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New Recruit

Hi there,

Any news about heat problems in the camera ?

Stanley

Site Admin

The Heat and Fan Noise issues have been dealt with and no longer are a problem.

In some early beta Cameras, there were a few things that needed adjusting. While Steven Soderbergh was shooting "Guerrilla" in Spain's extreme heat conditions, these issues were discovered.

RED made changes to both the hardware and firmware to fix these issues. Here is what RED's Jim Jannard had to say about it back in September:

"It has been mentioned that our sensor temp warnings were set too low on those cameras and we have also made board changes since then. The heat capability is now comparable to any other high-end digital cinema camera spec. After 104 degrees F, start thinking about something... umbrella, external fans between takes, gel packs, etc. The hotter, the more help the camera will need."

"The temperature sensors were at the back of the image sensor board, which is 5 degrees C hotter than the image sensor. Plus, we had set the alarms 5 degrees C too low. Then we added a new sensor board with heat sinks which gave us another 10 degrees C advantage. Net result is that we are good to 104 degrees F without thinking about it. After that, cover the camera from direct sun. The fan settings are optimized for heat. After 115F, you'll need active cooling. Run a fan over the camera or use a gel-pack on the camera during recording."

The Camera has four Fan Modes:

1. Hot - The fans run 100% while recording and 100% during pause.
2. Normal - the fans run 50% recording and 100% while pause.
3. Quiet - the fans run 25% recording and 100% during pause.
4. Silent - the fans run 10% recording and 100% during pause."

(Fan noise is zero when shooting)

Note: There was one bug in the 9/23/07 Firmware build where the fans stopped lowering RPM when recording, but that was later fixed in the 9/25/07 build.

Keep in mind, that as with any Camera (especially digital), you should avoid extreme temperatures when possible. And be prepared to deal with the environmental conditions if you need to. (Take along Ice Packs, Heat Pads, Water/Sand protection, etc.)

Specialist

I'd say the heat issues aren't completely fixed yet. The camera gets incredibly hot. Obviously adjusting the internal fans is key, but it's a pretty piss poor solution for narrative filmmaking.
I had gotten spoiled with over a year of music videos and commercials causing no issues, then to work on a feature with 8 minute takes under hot lights inside a house in the Hollywood Hills in the summer, with barely a few minute reset time to let the camera cool down. You could cook an egg on that thing.

That said, the camera only went down twice.

Site Admin

Update:

Most heat issues are now fine... Of course, if shooting in the sun in 100+ degree weather, common sense (shade, correct usage of fans, handy ice-packs) are the way to go (which applies to any Digital Camera and other device).