Two months as a camera trainee with red mx

[Graham Foulkes]

I was recentley on a two month feature film shoot in the kooteneys bc. using red mx cameras and cooke primes in many configurations.
I was very impressed with the images created by these cameras under every situation you can imagine.Problems we had were

1. we had 14 batteries 7 red , 7 blue shape hd100 . We had to exchange three of the red batteries over the two month period as they would no longer take a charge. The blushapes failed when below zero but bounced back when warmed up. I do not like v lock batteries much , sometimes changing batteries on set i was sometimes uncertain about the v lock locking correctly , i like anton bower batteries as you know 100 percent they are on and ready.
Also the red chargers could do with a wider base so they dont fall over all the time when you take one battery off.

2.Not having enough monitor out options or having them restricted to having no guidelines was a hassle .

3.Wished we had a bomb evf more than once because it was cold.

4. The crazy amount of wiring for downconverters .

5. lack of power for running preston motors was a problem .

6.there were some transcoding problems with red drives on long takes.

7.we had some cf cards that would not format in camera.

8.We sent one body back for a pl mount adj after using a snorkel lens. (not surprising)


I understand epic/scarlet have solved a lot of these problems.
I am still a red fan and look forward to the ongoing refinement of these cameras.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

1. we had 14 batteries 7 red , 7 blue shape hd100 . We had to exchange three of the red batteries over the two month period as they would no longer take a charge. The blushapes failed when below zero but bounced back when warmed up. I do not like v lock batteries much , sometimes changing batteries on set i was sometimes uncertain about the v lock locking correctly , i like anton bower batteries as you know 100 percent they are on and ready.
Also the red chargers could do with a wider base so they dont fall over all the time when you take one battery off.

Were you using the swing-out foot on the bottom of the charger. I see a lot of ACs not aware it's there and the chargers on their sides. Hopefully you knew it was there.

2.Not having enough monitor out options or having them restricted to having no guidelines was a hassle .

Big improvements in Epic. RED took notes on this one for sure.

3.Wished we had a bomb evf more than once because it was cold.

Bomb EVF certainly an improvement in this area, but there are alternative solutions in place for the older EVF. Jay Kelly had a solution that worked well.

4. The crazy amount of wiring for downconverters .

On big jobs, there are always all kinds of wires. Just part of the territory, but hopefully that improves over time with wireless video technology improving all the time and RED implementing it in new cameras.

5. lack of power for running preston motors was a problem .

How were you running them?

6.there were some transcoding problems with red drives on long takes.

Transcoding via rocket or CPU?

7.we had some cf cards that would not format in camera.

If they don't format in the camera, you can try to format them on the computer and then see if they will format on camera. Better option is to just take them out of the loop if possible.

8.We sent one body back for a pl mount adj after using a snorkel lens. (not surprising)

Was the mount damaged? Or just needed a flange adjustment?

I understand epic/scarlet have solved a lot of these problems.
I am still a red fan and look forward to the ongoing refinement of these cameras.

Indeed!

 

[Ivan Kovax]

What Steve said

+1