Battery Voltage display and the other things

[Nick Gardner]

First of all - I have 2 reds. They are great. I love the camera and the company, and am very thankful for everyones hard work.

Now, Has Red every said anything one way or the other about adding a voltage display in the view finder? If for some bizzar reason it can't be done thats one thing, but it is a feature that should be there. It's not just about using 3rd party batteries, there are tons of aplications where it would be very useful - jibs, steadicam, any remote mounting situation, weight sensitive/vibration sensitive situations etc.

I kind of wish they would finish the camera they already made before they run off to design a bunch more. Red 1 shouldn't be treated like the "practice" camera.

Cheers,

Nick

 

[D Namir]

.

I kind of wish they would finish the camera they already made before they run off to design a bunch more. Red 1 shouldn't be treated like the "practice" camera.

Cheers,

Nick

Nick,
I have 2 Reds also and I couldn't have said it better than you had.

 

[Tico Llaurador]

I think that's exactly what they're doing, but not quite within the same form factor as the R1. Hence the full price credit for the Epic-X.

At least that's the way I look at it.

:wink:

 

[Rich Schaefer]

DITTO! I couldn't agree more!

I do have to say here we go again. (Maybe it will happen if the issue keeps coming up)

 

[Stuart English]

Voltage meter

Voltage meter

Has Red every said anything one way or the other about adding a voltage display in the view finder?

We do know the voltage from the RED-BRICK battery system, but what value to you would there be to display a voltage level, rather than the % charge remaining?

 

[Mitch Gross]

Well, it would be nice to know the voltage of any battery not just a RED brand unit, and it would also be nice to know the camera's minimum voltage cutoff.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

I agree with Mitch in a big way.. We need communication with ALL major brands, not just REDs
Jay

 

[Rich Schaefer]

Red has been short sighted on this one since the beginning.

Red cameras ARE powered by other power sources like jibs, steadicams, underwater housings, motion control rigs.....

Why there is no in camera voltage monitoring and more importantly protection for itself as a computer to low voltage is crazy to me.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Lets say the camera is on a jib. You don't want to fly a battery. You run to a block battery. Showing the voltage in the viewfinder keeps you from running the battery so low that the camera shuts down mid shot. It also lets you know how much line loss you are getting from your cable.

Every single professional camera made in the past 15 years has a voltage read out. From the SDX900 to the arri 535. It is incredably usefull. It is also often more accurate than the percentage deal.

Please enable this feature,

Nick

 

[Nick Gardner]

One of the other things....

Was just watching a screening with my editor, and he brought up the "whatever happened to being able to create a look in red cine and load it into the camera?" thing.

Is this still being pursued? Any Idea of a time line?

Cheers,

Nick

 

[Brook Willard]

We do know the voltage from the RED-BRICK battery system, but what value to you would there be to display a voltage level, rather than the % charge remaining?

Hey Stuart,

I'd say that on 95-98% of the jobs that I work, we don't use RED's batteries. There are other batteries out there with other features [built-in P-taps, the ability to be split, different capacities, block batteries, etc.] that go beyond what the RED Bricks are capable of.

So since almost every single battery I use with the camera is not a RED battery, we have to go blind on when the camera is going to die. The solution has been to wire external boxes that show the system's voltage. Depending on the load of the camera and accessories, I've found that it will die anywhere between 11.5v and 13.0v. Fewer accessories, lower failure voltage.

That box works, but it's an extra box we have to put on the camera... and not everybody has one.

I would love to be able to toggle between the RED "percentage" and a standard battery voltage on the rear of the camera. It would also be nice to have a user programmable "safe shutdown" voltage... so that if we forget to change batteries in time, the camera will cut and safely power down. Obviously since voltage drifts, there would have to be some conditions on that shutdown... perhaps that a battery must remain at X volts or lower for X seconds. So, with my example above, if the camera sits at 13.0v or lower for 15 seconds, the camera will cut and power down. This would have to be a separate option that could be disabled... as everybody's batteries are different.

Thanks for listening. This has been a real bugger for the last year and a half.

 

[Rich Schaefer]

Hey Stuart,

I'd say that on 95-98% of the jobs that I work, we don't use RED's batteries. There are other batteries out there with other features [built-in P-taps, the ability to be split, different capacities, block batteries, etc.] that go beyond what the RED Bricks are capable of.

So since almost every single battery I use with the camera is not a RED battery, we have to go blind on when the camera is going to die. The solution has been to wire external boxes that show the system's voltage. Depending on the load of the camera and accessories, I've found that it will die anywhere between 11.5v and 13.0v. Fewer accessories, lower failure voltage.

That box works, but it's an extra box we have to put on the camera... and not everybody has one.

I would love to be able to toggle between the RED "percentage" and a standard battery voltage on the rear of the camera. It would also be nice to have a user programmable "safe shutdown" voltage... so that if we forget to change batteries in time, the camera will cut and safely power down. Obviously since voltage drifts, there would have to be some conditions on that shutdown... perhaps that a battery must remain at X volts or lower for X seconds. So, with my example above, if the camera sits at 13.0v or lower for 15 seconds, the camera will cut and power down. This would have to be a separate option that could be disabled... as everybody's batteries are different.

Thanks for listening. This has been a real bugger for the last year and a half.

Yes! We Need This!!!!