future of black shade system and procedures.

[Marcello Altieri]

I would like to know if in the future red cameras will be able to function with any black shade at any temperature. I notice that my dragon performs well at certain temperature. On the set the time is very important and most of my dp are used of different camera brands and very difficult to explain the whole bargain with black shade and it's influence in the camera performance. Love Red and i wish that this baby camera system will grow exponentially all the way to a more advanced system where black shade will be just a memory.

 

[Wil Wong]

Just curious, does Sony cameras or the Alexa need to Black shade? I don't use those cameras but wonder if Black Shading is a 'Red' only thing?

 

[Brian Merlen]

i would love to know more technical details on why reds blackshade process is so long relative to other cams.. not a complaint, but genuine curiosity on my part...

 

[Brian Merlen]

Just curious, does Sony cameras or the Alexa need to Black shade? I don't use those cameras but wonder if Black Shading is a 'Red' only thing?

phantom does em, sony does em, alexa strangely does not..consumer cams do not either

 

[Timur Civan]

Alexa does, they just have a silent cooling system that adjust temperature to keep it consistent. To get a new black shade you have to send an Alexa back to arri, or qualified service house.

This is part of the reason its bigger, its cooling system is pretty big.

 

[Brian Merlen]

i wonder what would happen if i blackshade a red with only partial light leaks, but designed and stylized light leaks...i could make noise patterns in cam, right? i really wanna get a scarlet to play around with, do some weird stuff to lol

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

designed and stylized light leaks...i could make noise patterns in cam, right?

Blackshading subtracts noise and raises the black level and removes noise. Imagine bringing in the black level from the left of the "levels" tool in photoshop. If you leak light you'll have dark splotches without any noise which is the exact opposite of what you want. Also it could be done in post much more easily. If you want more noise in a place then blackshade for 1/1,000th of a second shutter and then film a 3 second exposure averaged and subtract it from your footage with a mask. Then you can sculpt it with an alpha channel not in camera.

 

[Nawaf Alsabhan]

Just curious, does Sony cameras or the Alexa need to Black shade? I don't use those cameras but wonder if Black Shading is a 'Red' only thing?

Panasonic P2 Eng cams and Sony Eng cams had blackshading, but it's hidden so most people don't know how to blackshade.
If I remember correctly, Panasonic cams blackshade by holding the white balance button for 3 or 5 seconds, and a shutter automatically comes down to block light from hitting the sensor, it only took 20 seconds.

 

[Aria Khosravi]

Just curious, does Sony cameras or the Alexa need to Black shade? I don't use those cameras but wonder if Black Shading is a 'Red' only thing?

Sony F5 and F55 require a "black balance" as well but it only takes a few seconds.

Alexa does not have a blackshading function to my knowledge, however it is known that the Alexa exhibits hot pixels and other noise artifacts at extremely slow shutter speeds, such as 1 second exposures as you might use for quick impromptu timelapse work. If it did have a blackshade function, there's a good chance it might eliminate that problem, as similar artifacts are present on RED cameras if you try to shoot low FPS without re-doing your black shade. Here's an example of the artifacting on Alexa and a discussion on it: http://litpixl.com/2011/10/26/image-artifacts-on-alexa-at-slow-shutter-speeds/

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

Sony F5 and F55 require a "black balance" as well but it only takes a few seconds.

Alexa does not have a blackshading function to my knowledge, however it is known that the Alexa exhibits hot pixels and other noise artifacts at extremely slow shutter speeds, such as 1 second exposures as you might use for quick impromptu timelapse work. If it did have a blackshade function, there's a good chance it might eliminate that problem, as similar artifacts are present on RED cameras if you try to shoot low FPS without re-doing your black shade. Here's an example of the artifacting on Alexa and a discussion on it: http://litpixl.com/2011/10/26/image-artifacts-on-alexa-at-slow-shutter-speeds/

on a feature movie we shot 1fps night stuff and entire image was hotpixels..Duh! would be good to have blackshade option on alexa!