces of paper were left in the sun for an hour. I believe the black paper was 40% hotter by the end.

Obviously this is why white washed buildings and white clothing is popular in very hot places.

:coolgleamA:
 
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