What was the highest ambient temperature that you have been on a production set?

[Neil Abeynayake]

Hello ladies & gentlemen,

I don't know whether this issue has been addressed in the past or not. If there were any discussions, please accept my apologies.

1). What was the highest ambient temperature that you have been on a production set?

2). And what kind of camera gear did you use?

3). If you used a RED camera, how hot did it get and did it fail or stop working due to overheating at any time?

4). Did you do a Black shading calibration at the ambient temp prior to using the camera in that environment?

 

[Tom Gleeson]

Working in Australia I have done dozens of days in temperatures over 40c or well over 100F. At these temperatures the fan can sometimes run to 100% which can make audio awkward if you are inside. The camera has never over heated. There will be a point where the temperature becomes too high but have never come across it. A handy hint for these conditions is to reset your operating temperature from the default 39C to say 45C in the fan section of the menu then redo your black shade at this new setting. This will make it much easier for the camera to tolerate high temperatures and keep fans speed down.

 

[Cameron McKinlay]

I just had my ew out in the 114 degree Vegas heat a few days ago and it performed better than any of the cast and crew did. But we chewed threw batteries fast because those fans were working OVERTIME! Thanks for the temp tip Tom! Gonna do that from now on

 

[Tom Gleeson]

Cameron,

You will be amazed by the difference.

 

[Paul Russell]

Dubai, well over 40°, no problem with an Epic Dragon

Thanks for the fan tip, Tom. I'm in Malaysia most of the time and we get it pretty hot here, too, so I'll start adopting that practice for outdoor shoots.

 

[Aaron Lochert]

I've had a Scarlet-W out in 100+ degree weather and it did just fine.

The 4.7" screen, however...

 

[Neil Abeynayake]

Thanks Tom, Cameron & Paul.

I've had a Scarlet-W out in 100+ degree weather and it did just fine.

The 4.7" screen, however...

Hi Aaron,

Thanks. Did the 4.7" monitor fail on you or it just quit working for that day?

 

[Ryan Sims]

Had a shoot last year that was inside a winterized (dark green) army tent in the summer sun. It was only 90°-95°F outside, but sometimes 120°F inside the tent. Camera was a Scarlet-MX. The fan mode was set to Adaptive with the target temperature set as high is possible - 70°C. We black-shaded the camera at the top target temperature. The camera had no issues working all day like this. The camera core temperature got high (I don't remember to top end), but never hot enough to send the fans into protection mode or have the camera shutdown. We ran on AC power the whole time. The cast and crew had a lot more issues with the heat than the camera.

 

[Neil Abeynayake]

I just had my ew out in the 114 degree Vegas heat a few days ago and it performed better than any of the cast and crew did. But we chewed threw batteries fast because those fans were working OVERTIME! Thanks for the temp tip Tom! Gonna do that from now on

Hi Cameron,

I think we took the REDucation class together at AbelCine, Burbank (May, 2016).

 

[Aaron Lochert]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks. Did the 4.7" monitor fail on you or it just quit working for that day?

It would go black until we cooled it off enough and power cycled the camera. Happened several times throughout the day.

We had a sidekick so changing settings was still an option. And we still had video feed going to the AC's monitor and video village, so we were able to work around it.

 

[Mike McEntire]

127 degrees on Epic Dragon. Next 2 days were 117. All day in full sun. AC's were rotating out. Saline transfusions were going down but the camera kept charging. We made a dry ice crack pipe for the cam. Wish I took a photo of it but we just kept putting rocks in it all day. Camera was also in full sun all day. After that shoot I never worry about temps.

 

[Audy Erel]

So, it's safe to say that we could just set the target temperature to the hottest setting (48º C)?
It's getting hot real quick here in the tropical regions..

 

[Tom Gleeson]

Andy,

That's a good question and Red to my knowledge have never really discussed in detail the ramifications of running the camera at different temperatures. It's a safe bet that the default 39C on DSMC2 is what Red considers optimal. I also have never seen anyone do any quantitative testing of camera and noise performance at different temperatures. Is it possible that running at higher temperatures stresses components and lowers their life expectancy? I do not know but my position is that setting the camera to run at higher temperatures in hot environments offers such a large and distinct advantage that I am willing to risk some possible small downsides although I have never seen any downsides. I imagine Red would not allow you to setup and run at higher temperatures if their were any serious issues.

