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Reliability of RED Cameras?

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Aiden H.

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So I've been hoping to make the jump into RED cameras sometime in the near future. I love the tech and all the available options in the ways to shoot with them. But amongst my research I of course came across a lot of naysayers. I've found quite a few people expressing issues they had. Camera crashing, faulty media, etc. So I wanted to reach out to you operators and ask you to share your experiences. How often do you encounter issues? How did you manage to troubleshoot? How robust do you find these cameras? Any input is appreciated!

Also, I would like to ask about the noise from the fans? Are they an impeding factor in capturing good audio? I started as an Audio Engineer so I know good audio is important. But I'm not sure how to approach noise coming from the visual source. Thanks!
 
Been shooting with Reds since the first Red ones. I had one failure in 10 years. That's better than most cameras I have used. I have worked on many TV shows and movies, as well as docs all over the world with them. I have never heard a 1st hand account of corrupted media. The fans are fine. If the sound guy complains get a new sound guy. I would like to point out that House of Cards won an emmy for sound, and that has always been a red show (congrats on the last day BTW HOC).

Nick
 
I'd suggest a warranty with reds or arris or you end up like me with a worthless Alexa lol
 
I've sent my cameras back about half a dozen times over the years for RMAs. That being said, every new line of camera has gotten better with respect to reliability. Scarlet-X for me was at nightmare, Epic-MX and Dragon had their issues. So far with Epic-W, not a single problem.

Oh and with the problems, customer service has been top notch. The best I've ever experienced.
 
I've owned a few bodies, having upgraded my way up from a Scarlet X, Epic, Epic Dragon, Weapon 6k and now Monstro and I would say Reds are super reliable, as much as any electronics I've owned. Ive shot (with whatever Red I owned at the time) in nearly every environment except desert. Arctic, high altitude, in underwater housings, rainforest etc and never had a serious issue. There's a bit of a caveat with Reds... you kinda need to do some homework and know the system. As opposed to Arri cams which are pretty simple (in terms of software and possible/common hardware setups) Reds have more options and features which does sometimes result in more user error.
-There is a tendency for some Red Owners to buy cheaper (3rd Party) AKS, which are what cause many of the problems, i think. Cheap LCD/EVF cables/adapters and power supplies/cables/plates and batteries are common culprits it seems. DSMC2 seems to be pickier about how you power it, over previous bodies.
-Beta firmware builds can be buggy, hence they advise against using one on commercial jobs...
-Redmags are bulletproof in my experience. One of mine fell in a pool and still worked (did fail eventually). Other than that, not one media related issue in my 6 years as an owner (as opposed to encountering quite a few C-Fast problems on other cams)
-Sound. DSMC2 is a big improvement on that front (and the auto-cal blackshade). That said I've noticed my Monstro does tend to run the fans more... hasn't been a problem yet, sometimes when I know I'm shooting long interviews I'll set the camera up to run hotter (higher target temp) and blackshade appropriately. The sound guys do complain sometimes... but it hasn't ruined any shoots yet.
-I don't recall any crashes... in all 5 models I have owned... Maybe I'm lucky?

Anyway, JIC i do tend to carry a secondary way to power, monitor, and a backup card reader. I use the Wooden Camera DSMC2 top plate with lemo normally, but also carry a Red Lemo Adapter A and extra cables at all times, though I haven't needed it yet. I consider having backups/being prepared part of my job.
 
There are some wise words written above. Reliability has been an issue with early Red cameras and this has slowly improved over time. Having said that I replaced my film gear in 2008 with a Red One and have owned multiple cameras since and none have missed a beat. While I have had had small non critical issues over this time no camera has failed me.
BUT
Make the effort to learn the camera menu and system. If you want to keep out of trouble you really need to read the manual and understand it. In my discussions with people operator ignorance is a major factor.
Reduser is a valuable resource. Use it. Learn from other peoples mistakes and ask questions if something is not clear. Also be aware that people often only post when something has gone wrong creating an impression of calamity.
Much of the folklore on Red reliability goes back to the Red One where certain cameras seem to be real trouble and this was compounded by the affordability of the Red where suddenly individuals were renting cameras to producers and they had no idea how to setup and maintain a camera like the traditional rental houses. I would also advice not renting your camera out to others unless you truly trust them. While you can take a baseball bat to an Alexa I am not comfortable abusing my camera in the same way. Remember the saying “Don’t be gentle its a rental”
 
Never had a major problem with a Red camera. And my Epic-W has been good since day one (needed some firmware updates to fix some glitches though).
Red had this bad reputation at the begging that still carries to this day unfortunately. They have gotten better and with the unified body I think it will get a lot better.
BTW with any electronic device they are bound to have some samples with problems over time. And the ones that have problems are usually the ones that are "louder" (some with more merit than others).
Anyways I have had a great experience with Red's CS. They were fast and resolved the issues I had (minor firmware related). And I live in a place with no Red local support so I was scared at first but not anymore...
Well this my experience at least...
 
