When calibrating. How dark a room?

[Thomas Koba]

How extreme do you guys go with the calibrating and "dark room". Totally dark, like "shut-the-shades-at-nighttime-put-blanket-on-camera-walk-out-of-the-room-blindly-stumbling-over-pelicancases" or "low-lit-livingroom-put-the-camera-underneath-the-couch-kinda-dark" or "just-go-to-the-back-of-the-gaffers-van-kinda-dark"

Thanx!

 

[Chad Lancaster]

I just close the lens all the way down, put the lens cap on and put something dark over the lens just incase.

 

[Cosmo D]

I thought that the lens mount cover without glass was enough.

 

[Chris Henze]

I keep the room as dark as I can, the most important thing is to use the RED body cap. Most other lens caps don't keep out IR light. That's why the RED body caps look blacker than other lens caps.

 

[George Butterfield]

Take the lens off and put the body cap on ... because I'm OCD I also put a hat over the cap!

 

[David Battistella]

The only true blackshading calibration is happening with the dragon on the international space station. There's going to be a spacewalk where they take it into the vacuum of space and blackshade it.

That calibration will be feed back down to RED engineers who will diagnose, on a pixel level, the effects of the total vacuum and blackness of space on the photons at the pixel level.

Look for blackshading to be a whole new ballgame when RED engineers get those first blackshading results from the dragon that is currently on the international space station.

NASA demands a pixel perfect 6k view from space. They've probably already installed the the FW build.

Battistella

 

[Martin Stevens]

The only true blackshading calibration is happening with the dragon on the international space station. There's going to be a spacewalk where they take it into the vacuum of space and blackshade it.

That calibration will be feed back down to RED engineers who will diagnose, on a pixel level, the effects of the total vacuum and blackness of space on the photons at the pixel level.

Look for blackshading to be a whole new ballgame when RED engineers get those first blackshading results from the dragon that is currently on the international space station.

NASA demands a pixel perfect 6k view from space. They've probably already installed the the FW build.

Battistella

Nice post, but this makes no sense to me as, no-light hitting the sensor on earth, is the same as no-light hitting the sensor in space.
Can you elaborate more on this? Are they not blocking light from hitting the sensor in space? ???

 

[David Battistella]

Nice post, but this makes no sense to me as, no-light hitting the sensor on earth, is the same as no-light hitting the sensor in space.
Can you elaborate more on this? Are they not blocking light from hitting the sensor in space? ???

Here is my elaboration.

Satire!

sometimes i try to be funny. It doesn't always work!

Battistella

PS: I could have responded with more gobbledygook and Lunar landing theories, but I think it's better to reveal my wicked sense of humor right now.

 

[David Battistella]

For the record. With the body cap on in just about any room, I have never had a problem. I think I've only ever seen two black shading calibrations fail and I've been doing them since the original red one M sensor.

Battistella

 

[Todd T]

Here is my elaboration.

Satire!

sometimes i try to be funny. It doesn't always work!

It must be the serious expression of your avatar!

Actually it will be interesting to find out much more intereference the sensor picks up from high-energy particles that are normally blocked by the Earth's atmosphere.

 

[Martin Stevens]

Here is my elaboration.

Satire!

sometimes i try to be funny. It doesn't always work!

Battistella

PS: I could have responded with more gobbledygook and Lunar landing theories, but I think it's better to reveal my wicked sense of humor right now.

David, I do believe you have punked me. Heh heh heh. As I couldn't read or see that you were only kiddin'. Nice one.

But on that note.... the best black shade is done in the Event Horizon of a Black Hole.

 

[David Battistella]

But on that note.... the best black shade is done in the Event Horizon of a Black Hole.

And that at is what I meant! They're attaching the dragon to the hubble telescope with theNikon mount and pointing into a black hole to do the deep space calibrations!

battistella

PS we gotta have some FUN around here now and again.

 

[Jordan Buck]

Haha David I was laughing while reading it - Its a similar sense of humour to me over here!

As for black shading - I'm actually pretty anal about it - camera up to temp - port cap on - black bolton over the camera - shade away!

 

[David Battistella]

It must be the serious expression of your avatar!

Actually it will be interesting to find out much more intereference the sensor picks up from high-energy particles that are normally blocked by the Earth's atmosphere.

There is a tiny smile in that photo. . Now Im on anew avatar hunt!

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Electro-magnetic energy/fields...

Electro-magnetic energy/fields...

Todd's note is spot on. The distribution and intensity of many wavelengths is vastly different outside the protection of the earth's atmosphere. Whether you are up there, or down here, an ideal "blackshade" would precisely capture the visual equivalent of "room tone" to profile the deviations from nominal values. This data can then be used as an offset in writing code values, effectively "cancelling" the intruding hash that a sensor like the Dragon is sure to register at least some of in real world environments.

Cheers - #19

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I stop down, take the silky cover for the 5" touch and put it over the lens cap. Presto dark room.

If there is a light leak in my lens mount, then "good" the black shading will remove that unwanted light leak from every frame. That's a bonus.

 

[Tommaso Alvisi]

If there is a light leak in my lens mount, then "good" the black shading will remove that unwanted light leak from every frame. That's a bonus.

Gavin, I fear light leaks caused by the mount would be slightly different from lens to lens, no?

 

[Jens Jakob Thorsen]

I all ways use the ACs and stick it where the Sun dont shine...

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Gavin, I fear light leaks caused by the mount would be slightly different from lens to lens, no?

Maybe, maybe not. I would wager though that it's consistent at the mount. I would also expect that there are no light leaks periods. At least I've never seen a leak on any of my lenses.

 

[Phil Holland]

Best method is using the DSMC Body Cap of some sort in a dark area if possible. I'll often cover the camera with my hat or a rag over the mount port while Black Shading.

There are some lenses out there that can have leaks at the mount, though very rare. Also, the lens cap itself may not provide "pure" black, though most do as well.

There's the best way and then the other ways. You'll know if something is up if the Black Shade fails.