Futur New Old Red One MX user :)

[Mohamed Ali]

Hello to all!

I am very happy to join this forum which seems to be full of information!

Well, I'm a small short film maker based in Belgium and I usually shoot on hybrids or the very first BMPCC.

I decided to take the plunge in a (very) timid way by getting a RED ONE MX

I was offered to buy one with about 2900 hours on it... should I turn my back or is it the norm for a cinema camera?

Thanks to you !

 

[Phil Holland]

I would say in my experience there is no "norm" when it comes to operating hours. I've seen cameras with a 15-15,000+ hours out there working.

The things you should really look for are condition and ownership situation. i.e. was this camera beaten up or taken care of.

There's a famous saying in this industry "treat it like a rental" and that usually produces a camera with a fair bit of wear.

The good news is a lot of RED cameras are DP or operator owned, or even DIT for that matter. And odds are they watched them like a hawk.

 

[Mohamed Ali]

Thank you Phil !

 

[Zack Birlew]

I would say if the price is good then that should be fine, there's even some RED Dragons for sale with only a few hundred hours and I've seen many other brand cameras with thousands of hours selling for similar prices to others with much fewer hours so it's all over the place with the used market. I have questioned whether to buy stills cameras with thousands and thousands of shutter clicks though but sensor hours for a video camera should be fine as long as it's still in healthy condition.

My RED One MX has been great, although some pixel spots have shown up at maximum zoom as I'm going through After Effects for final VFX and color on my first feature, easy to fix with normal pixel fix methods or Boris FX's pixel fix plugin, and it was only in some certain nights' shots but that's because I admittedly didn't routinely blackshade unless I saw significant spots while filming, so from one fellow RED One MX user to another, do keep an eye on your blackshade practices while filming.

 

[Mohamed Ali]

I would say if the price is good then that should be fine, there's even some RED Dragons for sale with only a few hundred hours and I've seen many other brand cameras with thousands of hours selling for similar prices to others with much fewer hours so it's all over the place with the used market. I have questioned whether to buy stills cameras with thousands and thousands of shutter clicks though but sensor hours for a video camera should be fine as long as it's still in healthy condition.

My RED One MX has been great, although some pixel spots have shown up at maximum zoom as I'm going through After Effects for final VFX and color on my first feature, easy to fix with normal pixel fix methods or Boris FX's pixel fix plugin, and it was only in some certain nights' shots but that's because I admittedly didn't routinely blackshade unless I saw significant spots while filming, so from one fellow RED One MX user to another, do keep an eye on your blackshade practices while filming.

Thank you for your answer !, Being my first cinema camera can you tell me more about this technique that I have already read elsewhere and which intrigues me (blackshade)

 

[Zack Birlew]

Yes, you go into settings and find the blackshade option that you will periodically have to do depending on several factors, namely temperature changes and running the camera for long periods of time, like we did for several weeks of feature film production in multiple indoor and outdoor locations. Ideally you should do this before you film as the process takes 10+ minutes and you leave a body cap on the camera, using a fully charged battery, and cover it to be in as much darkness as possible without covering any vents as the camera could get hot doing the process. Since we hopped around to different locations, I should have technically blackshaded the camera more often than I did but it performed admirably nonetheless. Also, if you do a blackshade and notice any weird noise or lines, do another round and that normally fixes things. More here on the concept:

https://www.red.com/learn/archive/options?article=black-shading-calibration

 

[Mohamed Ali]

Yes, you go into settings and find the blackshade option that you will periodically have to do depending on several factors, namely temperature changes and running the camera for long periods of time, like we did for several weeks of feature film production in multiple indoor and outdoor locations. Ideally you should do this before you film as the process takes 10+ minutes and you leave a body cap on the camera, using a fully charged battery, and cover it to be in as much darkness as possible without covering any vents as the camera could get hot doing the process. Since we hopped around to different locations, I should have technically blackshaded the camera more often than I did but it performed admirably nonetheless. Also, if you do a blackshade and notice any weird noise or lines, do another round and that normally fixes things. More here on the concept:

https://www.red.com/learn/archive/options?article=black-shading-calibration

Thank you very Much !