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

I don't know if that link will work, but we were shooting in the desert with an easy rig. So I gear-tied an umbrella to the back of the easy rig, and then the operator had walking shade for him and the camera.

This particular one was done as an improv so all I could get was a rainbow umbrella, but obviously you should use an umbrella that doesn't potentially effect the light on the subject.

 

[Joel Voelker]

110 degrees at an outdoor music festival so the camera was in full sun on top of the crazy ambient temp. The carbon fiber on the MoVi was literally too hot to touch. Camera fan ran at 100% the whole time but never had an issue. Black shading as close to operating temp as possible is very worthwhile

 

[Kevin Marshall]

Outdoor heat hasn't been a huge issue for me - just set to adaptive and let the fans do their work. The real problem I face all the time is indoors. The default 39 degree setting is a non-starter inside during the summer - once you turn off the AC for sound, and get a bunch of people and lights in, it gets really warm really quick, and the fans run at 70%+ to maintain that 39C. Even setting adaptive at 46C means the fans run at 50-60% when you start rolling a bunch of takes (especially long takes). That level is already too high for sound, but the changing fan level in adaptive makes it worse.

I've found that I have to keep the fan under 40% for sound to be usable, and under 35% if we're super close or in a small room. Unfortunately Adaptive Preview Quiet Record is bugged, and actually raises the fan speed on record when the temp is set above 39C, and even when it does work properly, the fans never ramp up quickly enough between takes, and so the camera overheats pretty quickly.

I created my own workaround by creating presets for Adaptive 46 and Manual, and binding those to keys so that I can switch easily. I let the camera come up to temp in adaptive mode, and then switch to manual for recording. I keep the record fan at ~35%, sometimes tweaking if need be, and the standby fan in the 65%-75% range, depending on how long the takes are and how much reset time there is between takes.

It's a lot of extra work that could be avoided with a well-functioning Adapive/Quiet mode (or custom fan curves!), but it's the only way I can keep the camera functioning without being yelled at by sound/anyone wearing a comtek during the summer.

 

[Neil Abeynayake]

@ Kevin Marshall: If a sound person is yelling at you for camera's fan kicking in spoiling his audio capture, the director should fire that individual (the sound guy). This day and age, a professional location sound person should be able to capture reference sound from camera (in a sound booth or in a quite place) and apply that reference sound to eliminate it from your sound track. We do this all the time. There is NO excuse! If someone cannot or does NOT want to do this, its on them. This may sound harsh. I would tell them, welcome to the real world. Times have changed. Either adept or get left behind.

 

[Kevin Marshall]

I've never had a sound mixer tolerate camera fan noise, no more than they tolerate a plugged-in fridge, air conditioning, a generator, or a noisy ballast. I've even had a sound mixer try to dictate specific fan settings to me. These aren't battles I generally win, as directors tend to agree. The compromise often ends up being a slightly louder, constant fan speed, since that's easier to take out than a constantly changing one (in adaptive, where the fans ramp up and down over the course of a take). It's better now than with the Dragon (the 2.0 Front Fan had some serious motor noise), but still my number one struggle with a camera system that I otherwise love.

 

[Ty Maier]

Does humidity have any affect on the camera's tolerance? Or is it exclusively temperature that dictates it's ability?

 

[Neil Abeynayake]

Does humidity have any affect on the camera's tolerance? Or is it exclusively temperature that dictates it's ability?

For DSMC2 bodies, specs are:

OPERATING TEMPERATURE 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F)
STORAGE TEMPERATURE –20°C to 50°C (–4°F to 122°F)
RELATIVE HUMIDITY 0% to 85% non-condensing

I tend to believe, humidity and temperature may affect more on human operators than the camera's performance. At least till temps go north of 130° F (54.444° C) and relative humidity hits 90% and up.