Recording Events on Scarlet - Overheating?

[jimhare]

So I'm shooting some clips on Scarlet-X of a theatre performance which I expect to be quite quiet at times. Hopefully if I set the recording speed to 40% and the standby speed to 45% it will be quiet enough for me to be fairly close to the audience as I operate and not kick into overdrive.

So 75 degrees is the temperature at which the fans will kick up in Manual mode? I'm planning to shoot 4K Quad HD so hopefully the reduced data helps a little.

I do this all the time and it's fine. In a theater, the fan at 40-60% doesn't bother anyone and I've never been in danger of overheating. I have shot everything from 3k-5k for hours at a time and never had a single issue. Just got my Scarlet but don't expect it to have any problems with it.

 

[Andrew Gentle]

I do this all the time and it's fine. In a theater, the fan at 40-60% doesn't bother anyone and I've never been in danger of overheating. I have shot everything from 3k-5k for hours at a time and never had a single issue. Just got my Scarlet but don't expect it to have any problems with it.

That's good news, thanks Jim! I'm sure I won't have any problems.

 

[jimhare]

No problem Andrew. I found on lower fan settings sometimes it would jump into fan overdrive for a few seconds but no one other than me seemed to notice. Taking one step from the camera it was basically unnoticeable. So find the highest fan setting you feel comfortable with and go from there.

Jeez, just crossed 3000 posts, I talk too much!

 

[TonySegreto]

Damn Jim, Ya gotta stop posting cat videos =)

 

[Andrew Gentle]

Well, I set the fans to 45% in standby and 40% in record and that was easily quiet enough for this environment. I set the SSD's top user key to toggle the fan modes and let it spin up in auto for most of the time anyway, only dropping down to my manual settings when things were really quiet. This was the first proper job I've done with Scarlet and it's impressed me so much. The dynamic range is phenomenal and perfect for high contrast lighting situations like stages.

Here's a still:

 

[Timur Civan]

Was shooting a Dance performance at a big yoga center, so i set the cam to 40% fan.

7 minutes later the Scarlet went up to 73 degrees C, and the fan went ballistic at 147% for almost 6 minutes straight..... needless to say its like having a hair dryer on during an event about quiet meditation. Most embarrassed i've ever been on a shoot in my life, especially causei pushed for the Scarlet. The Center owner said to me after, "My leaf blower makes less noise" and walked away.... sigh*

The cam needs to be at about 55% to maintian 48C. for MOS or where sound isnt an issue i keep it in manual at about 60% in standby, and 90% when rolling. The temp drops to 42 degrees, and i find the picture comes out a bit cleaner.

 

[TonySegreto]

@Andrew Good to hear! That image looks great. Also cool that you set a user key to fan mode. I wouldn't have thought about that.

@Timur Very interesting. Was the Yoga studio hot? Sad to hear you had a crumby experience. Hopefully the footage outshines the sound =)

 

[Timur Civan]

Yea it was very hot. like 85degrees in the Main room.

It was just a perfect storm of bad circumstances.

 

[Alvise Tedesco]

The cam needs to be at about 55% to maintian 48C. for MOS or where sound isnt an issue i keep it in manual at about 60% in standby, and 90% when rolling. The temp drops to 42 degrees, and i find the picture comes out a bit cleaner.

Thanks.
But where do this 48C comes from?
I was looking for the "correct" temperature to keep the cam at, and I don't seem to find this on the manual.

 

[TonySegreto]

I think it has a temperature read out next to the histogram in the ui. I think it says something like 37C/48C So the first number is your temperature, second is your max temp. I'm out right now, but I'm pretty sure that is where it is.

 

[Alvise Tedesco]

I think it has a temperature read out next to the histogram in the ui. I think it says something like 37C/48C So the first number is your temperature, second is your max temp. I'm out right now, but I'm pretty sure that is where it is.

No. They both measure actual temp. I'm pretty sure one is core (brain?) temperature, the other one sensor temp.
But I was asking where RED indicates at what temperature the sensor SHOULD be kept, since I don't seem to find this info on the operation manual pdf

 

[Tom.Wong]

whatever the temp is at while it's in idle and stays steady is pretty much the optimum temp for the cam. i find a scarlet likes to set around 43 degrees or so and a epic around 53. but the tolerances for max temp are the same,they both start overheating at over 70. if you can keep the cam in the 50's it's pretty much humming along at its best.

edit: and yes the scarlet runs about 10 degrees cooler than the epic, so you can actually run the record for longer at lower fan speeds than compared to epic.

