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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Red one & Cold weather -- Anything to be aware of?

Beautiful back yard :) I really like the second shot.

So that is mid day-ish overcast right? Do you have any clear mid days?

The reason for asking is that I am trying to gauge how much easier it would be to shoot people surrounded by white snow with the added dynamic range of Red as opposed to other digital cameras that I could afford.
 
USlatin said:
Beautiful back yard :) I really like the second shot.

So that is mid day-ish overcast right? Do you have any clear mid days?
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Thanks.
Yes, was shot some time between 11AM and 1PM. I have snow storms only...:shifty:

USlatin said:
The reason for asking is that I am trying to gauge how much easier it would be to shoot people surrounded by white snow with the added dynamic range of Red as opposed to other digital cameras that I could afford.
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Hmmm... Let me see if can do a test shoot next week. I will PM you with some pics.
 
Flippping cold today at Rock Harbor in Orleans, Ma on Cape Cod. The only issue I started to notice was the banding on the EVF as it got colder. I plugged in the USB Cup warmer over the EVF and solved that straight away, but I would say it cuts the battery life by at least 30%. Still a nice solution.

I will post some of the pixs soon as I get them off loaded tonight, plus edit up a small clip.

Ron
 
Just plug it in.http://ca.youtube.com/LightingArts
A Portable Generater comes as standard equipment with our Lighting/Grips pkg truck.
its proven to be a very usefull for a variety of needs on set locations.
ie :running power for a warming box ,charging batts, powering heated clothing,making hot coffee etc....
 
Wish I would have found this thread last night...

We were shooting on the shore of a small lake today at temps around 25F. We had EVF issues straight away so we abandoned it for the LCD. We started shooting around 9:00am and everything was running smooth until about 2 hours into the shoot. We started getting stuttered viewing, the LCD flashed on and off and we got a recording error of "Audio_Fault", then we started dropping frames like crazy (shooting 2K 16:9, RC28 to 8GB CF). We didn't have any cover on the Red, so my guess is that it finally cooled down to the breaking point.

We pulled out our second Red and got it up and running. It had been sitting out all morning so it only lasted about 20 minutes before we started seeing "RocketIO_Fault" warnings. We switched back to the first Red and tried the Red Drive which got us a few more shots, but then went down again. We pulled it indoors for 30 minutes and were able to record without issue inside. We didn't have any way to keep the camera insulated and we had lost about 2 hours of shoot time, so the director wrapped for the day and sent me off to solve the problem before tomorrow.

I think everything is back to normal and I have all of the necessary accessories in the gear kit now, but for those that are shooting outdoors in anything under 40 degrees, BE PREPARED!

If this shoot was for a paying client and now a favor for a friend, we probably wouldn't be hired again.
 
David Anderson said:
We didn't have any way to keep the camera insulated and we had lost about 2 hours of shoot time, so the director wrapped for the day and sent me off to solve the problem before tomorrow.
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A trash bag to trap the heat from the camera do the job in case of emergency.
 
David Anderson said:
Wish I would have found this thread last night...

We were shooting on the shore of a small lake today at temps around 25F. We had EVF issues straight away so we abandoned it for the LCD. We started shooting around 9:00am and everything was running smooth until about 2 hours into the shoot. We started getting stuttered viewing, the LCD flashed on and off and we got a recording error of "Audio_Fault", then we started dropping frames like crazy (shooting 2K 16:9, RC28 to 8GB CF). We
Click to expand...

I had this exact issue with those recording settings in the middle of summer on an average day. Dropping frames like crazy on the 8GB Cards. Was the scene you were shooting filled with trees or lots of detail? If so, this could very well have been your problem, not the cold. I noticed with these settings on the 8GB Cards that dropped frames will occur in some high detail scenes.
 
Thanks everyone for the pointers and suggestions. I too am shooting in Canada (up north) in late February. Will post any additional problems or solutions once done with shoot.
 
mikeburton said:
I had this exact issue with those recording settings in the middle of summer on an average day. Dropping frames like crazy on the 8GB Cards. Was the scene you were shooting filled with trees or lots of detail? If so, this could very well have been your problem, not the cold. I noticed with these settings on the 8GB Cards that dropped frames will occur in some high detail scenes.
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Actually yes. We were shooing through trees and weeds along the bank, but we didn't have any issues earlier in the day shooting very similar scenes. Once the weather warms up I can shoot the same shots again and see if I can recreate the problem. Is there a work around for this?

I know the cold was the issue with one of the cameras. It wouldn't record at all, even with the lens cap on. And at one point we weren't even getting an image displayed - looked just like we had a lens cap on. It basically shut down. I'd press record and it would lockup, give me the "RocketIO" error and then freeze. It wouldn't be recording but the record light on the back of the camera remained lit. I had to reboot and was able to replicate the error several times. I just tested that camera a few minutes ago and it's working perfectly now that's it back to room temp.

I'm feeling confident that I'm prepared for tomorrow and we'll be able to finish out the shoot, but today was really rough.
 
