Red in sub zero conditions (-9c)

[Matt Mahoney]

Hi Guys,

I've got my first sub zero shoot coming up. I'm used to DSLRs in these kind of temperatures, but I wanted to check whether there is anything in particular to look out for on the Red?

Thanks!

 

[Ted Parkes]

There has been a few discussions on the topic but there are a couple things to consider. You have to be aware that once outdoors your lenses have to stay out there with you. As soon as you go inside you have serious condensation issues. The other thing is you want enough power to run your camera continuously while in the cold. The Sensor cools off very fast at that temperature. You will want to run the camera outside and let it settle on its own temperature. Calibrate the sensor at what ever temperature the camera settles on. You should be fine. I have had some issue with lenses getting tight at that kind of temperature. Had to switch to manual focus the wireless couldn't turn the lens reliably.

 

[John Aldrich]

What Ted said. Just got back from a shoot (in an igloo!) in northern Sweden and battery life was our biggest issue. FWIW, 150w v-mount batts still last plenty long even in those temps. And do a black calibration once the camera's settled in to the temp it'll shoot at, and you'll be fine.

Lens condensation is no joke -- doesn't take a lot. We were shooting outside the igloo shots of the crowd coming in, and then went inside and our lenses fogged up due to the body heat of the 190+ people in the sub-zero room!

 

[Matt Mahoney]

Thanks guys.

John, going to be little further north in the Norwegian Alps. Should be good!

 

[Andre W.]

So I spent a day in an Engineer's Testing Freezer at -20º with a few RED's. Tested to see how everything would react so when the cameras went to Everest the AC's new how they would react. Fun day let me tell you.

- Cables become nice and stiff
- LCD EVF if turned on as the temp dropped had no problems. LCD EVF that was turned on after temp had dropped had issues, banding / polarization, image display problems. After it had been on for a bit, re-plugging in seemed to clear out the image size / location issue. OLED EVF didn't seem to have an issue.
- Placing my eye to the eye cup caused issues for me. Condensation from my breath would come up to the eye cup and freeze, then as I placed my eye to it the moisture would transfer to my skin and then freeze on my face........
- Fans hardly came on at all and temp on camera never really got above 40º. So after it's been on for a bit, black shading would be ideal.
- We used Fujinon 19-90's with a sub-zero grease. Nice and light so no issues in focus / zoom / iris travel. Plus those lenses have plastic rollers in them so it made less of a chance for issues internally on the lens.
- Batteries Batteries Batteries Batteries. Cold is the evil villain to batteries. Power is going to go fast.
- Touch Screen worked beautifully

Condensation can be a pain, so beware of that. I might suggest taking plastic bags. And before you go into a different climate, placing everything in a sealed plastic bag. The thought process behind this is that it will allow the object to be brought up to room temp, while condensation will form on the outside of the bag and not on the object.



Just a few of the things that we encountered. All in all, I was impressed with how well everything performed.

 

[Ian Planchon]

- Touch Screen worked beautifully
.

the 5" LCD touch worked well at -20? I have always had issues with LCD' of any kind in sub zero temps, I am on a shoot now and brought all OLED's anticipating that problem. Would be cool if the touchscreen didn't have any issues though!

 

[Matt Mahoney]

Thanks Andre. All very reassuring!

The plan for the batteries is to keep them on a belt clip inside my down clothing. Hopefully that should work.

Condensation on the return to indoors has got me worried. Presumably this can also be an issue as the camera comes up to temp as well?