battery hell in Beijing

[Bing Rao]

I was just in Beijing last week. On two film sets I visited, I found that there is always a guy holding an electronic fan which blows hard on a red one camera. All the Chinese camera assistants and cameraman are telling me that it is because Red One camera is too cheap! "Sony F900 doesn't have this problem!" They say. If you switch off the cooling fan, or small air conditioner unit, the camera become very hot. It shuts itself down.

Does this happen to those who use Red One in the States? I don't think it is a design issue. It is for real, I saw it happen in front of my own eyes that the camera shut down itself every 40 or so minutes. Nightmare!

Thank you!

 

[dino g]

it is a super computer, computers get hot, it is very very easy to manage. go out and buy gel packs or frozen peas (all you old timers will get a kick out of that one), put the camera on the hot setting and replace the cold packs every 20 or 30 minutes depending on the temp...my rule of thumb is, if i am hot, the camera is hot, it needs to be cooled.

good luck

dino

 

[Andrew Walker]

If you have the fans set wrong or are working in a really hot environment then yes the camera will shut down when it gets too hot. It will give you a warning when its getting hot. Just use ice packs if your going to be in a hot environment. But on a stage it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Brent J. Craig]

I have used Red Ones all over the world, including several deserts in 40 degree+ heat.

I have seen a Red One overheat exactly once - when I had covered it completely in a plastic bag to keep dust out on a car rig in the desert. I had stupidly covered the air-cooling ports on the camera, so of course it overheated after 30 minutes or so.

Do your friends in Beijing know the camera has fans built in? Do they have them set to AUTO so the camera can run them as much as it needs???

 

[Shawn Booth]

What does overheating have to do with batteries?

I'm sure I'll regret saying this -

I can't wait to see a camera OH. I know it's not particularly hot in Hawai'i but...
I'm from Texas, I know heat. I lived in Costa Rica, I know hot and humid. I've been to Iraq, I know heat.

I can't wait to see the need for ice packs to operate my RED. Not saying this is BS but I do find it hard to believe. I have known people to touch the camera and exclaim it was super hot, only to touch it myself and realize some people freak out prematurely.:willy_nilly:

 

[Dylan Macleod CSC]

If you turn off the fan the camera will overheat and shut down. Just set it to auto. It will turn off when rolling so sound isn't an issue.

The cameras do not overheat even in very hot weather.

 

[A. Bastaki]

50+ deg C
115% humidity
it has been almost 2 years

when it gets really hot... i just used my bottle of water, trap the cool bottle under the top handle.

never had my camera shut down.

F900 .. 3 hours in the empty quarter desert... the plastic side cover got loose... one of the buttons fell off.

jvc hd100U got a sensor burn, where half the sensor was a darker color than the other half.

canon xlh1's mount got loose. tape expansion jams.

hpx panasonic... sand trapped in lens. zoom jam.

canon xh a1. the camera's focus ring wont move focus.

 

[Anson Fogel]

Never a heat shut down

Never a heat shut down

I shot all day yesterday in brutal direct hot sun, high temps, on a kayaking shoot. No heat related shutdowns. Shot on the Grand Canyon for 3 weeks often in HOT conditions, direct sun. No heat shutdowns.

With fan on auto or hot, have never had a temp shutdown. Now, OTHER shutdowns...that's another story. But never heat.

I don't get it. Maybe our cameras that have no problems are odd? Doubt it. Maybe they are turning the fan off due to noise?

 

[Scott C.]

I was just in Beijing last week. On two film sets I visited, I found that there is always a guy holding an electronic fan which blows hard on a red one camera. All the Chinese camera assistants and cameraman are telling me that it is because Red One camera is too cheap! "Sony F900 doesn't have this problem!" They say. If you switch off the cooling fan, or small air conditioner unit, the camera become very hot. It shuts itself down.

Does this happen to those who use Red One in the States? I don't think it is a design issue. It is for real, I saw it happen in front of my own eyes that the camera shut down itself every 40 or so minutes. Nightmare!

Thank you!

Cheap? No. If the manufacturer chose to save a few bucks by omitting a cooling system in a camera that required one then I'd have to agree, that is cheap. That isn't the case here though, is it?

Disabling the cooling system for an extended period of time on a machine that you know runs hot brings other adjectives to mind.

 

[Peter Hodgins]

it is a super computer, computers get hot, it is very very easy to manage. go out and buy gel packs or frozen peas (all you old timers will get a kick out of that one), put the camera on the hot setting and replace the cold packs every 20 or 30 minutes depending on the temp...my rule of thumb is, if i am hot, the camera is hot, it needs to be cooled.

good luck

dino

Why do you guys all sound like you must also be Obama supporters?

