Double exposure image on Komodo

[M Harvey]

I just experienced a very strange phenomenon on a recent shoot: what appears to be a faint double exposure over a series of recorded images.

We were shooting on gimbal-mounted Red Komodo in somewhat low temperatures (~30-40 degrees Fahrenheit) in dark woods with a campfire. Other possible aggravating factors:
-the camera was tipped over and fell approx 18 inches onto the ground.
-smoke from campfire (the camera passed through the smoke on some shots, and also sat within 3 feet of it at some points for 5 or so minutes, as it was the only flat, non-snow-covered surface).

On our small gimbal monitor, the overlay image looked like faint shadows. We checked lens and sensor as best we could in the woods with a flashlight, saw nothing.

Later back at an office space, we checked on a computer screen, and the image appeared to be more like a faint impression of a high contrast view of trees and rocks in snow. I ran calibration on the camera, and we didn't see the ghost image again after that.

Any ideas on what might have caused this? I wondered if it had something to do with the calibration process-- like I was getting a tone map-type image generated by previous calibration.

 

[Phil Holland]

Would 100% need to see a small segment R3D trim to give an informed opinion, but that does sound weird.

 

[M Harvey]

Thanks, Phil!

Shot in ProRes, I've posted 25 seconds showing
-3 short clips with the "double exposure" issue
-one clip post-calibration and back in a warm environment
-and one clip from earlier in day that shows the type of landscape that the double exposure resembles

I'm on firmware 1.7.0beta.

 

[Phil Holland]

That is a fascinating artifact. First question is was this purely prores or R3D?

I would very much forward this to RED support no matter the case. I'm suspecting the camera drop did something "funny" to the sensor itself.

It is a rare day that I see a new thing off of any camera. I truly have never seen anything like this. Closest I've seen was somebody putting a fair bit of pression on the sensor itself, the surface of it, and getting a permanent "dark spot". Which is sort of what I'm suspect regarding a drop here.

 

[M Harvey]

Pure prores (16:9 UHD 422HQ). (And freshly formatted card, so I wasn’t mixing on the media itself.)

Thank you for checking it out, I’ll forward to Support. And congrats on having just passed 13000 posts!

 

[Phil Holland]

Oh wow. Didn't even notice. It's been a few years for sure

 

[M Harvey]

In case anyone's interested, I just finished a very helpful back-and-forth with Red Support. They believe it was the result of an accidental exposure to light during a calibration. This makes sense, because I believe there was an accidental uncapped calibration attempt earlier in the day when the camera was mounted on the gimbal (and cap had been removed for balancing).

So: be sure to cover your sensor when calibrating!