David Anderson said:
Actually yes. We were shooing through trees and weeds along the bank, but we didn't have any issues earlier in the day shooting very similar scenes. Once the weather warms up I can shoot the same shots again and see if I can recreate the problem. Is there a work around for this?

I know the cold was the issue with one of the cameras. It wouldn't record at all, even with the lens cap on. And at one point we weren't even getting an image displayed - looked just like we had a lens cap on. It basically shut down. I'd press record and it would lockup, give me the "RocketIO" error and then freeze. It wouldn't be recording but the record light on the back of the camera remained lit. I had to reboot and was able to replicate the error several times. I just tested that camera a few minutes ago and it's working perfectly now that's it back to room temp.

I'm feeling confident that I'm prepared for tomorrow and we'll be able to finish out the shoot, but today was really rough.
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I would say, if you can avoid 2k and shoot 3k it should help and or try the new 16gb cards if you have any. Other than that, if you think it's safe to use the REDDRIVE try that but I have heard others suggest against the drive in extreme cold for risk of damage.
 
USlatin said:
Nice thread. Please post more exterior shots from the camera! I would really appreciate some mid-day shots of skin tones in the snow!!

I can't wait to see snow again... I miss it so bad when I see it.
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Here are some snowy, mid-day character and landscape shots from the student short I did last month. These are re-sized screengrabs before color-correction.
 
So it looks like you had the snow juuuuuust below clipping on the first and your skin tones were perfectly exposed. Did you add any light?

Any chance you could upload all three of them as a tiff or other uncompressed format, preferably a 1080? I would really love to see how much you could push them! (I'm assuming these are all 320 ISO) And at what times were they?

Thank you so much for posting them!
 
USlatin said:
So it looks like you had the snow juuuuuust below clipping on the first and your skin tones were perfectly exposed. Did you add any light?

Any chance you could upload all three of them as a tiff or other uncompressed format, preferably a 1080? I would really love to see how much you could push them! (I'm assuming these are all 320 ISO) And at what times were they?

Thank you so much for posting them!
Click to expand...

No problem!

Unfortunately I don't have the actual raw footage with me at the moment, not 'till next week. Yes, it was all shot at 320 ISO. No added light. First one was probably between 1:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon on a cloudy day. The other two were likely taken around the same.
 
I have just been out for three full days with 3 red in -10 to -12 degrees celcius, we had problems with EVF's but, LCD worked like a charm (heat packs on the back of LCD). Had Rocket_IO problems once the first day, but some cheap 17" macbook neoprene covers took care of the windchill that cooled down the camera. We shot with drives all day and had zero drop frames. Heat packs where on them all the time and a small 15" macbook neoprene covers over the battery and drives trapped some heat from the heat packs.

We were shooting 8-10 hours a day, zero issues. I'm a very happy puppy. We kept them running at all times so they didn't freeze up. Spare drives and batteries in a warm car, lenses in a cold car. We were above the arctic circle.
 
I take it that was Celsius making it about 14 Farenheit. Very useful post Carl, thanks.

Derek, thanks for the details... I guess the exposure differences were from the aperture then... I bet you can't remember what they were but if you have a rough idea I would really appreciate it.
 
No clue, honestly. These were shot with the Red 18-50 lens, that's about all I can tell you. When I get the raw footage back next week, I'll be sure to post some TIFFs.

Good luck with your future winter shoots, and have fun in the snow.
 
Shooting in the cold with this camera is adventurous now with the new warranty changes.

"RED has concluded some additional testing on temperature ranges for RED ONE and accessories."


The lightweight thermal blankets that reflect up to 80% of radiated heat. Cut them up and wrap the Red, taping it on. I have seen gaffer tape work, but the clear flexible hockey tape is good too. With the camera running, this will work at minus 20 C no problem. Do this to the batteries and wrap the batteries up in another protective layer. Will run the camera for about an hour no problem. I've seen this work for the Red Drive as well. The drive worked flawlessly. (If you want to see how a hard drive reacts to the cold you want to shoot in you can take a laptop with software loaded that will allow you to monitor the hard drive. Take the laptop outside and see how the temp drops while you transfer over from your CF card or a thumb drive.) The drive from what everyone has said though, well, its a gamble in my books. This was all during the day too, hardly any wind and full sun.

I was told that if you can, when finished outside, put the camera in a running car to slowly re-climatize it. The temperature inside the car can be easily adjusted. Make sure that the AC is on. Most cars will turn the AC on automatically with the defrost option. The AC dehumidifies the air. This is with the temp in the warm. The same process can be used in reverse to cool the camera before taking it outside. If you want to go a step further buy one of those inexpensive household temperature/humidity gauges.

I have a question about lenses. I've heard some say that when you bring a lens into a warm area that you are supposed to bag it for a short period of time. As the lens warms up the moisture is attacked to the interior of the bag, rather then the lens. I have no clue as to the validity of this, that is why I am asking.
 
Where did you guys find a reliable source for the USB Beverage heater that can be used to wrap around the EVF?
 
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