Internal reel count fault in an mx camera

[Nir Shelter]

I have worked with 2 different MX bodies this month and have been very happy with both cameras so far.

The only thing that bugged me was that on one of the cameras (build 30.5.0) I reset the internal Reel count at the beginning of a film prior to our first drive format to 1. We continued to format drives as normal and the count was fine for the first 3 but when we reached reel 4 (A004C0...) the camera reverted back to reel 2. We then reset the internal counter again this time to 4 and the camera still formatted the drive as A002. :confused5:

Has any body else seen this happen?

I really liked the internal reel counter reset option especially for feature films I found it remarkably useful when we reach reel numbers in the 3-digit range.
There has not been a problem with the internal counter on any build that I can remember but I will not rely on the internal counter from now on without many formatting test on a body before a shoot.

Any thoughts from Red team?

Thanks.

 

[Chris Kenny]

I haven't witnessed this problem personally, but we're currently doing dailies for a feature where the tech reports the MX camera is having this issue. Got a couple of duplicate mag numbers before they caught on and started setting things manually.

 

[Cail Young]

Are either of you pre formatting media? Either on camera or with r3d data manager?

 

[Caglar Kanber]

Same thing has happened to us a few times before, on different versions including 30.5.0 on our non-MX cameras. Seldomly the camera formats a fresh card to the reel number of the previous card that was just taken out.
We always format the cards on a mac prior to re-formatting it in the camera as a new reel.

 

[Nir Shelter]

Are either of you pre formatting media? Either on camera or with r3d data manager?

I am I always format all media in the gear check or at least on the first day in camera. If a specific HDD is being especially prone to problems I will zero it out night before.
Either way I always format in camera prior to the beginning of the shoot then reset the internal counter and format the first magazine. Usually I would then let the camera count up the next reel number on the next format. But seeing as this is a known problem, not any more! Not until Red announce a firmware update that fixes this issue.

 

[Cail Young]

Is it at all possible that drives were attached out of order or that drives were not reformatted before use? Have seen behaviour like this when pre formatted media is used out of order. Check the date code in the volume name if you have that intact.

 

[Vico Martin]

Is it at all possible that drives were attached out of order or that drives were not reformatted before use? Have seen behaviour like this when pre formatted media is used out of order. Check the date code in the volume name if you have that intact.

for me it´s normal some times without any rules, never reformated, only with one of my non yet Mx R1 (B21)

 

[Tim Sutherland]

I always drag all the media to the trash before putting it back on the camera, that way the ACs know that if it doesn't say 'unformatted' then they should not erase the card or drive. Doing this, I haven't had any problems with the consecutive numbering in build 30, and we've formatted probably 300-400 times in the last 5 weeks.

Tim

 

[Doug Horton]

I always drag all the media to the trash before putting it back on the camera, that way the ACs know that if it doesn't say 'unformatted' then they should not erase the card or drive. Doing this, I haven't had any problems with the consecutive numbering in build 30, and we've formatted probably 300-400 times in the last 5 weeks.

Tim

you can do this, or simply delete the profiles, and it'll still come up "unformatted".

I just went through this "reel skip" for the first time last week, it skipped from A005 to A008, and it was quite stressful trying to find those three "missing" mags, until the scripty confirmed there were no reels, it just jumped.