Fan Noise

[Omar N]

Hi all!

Just a quick question about the fan noise on the Scarlet cameras. Can anybody tell me if this is still an issue during long takes? I know there was a firmware announced last year that was supposed to fix this, but I never heard how it actually panned out. I am wondering about the MX sensor with the original fan.

Thanks!
Omar

 

[David Battistella]

Best thing to do is set a core temperature and put the camera in adaptive mode. This way the fans will gradually come to a speed to cool the sensor rather than just turn on like a hair dryer. You can also program it to come up to speed ten seconds after you stop recording, just to not disturb the talent.

You could also add the top fan kit and the combination of the two fans with adaptive mode keeps the camera fan noise very manageable.

Battistella

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Adaptive mode set to 65 (or higher), as said by David, is the key.
I've been shooting Scarlet MX and Epic Dragon side by side. The Scarlet makes more noise than the Dragon.
Another top fan solution is the FanPlate and you get better noise results using it with the original bottom fan (V1)

Pat

 

[Omar N]

I see, so I am correct in understanding that it will still potentially get as loud as it used to without the update in firmware, but just won't do it so suddenly?

 

[Nick Morrison]

We did the fan upgrade, and it's made a huge difference FYI. We were shooting with two cameras recently, one with fan upgrade, one w/out (both on Adaptive), and the difference in noise was substantial. I highly recommend the fan upgrade (we went with BOTH fans).

best

 

[David Battistella]

If the camera is running hot in hot conditions it will cool the sensor. The new firmware is much more intelligent at reading the temperature and managing the fan speed to maintain that temperature. Depending on how long your takes are the fans can start to work harder and make more noise.

all depends on the situation.

Battistella

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

How noisy is an MX Scarlet compared to an MX RED One? We find our One to be very quiet when in "quiet mode."

Stephen

 

[Kyle Stryker]

I see, so I am correct in understanding that it will still potentially get as loud as it used to without the update in firmware, but just won't do it so suddenly?

The camera fan will gradually increase depending on what setting you are using now. There is a really good chance your camera will never override and suddenly goto 100% with the new fan algorithms. Adaptive mode is totally different than the original Auto and Manual modes. Set your camera to adaptive at 65 or 70 and the camera will hardly get above 35% depending on where you are shooting, and also yield better results since it keeps the sensor temp in check. The adaptive fan modes and new fans have been one of the best updates to the cameras since they were released.

 

[William Robinette]

I completed two projects of many interviews this past summer on Scarlet MX (50 or so set-ups) with the adaptive mode and the original 1 bottom fan. I left it set to 65 degrees and in a real world interview environment never had any complaints from the sound department. For one project the interviewee to camera distance was 6 feet.

If you are in a proper studio YMMV but in actual (quiet) locations I never even thought about it which is a stark difference from when we just had Auto and Manual.

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

We had one shoot with a Scarlet MX (our normal camera is a RED One), and the Scarlet sounded like a jet engine in the room. The footie had to be completely looped because of the fan noise. I definitely don't want that to happen again!

Stephen

 

[Patrick Tresch]

For the best sound performance there is nothing that beats the FanPlate with the V1 bottom fan and adaptive mode set to 70c.

Pat