Gemini Issues

[Kyle Kelley]

Rented out my Gemini this week for a shoot and the steadicam op reported a few issues I haven't dealt with before. Any thoughts on what may have caused these problems?


"To begin the day, the RED Gemini 5K camera was acting strangely. The LCD display screen repeatedly changed from it’s typical color-scheme layout to an entirely purple-tint over the image. In addition, when the camera was turned upside-down while attached to the Steadicam in low-mode, the camera’s power would shut off by itself.

Upon rigging my Bartech Wireless Focus System, the power running to the focus motors from the camera was surging and causing the motors to act erratically. They would skip, lag, and adjust in speed involuntarily. We were able to reroute the power source to my personal batteries operating off of my Steadicam sled, but that was not a permanent solution because that power source was necessary for all of the other accessories in use on the camera.

The Teradek Wireless Transmitter was sourcing power from the camera as well. It worked perfectly for the first half of the day. After hours of usage, shortly after lunch, the image transmission cut out. We discovered that the Teradek’s transmitter unit had overheated and fried the circuit board inside. This is typically caused by a faulty power source that overwhelms the unit in voltage."


I assume the "purple-tint" was just accidentally engaging the exposure mode, but the rest of the problems are a bit more concerning. Thoughts?

 

[Nick Morrison]

Consider getting a Scatterbox. They are great at managing power so there are no surges, like what you are describing.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Sounds like power issues.

I run my gemini, all camera AKS including focus motors, wireless transmitters monitors etc, off of the sled power system, and have never had an issue. Knowing if it was a reputable actual steadicam (Pro, MK-V, tiffen), or something else would probably go a long way toward explaining it. Hard to say without seeing what was being done, but I have seen some ACs and sound guys do some dumb shit on steadicam - like putting velcro over the fan intake to velcro a reciever onto for sound. Or driving a long 1/4 20 into the top because it's all they had and so they crank it through the top of the camera. The dumb is strong with some......

Nick

 

[Alan Zarnegar]

Rented out my Gemini this week for a shoot and the steadicam op reported a few issues I haven't dealt with before. Any thoughts on what may have caused these problems?


"To begin the day, the RED Gemini 5K camera was acting strangely. The LCD display screen repeatedly changed from it’s typical color-scheme layout to an entirely purple-tint over the image. In addition, when the camera was turned upside-down while attached to the Steadicam in low-mode, the camera’s power would shut off by itself.

Upon rigging my Bartech Wireless Focus System, the power running to the focus motors from the camera was surging and causing the motors to act erratically. They would skip, lag, and adjust in speed involuntarily. We were able to reroute the power source to my personal batteries operating off of my Steadicam sled, but that was not a permanent solution because that power source was necessary for all of the other accessories in use on the camera.

The Teradek Wireless Transmitter was sourcing power from the camera as well. It worked perfectly for the first half of the day. After hours of usage, shortly after lunch, the image transmission cut out. We discovered that the Teradek’s transmitter unit had overheated and fried the circuit board inside. This is typically caused by a faulty power source that overwhelms the unit in voltage."


I assume the "purple-tint" was just accidentally engaging the exposure mode, but the rest of the problems are a bit more concerning. Thoughts?

Hi Kyle,

Our Technical Support team can look into this for you if you want to submit a support ticket here: https://support.red.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000672754

Please pull a new log file from your camera and let the team know which accessories were attached when the issues occurred so they can help troubleshoot for you.

 

[Kyle Kelley]

Thanks for the replies, y'all. I've never personally had any issues with power surges on a wide variety of devices, so I'm assuming the operator was doing something weird. Either way, going to submit a ticket to RED and see if they notice anything screwy.