 

[Piers McGrail]

I'd like to resurrect this theard as I have a shoot coming up that will require both long takes and low fan noise. From other posts it seems that running an Epic quiet enough for sync sound [in a quiet interior] for long durations [30mins+] is not possible without the risk of overheating. Would it help to use cooling packs around the camera or is it an internal heat that is impossible to cool? And thoughts?

 

[Martin Whittier]

I too would be interested in hearing experiences related to long takes where sound is critical. I am starting to prep for a single take Steadicam movie with the Scarlet and any input here would be great. I will be conducting my own tests shortly but tips for keeping the fan low and the temp down would be appreciated.

 

[AJ Aguirre]

My 2 cents is. Do not manually set your fans to 25%. Here's why.

I was recording the other night outdoors in probably about 58 degree weather. Nice and cool. We had fog machines going and I didnt want the fans to suck in the fog so I set my fans to 25% and about 10 minutes later I hear the fans kick on suddenly (remember i'm on manual) and I knew something was up. Checked my temp and it was wayyy too high. Turned the fans on and it cooled off very quickly luckily.

Just want to stress that even if you think it's cool enough outside to run fan speed low, it probably isn't a good idea without closely watching your temp.

 

[Milton Santiago]

I was shooting a sit down interview today with my fans set on auto at 25% when recording...first time out so I wasn't very sure what would work best...

Fan kicked in about 5 minutes in and scared the heck out of me. Fortunately it happened between questions so it didn't totally kill me.

If I'm hearing everyone's suggestions right, it would be better to be in Manual at about 40% fan, is that the consensus for interviews?

 

[Patrik Kisucky]

From my experience, shooting nterviews, I set my fan on manual on 35-37, and it takes about half an hour for the fan to kick in. But I think it depends on the room temperature too. I was quite surprised, when it happened the firs time, but since then, I always let the interviewee know, that it will happen, and it takes about 5 sec, for the cam to go back to lower fan speed mode.

 

[Mike 'Fireman' Ross]

I didn't shoot that long, but I did shoot out on flowing lava fields on Kilauea a couple of weeks ago (footage coming!).

No real long takes, but air temps pushing 140 degrees at points, plus extreme radiate heat.

The camera took as much as I could take, and never blinked; fan ran hard but not one overheat warning. For the future I'm making up a reflective heat cover, using the Ombre rain cover as a template, but made out of reflective aluminized fabric, to cut down on the radiant heat.

Mike

 

[Martin Whittier]

My steadicam to Scarlet power cable came in today, so I was finally able to do a power and over heating test on the system. The camera is running off the Steadicam sled powered by two IDX powercubes with 50% fan speed and 7:1 compression, ambient temp is about 70. The camera ran over 1 hour 30 mins without any hiccups to speak of. I pulled off the touch LCD to save on power but instead am running the Steadicam monitor. This test did not include the Bartech follow focus and Redbyte down converter but remaining power seems ample to cover those accessories. After an hour and half the power was still running at 14volts. This test was important for me since I will be participating in a single shot steadicam movie shot on Scarlet within the next few months. Hopefully this info will be helpful for others as well. Does anyone know of any other movies shot in one take on Scarlet or Epic?

 

[Will Keir]

Thanks Mike, very helpful numbers and heat text. 140 degrees, I think my shooting max is 110f. Turning the Epic on for the first time, I really noticed the fan noise. Never remember the fan on the R1.

I didn't shoot that long, but I did shoot out on flowing lava fields on Kilauea a couple of weeks ago (footage coming!).

No real long takes, but air temps pushing 140 degrees at points, plus extreme radiate heat.

The camera took as much as I could take, and never blinked; fan ran hard but not one overheat warning. For the future I'm making up a reflective heat cover, using the Ombre rain cover as a template, but made out of reflective aluminized fabric, to cut down on the radiant heat.

Mike