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Thanks for all the comments gentleman! Now I just need to figure out which brain to get lol.
 
My RED cams have been super reliable. Other than the occasional bug from a firmware update-that’s always been rectified with the next update. I will say it seems like a lot of problems come from 3rd party accessories (Wooden Camera Top Plates) or Mags not being securely formatted when shooting with different formats.
 
Chris Kennedy said:
My RED cams have been super reliable. Other than the occasional bug from a firmware update-that’s always been rectified with the next update. I will say it seems like a lot of problems come from 3rd party accessories (Wooden Camera Top Plates) or Mags not being securely formatted when shooting with different formats.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the heads up. Would you say the WC Pass Through Top Plate would be in the same boat in terms of issues?
 
Aiden H. said:
Also, I would like to ask about the noise from the fans? Are they an impeding factor in capturing good audio? I started as an Audio Engineer so I know good audio is important. But I'm not sure how to approach noise coming from the visual source. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Depends on a number of factors, for example:
1) how critical you are being about the sound (one person's "quiet" is another person's "noisy")
2) the particular scenes you're recording (a close up that you want to record quiet breathing might be an issue, but doing a stand up interview next to a busy road then the camera fan is never going to be an issue! Relatively speaking)
3) the skill of the camera crew in knowing the settings/work arounds for not letting the fan kick in during recordings
4) if you care about not being able to critically assess ambiances prior to rolling as well (but then again, generally the chit-chat and movements of the crew are killing your ability to do that anyway)
 
Interesting timing of this thread because my Epic-W randomly wiped a mini-mag last week in the middle of a shoot.
I'm currently working with Red Tech to get it resolved. Upon review of the camera logs they think there is a hardware issue. I've only been a red user for 1.5 years. I have a buddy that DIT's for a major tv show and they've shot on RED for 7 seasons without any hiccups like this.
Honestly, my Epic's UI has hung up often and been laggy since the day we got it, so maybe I just got a bad one.
 
Aiden H. said:
Thank you for the heads up. Would you say the WC Pass Through Top Plate would be in the same boat in terms of issues?
Click to expand...

Are you joking?

Google it + Reduser. Before you brick your "brain."
 
I’ve had my WC top plate since I got my Epic-W 1,5 years ago. Never had any issues. The bnc port blew on my Epic-M, but that was due to user error with a paralinx arrow wireless transmitter.
I’ve had the cameras hang a few times, but that’s very rare. Restart have always solved the problem.
 
It depends where and for what you use your Red camera. In remote locations,in hostile environments, heat, cold, sand and dust etc... Red cameras my be not the best choice. Arris may be a better choice. But I don't shoot in sich locations so cannot comment on that sufficiently.

Red's technology is pretty cutting edge. This has a price. One is beta testing the soft and hardware with the customer when she camera model is new in the market. The other is price stability of used cameras. Red cameras tend to lose pretty quick re-sale value. The beta testing on customers and the problems that arose in early times from problematic colour science payed much into the common bias towards Arri.

I'm on the Red train since day 1 (2008). I did all upgrades but stopped to invest into DMSC2, this may change with the new line-up and price policy. This said, I had 3 dead sensors and one project badly hit by a dying sensor problem (pattern noise). But in hindsight, now 10 years, I muss say that my Red cameras (currently Epic Dragon) did/do a remarkable job and were/are pretty reliable. The 10 years before my Red relationship I've shot almost exclusively on film and compared to that a Red camera is a safe haven.

Never lost a shot or had any trouble with the Red media. However, others have different experiences.

Hans
 
On the hostile environment side. I’ve used all our Red cameras extensively in the mountains in winter time. Hanging out of helicopters and even dropped it of the back of a snow mobile in speed. They seem to do well in the cold at least
 
Been shooting RED for 6 years. From Scarlet-X to Epic-x to Epic-Dragon to Weapon MG to Weapon Helium. Never had any failures or RMAs until this year with a brand new Weapon Helium that needed a new board after two weeks. And then I've had two modules fail in the last month for unknown reasons - never had that happen before. Everything was repaired under warranty and is working great now. But if I hadn't had 5 years of seemingly indestructible RED experience, I'd have been a little worried about the Weapon.

I've shot in sand and snow and a lot of high heat and humidity with no problems over the years. I still highly recommend RED.

My only general critique would be the occasional firmware issues with new updates (the recent sound popping from the January firmware that just got fixed was a big headache for me). I think part of the new unified platform though is to mitigate these problems by having less variations in models.

And sometimes they're so ahead of the curve that it can take a while for everyone else to catch up. Helium and IPP2 are like two years old, but premiere only just started natively supporting it last month (and is still a little problematic). As someone that likes to color in premiere, it's been a little bit like my workflow took a step backwards with IPP2 (but you can still use legacy settings just fine).
 
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