Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

camera sync for motion control

H

Hansi_Ho

Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2009
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Austria, close to Vienna
Hello everyone,
I'm new to the 'red' community - if my questions are stupid, please be gentle :-)

I'm used to synchronize my motion control equipment to digital cameras with timecode output, but I could not manage it today with the red one (SW build 20).

Every time I switched on the red I got another phase between its timecode output and the aquisition window of the shutter (I used a flash light synchronized to the timecode output as test equipment, camera set to 50% shutter).

As second try I put an Ambient Clockit 202 onto the genlock input of the camera and connected my flashlight to the timecode output of the Clockit. Again the phase of my flashlight seemed to be random after each camera power on.

(Yes, I've checked my flashlight ...)

Please can someone give me a direction how to gain synchronization with the camera (probably answered 100 times before, but I couldn't find it)?

Best regards
Hansi
 
Sync

Sync

Two questions: Have you also selected GENLOCK in the camera's SHUTTER menu ?

And what is the capture frame rate(s) of the camera compared to the genlock signal frame rate from the Lockit?
 
Hi Stuart,

I was not the camera operator, so I not sure about the shutter setting. To be honest that didn't even come into my mind because the Clockit was permanently mounted onto the camera - but I will check that asap.

All frame rates have been set to 25fps (commercial for TV in Austria).

Anyway, should there be a defined phase between the timecode output of the camera and the shutter?
 
Bluesy, nice to see you aboard..... Genlock was activated.... the PHASE function seems not to work since day one.... asking for that again... so Motion Control as 3D would be problematic if that doesnt work....

thx

rainer
 
Hi Rainer,
good news and bad news.

Good news is that we did not initiate a false alarm last Friday.

Bad news is that (if we have not overseen some settings and our camera is not broken) I don't see a chance to sync the moco rig with the camera.
But then I don't understand also how anyone shoots 3D (maybe I should have better asked in the 3D thread).

Stuart - or anyone: any further hints?

Thanks in advance and best regards on a lazy Sunday
Hansi
 
Hansi_Ho said:
Hi Rainer,
good news and bad news.

Good news is that we did not initiate a false alarm last Friday.

Bad news is that (if we have not overseen some settings and our camera is not broken) I don't see a chance to sync the moco rig with the camera.
But then I don't understand also how anyone shoots 3D (maybe I should have better asked in the 3D thread).

Stuart - or anyone: any further hints?

Thanks in advance and best regards on a lazy Sunday
Hansi
Click to expand...

Hi,

Unfortunately the Red camera does not have a shutter pluse. For some motion control needs you may 'get away with it' but it's far from satisfactory.

One of the reasons I am shooting Film for 5 days next week.

Stephen
 
Hey Stephen !

Was nice that we have met in munich last time.... hope everything is ok....
So we will look one more time into this issue... what i have seen so far at the stroboscope, that the PHASE function is not working, also a bad thing when you have this small black line on a tv in frame.

But what I'm also thinking is that we genlock via Lockit but the motioncontrol gets only the TC signal.
Has the TC signal exact the same sync as the genlock signal?

regards and nice sunday evening guys...

rainer
 
Shutter Phase adjust.

Shutter Phase adjust.

Which camera firmware Rainer ? It wasn't working in some recent ones, but it should be good again now..
 
Last edited:
Rainer Fritz said:
Hey Stephen !

Was nice that we have met in munich last time.... hope everything is ok....
So we will look one more time into this issue... what i have seen so far at the stroboscope, that the PHASE function is not working, also a bad thing when you have this small black line on a tv in frame.

But what I'm also thinking is that we genlock via Lockit but the motioncontrol gets only the TC signal.
Has the TC signal exact the same sync as the genlock signal?

regards and nice sunday evening guys...

rainer
Click to expand...

Hi Rainer,

I was good to meet you too.

I think you will have better results with TC sync, obviousely it will only work at sync speed

Good luck,

Stephen
 
Hi Stephen,
>I think you will have better results with TC sync, obviousely it will only work at sync speed
I guess everything on 25fps means pretty sync speed,
and TC will not be synced, it gets only jamed (or we missed to find the setting to sync).

Hi Stuart,
>Which camera firmware Rainer ?
Build 20, I was told.

No matter what we did, the camera's sensor seemed to have an arbitrary phase in relation to video and TC after ever power cycle.

Any hint for improvement?

Hansi
 
Re: camera sync for motion control

I have a Motion Control job coming up in early November as well and would dearly love to be able to slave the shutter on the Red camera to the mocon movement. Like Hansi_Ho we have been unable to get a reliable lock using timecode and the shutter. For this upcoming job we were just going to free run the camera and fix the errors in post (as the budget won't reach for film), but if there is a way of achieving sync I would love to hear about it.

Any help with regard to firmware versions and/or techniques for achieving this would really be appreciated.

Kind regards,
Scott Inglis
www.giantasianrobots.com
 
Hansi hab dich mitn blusey verwechselt....

So did again a test and shoot, and everything worked fine. It is essential that the moco and the camera get the same genlock sync as timecode, lockit settings should be also checked.

Didnt tested the phase function today, but will do it tomorrow...

regards
rainer
 
Giant Asian Robots said:
I have a Motion Control job coming up in early November as well and would dearly love to be able to slave the shutter on the Red camera to the mocon movement. Like Hansi_Ho we have been unable to get a reliable lock using timecode and the shutter. For this upcoming job we were just going to free run the camera and fix the errors in post (as the budget won't reach for film), but if there is a way of achieving sync I would love to hear about it.

Any help with regard to firmware versions and/or techniques for achieving this would really be appreciated.

Kind regards,
Scott Inglis
www.giantasianrobots.com
Click to expand...

Hi,

Are you shooting a lot of footage? I am shooting MOCO all week on 35mm, I expect to use 1600' in total so film works out way cheaper than using a Red.

Stephen
 
Hi Stephen, Multi pass shot in one TVC with an amateur talent - we would have to use lots of film (ok for me), but as it is also food based, the agency want to see the hi rez pics on set so it has to be red.

So Rainer, you are saying that if we use an external timecode source that has both the RED camera and the mocon slaved to it, it should work? I will test next week. Thanks

Scott Inglis
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top