First Camera Glitch

[Bob Gruen]

Day three of shooting a feature and we ran into our first camera glitch. We started getting what sounded like a cross between digital and analog static on audio channel 2. It would flare up at the end of any sound in the dialog range. We stopped shooting and began to troubleshoot it and discovered it was also on channel 4. After tinkering with cables and our SD 302 for about 45 minutes we finally rebooted the camera and that fixed it.

The next day we were converting to ProRez and the footage shot on that card has a lot of dropped frames. I'm now in the process of using RedLine to try to salvage as much as I can manage.

Anyone else run into this? My camera is 5107 sporting a Birger mount, Pro LCD, Sound Devices 302, and running mostly on A/C. Nothing unusual going on, shooting indoors on a tripod so no jostling or anything like that...

Bob

 

[A. Bastaki]

was it a 16GB card? there seems to be an issue with those.

 

[Robert Berger]

up-graded 16 GB card?

up-graded 16 GB card?

was it a 16GB card? there seems to be an issue with those.

Was it a up-graded 16 GB card? or the "old" one?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Sometimes running the camera on AC power invites some problems if there are power spikes or other interferences.

We once had the camera on batteries, not AC power, but because of a badly-wired dimmer box plugged into the same AC power box as the video monitor, a power surge travelled along the BNC cable leading back to the camera and shocked the operator (and caused some dropped frames.)

 

[PatC]

Sometimes running the camera on AC power invites some problems if there are power spikes or other interferences.

We once had the camera on batteries, not AC power, but because of a badly-wired dimmer box plugged into the same AC power box as the video monitor, a power surge travelled along the BNC cable leading back to the camera and shocked the operator (and caused some dropped frames.)

That is wild!

 

[Steve Freebairn]

was it a 16GB card? there seems to be an issue with those.

What issues have you seen? I've never had an issue from the most extreme vibrations to normal simple shooting.

 

[Mark Pugh]

Sometimes running the camera on AC power invites some problems if there are power spikes or other interferences.

We once had the camera on batteries, not AC power, but because of a badly-wired dimmer box plugged into the same AC power box as the video monitor, a power surge travelled along the BNC cable leading back to the camera and shocked the operator (and caused some dropped frames.)

David
Shooting onto Cards or Drive when you got the dropouts?

... I had shocks at the camera from the monitor cable a couple of months ago. Ironically we were shooting a scene of a girl being electrocuted by a hair drier hitting a flooded floor of a bathroom.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

This has happened to me as well and not just with RED, for this I never use the AC adaptor directly plugged in to the outlet, I use an Inverter with Battery back up, no matter what, and never had a single issue, this should be good practice even just as we do with computers.

ciao

 

[Ivan Egorov]

Sometimes running the camera on AC power invites some problems if there are power spikes or other interferences.

We once had the camera on batteries, not AC power, but because of a badly-wired dimmer box plugged into the same AC power box as the video monitor, a power surge travelled along the BNC cable leading back to the camera and shocked the operator (and caused some dropped frames.)

Whoa!!! How bad can it be for the RED ONE? I heard one of my friends had a Silicon Imaging camera burn like this.

 

[Mike Thorn]

I wonder: would this issue be solved with the addition of a UPS in the power line sequence (preferably feeding both monitor and camera)?

On my last feature, the DP liked to keep the camera on battery 100% of the time, and I have to say that I fell in love with it. A lot less cable wrangling, fighting with G&E , etc.

I've been thinking about buying a UPS just for the situations where the DP wants to keep the camera on power for long periods of time (a camera-intensive light setup that will take the better part of the day, etc).

 

[Rob van Gelder]

Keep in mind that the power supply from the Red One is a electronic type, and it has no transformer in it but is i some way directly connected to mains.
That means that if you have a badly (or not at all) grounded wall outlet or mains cable, you will measure about 110 volts (in Thailand at least) between any metal part (ground) and the real ground/earth.

This is true for most modern power supplies, also those build into LCD's and other equipment: there are hardly any real transformers used in modern equipment, due to weight and size.

and it can become even more dangerous when using several different wall-sockets between equipment that is in some way connected (by bnc cables for instance), meaning: a camera on a power supply in one room while a monitor is connected somewhere else on a different wallsocket that happens to have a different phase.... then the real current and voltage is running on the grounding and people and equipment can get shocked and damaged!

Been there, done that and constantly fighting this situation in this country - Thailand - where "grounding" seems to be non-existent......

 

[jbeale]

The switching power supplies I know about do have a transformer, but it is a very high frequency one which makes it small, light, and cheap. If you do have a grounding problem, an isolation transformer could help (or, of course, an isolated battery + inverter)