 

[Andrew Walker]

Why do you guys all sound like you must also be Obama supporters?

Wow this conversation went from a nice little camp fire to someone throwing dynamite on the fire. As if this thread already didn't have enough confusion from the title not being related to the problem.

 

[jimhare]

Sounds like a lack of English skills or research kept them from the fan control. Probably simple as that.

 

[James Brundige]

Why do you guys all sound like you must also be Obama supporters?

WTF does this mean???

 

[Dominic Cochran]

WTF does this mean???

He probably means that these folks are advocating simple, reasonable solutions to a problem. Simple and reasonable as reading the manual and putting the camera on auto.

 

[Scott C.]

He probably means that these folks are advocating simple, reasonable solutions to a problem. Simple and reasonable as reading the manual and putting the camera on auto.

Isn't the fan on Auto by default? You have to go in and turn it off manually, I hope. Pardon my ignorance, but I'm holding out for the next generation.

Simple solutions like throwing a bag of frozen peas on top of your $20k camera? I'm hoping that there is no way for the condensation to run into the chassis and fry the electronics in the same way that I hope my next Snickers bar won't cost me $20. :001_smile:

 

[Stefan Christou]

it is a super computer, computers get hot, it is very very easy to manage. go out and buy gel packs or frozen peas (all you old timers will get a kick out of that one), put the camera on the hot setting and replace the cold packs every 20 or 30 minutes depending on the temp...my rule of thumb is, if i am hot, the camera is hot, it needs to be cooled.

good luck

dino

Yeah I can almost (very vividly) see Obama saying those words from behind his lectern after skipping up to it with the flags and such. atriot:

If you turn off the fan the camera will overheat and shit down.

Profanity?

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

And with that my friends a new "hollywood film term" has been invented:

Shit Down: To overhead from excessive heat and additional hot air blown on equipment, most likely from complaining oriential or US crew members. In a sentence:
We were in the desert cause we know heat, and when the crew got to close to the RED bitching about the fan noise, the camera just suddenly SHIT DOWN.

:thumbup:

Now completely off the subject and tasteless.. Has anyone studied this one:

uke:

The look on this little guys face before he hurls is priceless, and when he does it even comes out his nose...

Such attention to detail!

Jay

 

[Andrew clemson]

50+ deg C
115% humidity
it has been almost 2 years

when it gets really hot... i just used my bottle of water, trap the cool bottle under the top handle.

never had my camera shut down.

Same Locations, and I've never had the camera physically shut down from the heat either. Even when wrapped in plastic to block sand.

To be fair, Ive seen the "Body hot" warning countless times, both here in Dubai, in A.D, in Lewa and in Qatar. (pretty much guaranteed to see it on an outside shoot here at the mo) Ive always manually powered down at the next available opportunity and given the camera a chance to cool down in the nearest car. We just try to shade the camera as much as poss, and keep the fans on auto.

Is there a subsequent warning after "Body Hot" before the system shuts down?

On a side note, shooting last week an AC carried the camera outside after shooting inside all day and was surprised when the lenses fogged up. I did notice however that the sensor was fine, is this common, or was I just lucky? I would have thought the sensor would have fogged just as the lenses do.

 

[J. Eric Camp]

I have shot in China, Thailand, Argentina, Malaysia, Jordan and Egypt. (to name the hot ones) Rain-forest to desert. With proper fan settings, thoughtful placement of accessories, proper onset practices of shade, down time and external cooling when necessary... I have never had the camera shut down for heat.

People complain about technology with out taking the time to understand it.

 

[Brian Ferguson]

I have had my camera in interior situations where the cast and crew were almost passed out because of heat and the camera had no problems. One of those instances was in the Arizona desert in August in a building made of rock. There was Air Conditioning units in the doorways which were off during long dialog takes, meaning the fans on the camera were also off during those takes. When the A/C was turned on the thermometers on the A/C units would read 110 F. We did this for 3 days and the camera never had a problem. Also as one well known Director of Photography told me "This is the first camera I have used that gets quieter when you tuned it on"

Also as to the comment of the F900 I had a Sony 900 on a 85-90 F set once and could not keep it going to finish a commercial it - was depressing, not even close to the heat my RED has been in. In fact in the very early F900 firmware the 900 had to be set to constant high to keep it functioning.