DSMC2 reliability

[EG Eriksson]

Hey guys,

Would like to pick your minds a little. How are you finding hardware reliability with DSMC2 accessories. I have not been a Red owner long and during the first more complex documnetary shoot my 4.5" touch screen died, leaving me to complete on my back up camera.

Whilst I understand that hardware failure can happen in any system. It is the first time that I have had an unexplained major issue in the field (aside from with DJI but lets not go there

It seems strange that a touch screen panel and power supply just dies. At 75% of new cost too.

What are you guys feelings? Are there weak links, hardware wise that one should be aware of?

Thanks

 

[Brendan H. Banks]

Bummer this happened. I think failures can happen with any camera. At this point DSMC2 is pretty solid but you will always find someone out there with a tough time. Rough way to learn but I always keep a full backup of ways to work with my camera. If I'm working with my 7" touch, I keep my sidekick and a smallhd monitor on standby. You can always make sure you have WiFI on and just a backup monitor to forego a sidehandle or sidekick. Best of luck.

 

[Justin McAleece]

Sorry for the bad luck my man. I've been shooting RED since 2008 and I have never had any of it die in the field. Other miscellaneous pieces, but nothing specifically RED.

 

[Tom Gleeson]

Generally DSMC2 should be good and I have had zero problems but I have had a few colleagues who have had problems. The DSMC2 is complex beast at a good price and anecdotally I suspect Sony and Arri gear may be more reliable although it would be foolish to believe these cameras can't fail as well.

I have owned multiple film cameras, Betacam type cameras and digital cameras and I have had a failure with everyone. Good to hear you had a backup camera and that is smart planning. When travelling I try and have at least some redundancy. I always have multiple spare cables, an EVF and a touchscreen, spare battery charger, media reader and if critical a spare body even if its just an A7S.

 

[EG Eriksson]

Thanks for the feedback. It is kind of my feeling. Alarms bells did start ringing when a vital accessory had multiple unexplained failures (ie main board and touch panel).

Having said that I do realise that this can happen to any system, I just wanted to know whether I was missing something.

Redundancy is valuable, but one this shoot it was limited to what I can carry. In this case my side handle and EVF stayed at home, so I had to finish up with another camera.

The wifi option is something I should considered and investigated. Good call.

Love the image quality of the Dragon sensor so will most definitely persevere.

Thanks

 

[Jamil Stubbs]

To me..... It seems if you have a RED product, The bad stuff konks out early.... Otherwise they last like tanks..

 

[William Long]

My 4.7 touchscreen died as well and cost £600 to repair. It should have lasted longer. Besides that, everything else has been really reliable.

 

[John Fitzpatrick]

Justin, were you using a wooden camera top plate? I’ve read nothing but problems with that piece destroying monitors and video boards.

 

[Gabriel Mann]

I only use RED electronic accessories (I only use 3rd party stuff for dumb accessories like mounts and handles) on my Helium and Gemini. They've quite literally been through hell and back and I haven't had a single problem. In fact it's uncanny what they've survived. I've been filming wildfires with them all year, been dumped on by helicopters, soaked with phos-chek, sucking in ash and smoke and embers and soot in 150+ degree temperatures, even had snow and freezing rain on a fireline at the end of the season...clocked thousands of hours without ever putting a bag over the camera and not a single failure.

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Shit happen.
After using my base expander during 3 1/2 year without problem in harsh conditions, it just died with some pin problems. It's probably due to a Paglink battery sofware failure that sent a false ampers info to the camera.
But it died on a important shoot.
I was lucky enough to have a friend that lent me his module. Red support was very very supportive.

Pat