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Protecting the Scarlet in the desert

M

Monte Casey

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With its large top-side exposed heatsink and grill, the scarlet doesn't exactly inspire confidence in shoots where the elements could pose a problem. Case in point; I have a shoot in the desert next weekend and during our location scouting today we noticed tons of particulate blowing around - so my question is:

How are people protecting their cameras in non studio conditions? Any specific blimp or cover that would work?
 
i built a piece out of aluminum similar to RED top plate. Let an open gap on top of heat area. Put a breatheable mesh on top of that that is supposedly supposed to repel water. works good for protection from snow or light sprinkles, but no way im shooting in solid rain haha. keeps out dirt and dust and small bits of water.
 
FWIW, it has been stated, although it seems a long time ago, that the cooling ducts where the fans are and the air circulates are sealed from the innards of the camera. I believe Jarred once said, perhaps hyperbolically to make a point, that you could pour water through the vents and it would not enter the inner workings of the camera. I take no responsibility for damage of you try this but perhaps it will give a little comfort. :smiley:
 
Interesting. Can we get confirmation on this from RED?
 
Paramon Ivanovich said:
not from RED,
but looks real
:))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR1rKgWb1F8
Click to expand...


HA! Fantastic.

I'd heard it was sealed, but knowing Jarred said something along those lines Terry does give comfort, thanks.

I'm going to be shooting is some desert environs too Monte. So this was something i'd been considering also. Heat vs protection, and access/operation are the obvious factors. Nothing out there I've found that really fits my needs. So I'm going to get something made up. Had a pretty bad experiences in the past in a Desert environ.
Sometimes you learn the hard way :(

Will post pics when i eventually do it. Interested to see what solution you end up using if you get a chance.

Best

Lliam
 
I've sucked up enough dust through the front fan that it blows back out the top vent. Dust so thick you can't see 1foot.

I made a blog post here:

http://mattjohnstonsfp.com/2012/03/12/red-scarlet-x-as-a-documentary-tool/

But basically.

You can either A: Suck up lots of dust into the fans and hope for the best. Or B: Cover with something to prevent dust intake, and then overheat the camera and have to shut down.

I don't think the cam really cares about dust in the heatsink. Although I could foresee a situation where the fins would get clogged with dust and need to be cleaned to function properly.

At 90 degrees in the desert with a thin fabric covering my intake fan I was at 126% fan in 3-4 minutes and had to shut down.

With a rain cover or some full covering I don't think it would be usable for long in the heat.
 
Amaury Bargioni said:
guys, the part where he pours champagne over the camera is clearly not real :)
you can see at 00:46 that the liquid is over the lens, "in mid air", so there must be somekind of transparent plastic bag over the camera.
Click to expand...

Also, it's not a real chimpanzee playing baseball in Ed, just a gymnast in a monkey suit. MYTH BUSTED.
 
I'm also shooting in the desert in three days. I thought about putting a mesh in front of the intake conduct, thinking now twice about doing that. Would be great to have input from Red on this matter.
 
Matt Johnston said:
I've sucked up enough dust through the front fan that it blows back out the top vent. Dust so thick you can't see 1foot.

I made a blog post here:

http://mattjohnstonsfp.com/2012/03/12/red-scarlet-x-as-a-documentary-tool/

But basically.

You can either A: Suck up lots of dust into the fans and hope for the best. Or B: Cover with something to prevent dust intake, and then overheat the camera and have to shut down.

I don't think the cam really cares about dust in the heatsink. Although I could foresee a situation where the fins would get clogged with dust and need to be cleaned to function properly.

At 90 degrees in the desert with a thin fabric covering my intake fan I was at 126% fan in 3-4 minutes and had to shut down.

With a rain cover or some full covering I don't think it would be usable for long in the heat.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience Matt.
 
So if the cooling heatsinks and fan are separated entirely from the internals, can we just run it in dusty conditions and use canned air to clean out the heatsink during the shoot? Like doing maintenance on a PC?

I would think after a year you would want to blow out the air path anyway as dust collects
 
Joe Minuni said:
So if the cooling heatsinks and fan are separated entirely from the internals, can we just run it in dusty conditions and use canned air to clean out the heatsink during the shoot? Like doing maintenance on a PC?

I would think after a year you would want to blow out the air path anyway as dust collects
Click to expand...

yes, in theory. But still stresses me out.
 
I got the following response from my Bomb Squad rep: "I would recommend using and kind of shield from the wind protecting the intake of the camera, just make sure that the intake isn’t blocked from taking in air."
 
Enrique Blein said:
I got the following response from my Bomb Squad rep: "I would recommend using and kind of shield from the wind protecting the intake of the camera, just make sure that the intake isn’t blocked from taking in air."
Click to expand...

Intake is the front grill below the lens, correct? I wonder if a piece of cheese cloth ghetto rigged over each grill would work? The dust/sand particulate is pretty fine, so I imagine a simple net wouldn't work too well.

It would be great if there was something you could rent or buy? Maybe I'll have to make something further down the line, but for right now I think we need a solution.
 
I've shot a bunch in the desert with my epic, mostly dirt bikes and offroad racecars or truck, so a ton of dirt flying around. I run a really loose fitted rain jacket from one of my old cameras, I think its a PETROL cover for the HVX200 just to keep the as much of the dirt and dust out as I can. I'll go in and change the fan setting to run at 90% full time (except when recording). It's essential to have your assitant or grip keep the camera in shade with an umbrella or flag. That's about as much as you can do. I was hoping to find on this thread that someone has a fix for it.

I have had bits of sand and dirt jam the fan and the camera shuts down. We just blew it out with air. I'm sure the RED dudes would not recommend it, but it worked so we could keep shooting. I've thought about velcro-ing some simple window screen material to the front of the fan but that won't fix the fine dust. I also keep a delkin sensor cleaner in my kit so I can keep an eye on the sensor. Hope this helps.
 
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