Red, meet Dr. Van de Graaff...

[Leo Ticheli]

I can't remember the last time I did the, "horde of news photographers with flash cameras," shot, but now I find myself preparing for a commercial with a huge Van de Graaff generator.

Of course I'm concerned about the Rolling Shutter and fear I might have to have the VariCam as a tag-along on the shoot. I'm planning to do a test later today at the Science museum and will report my results.

Another disquieting thought is what violence all that static electricity might do to the Red's circuits/drives/CF cards.

If anyone has experience with this, your advice and counsel would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, Dr. Robert Jemison Van de Graaff is from my Alma Mater, the University of Alabama... who knew? Of course he got his doctorate from Oxford; I assume the one in the UK and not Oxford, Alabama, which is near the highest point in the state and has a thrilling, twisty road to the peak with gorgeous views.

Anyway, fun with electricity...

Good shooting and best regards to all,

Leo Ticheli
Director/Cinematographer

[Graeme Nattress]

Is that the Boston museum of Science? I love watching their generator in action!

Graeme

[Leo Ticheli]

These are commercials for the McWayne Science Center in Birmingham AL. It's really gotten to be a cool place and not just for kids.

They've got an excellent IMAX theater and pretty exciting interactive exhibits.

What do you think, Maestro Nattress; will I electrocute my Red shooting with the giant electrostatic generators? I'm due to shoot some tests in a couple of hours...

Best regards,

Leo

[Graeme Nattress]

You know, I don't know about that aspect of RED design.... If it's not software....

Graeme

[chuck colburn]

Leo,

Mayby you should wear one of those grounding wrist straps and a hat made out of Mu metal. Only half kidding here.

[Leo Ticheli]

I plan to stay as far away from the generators as I can, shooting from the back of the exhibit room, probably about 30 meters or so.

Now, where did I leave my anti-space-alien-thought-control aluminum hat...

Good shooting and best regards to all,

Leo

[Mark Phelan]

You might check with the folks at the Museum of Science in Boston to see if they might offer suggestions for static charge and your equipment since their generator is the largest in the world and has surely been shot countless times before. I do recall watching the operator of the demonstration touch the inside sphere he was encapsulated in while the lightning was all around him. Seems the charge goes only on the outside of the metal, not the inside, which would otherwise vaporize him. Add an "anti-vaporization" sphere to your list of equipment needs and I'm sure you'll be just fine.

[Nathan Buxton]

i wonder if there is some sort of full anti-static cover for cameras? simillar to the bags computer components are shipped in but with the ability to allow perfect optics through it?

[danielg]

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage is cumulative in CMOS circuitry.

I did a search of ESD and CMOS and there were a lot of patents for circuits intended to reduce ESD damage in CMOS.

Anyone from RED want to comment on the what has been done with the RED cameras to limit the impact of ESD damage?

[Barry Gregg]

Leo;
I used to shoot still photographs of very expensive aircraft switches. We always worked on an anti-esd mat. The switch had to be in contact with the mat and you put a wrist strap on that grounded to the mat when touching the switch to prevent ESD damage. The mat was plugged in, but I don't remember to what. Maybe there is a way you could lay the anti-esd mat over your Red. ??

[Wolf]

Hi Leo,

I have had a Varicam temporarily die on me once due to electrostatic interference. I have also had Sony cameras deliver unusable images because I was shooting too close to electric power lines. The trick with the Varicam was to wrap it in black-wrap. Then it worked like a charm. It's sort of a poor-man's 'Faraday Cage'. Hopefully the same trick will work with a RED One?

Not sure if I am talking about the same type of electric charges though, so I don't know if my info is relevant.

[millrick]

Now, where did I leave my anti-space-alien-thought-control aluminum hat...

:nuke:
"Provide your brain a quiet place without interference to your mental processes."
http://www.lessemf.com/personal.html


:nerd:
but seriously - if you want to rig something up - they sell what you need
http://www.lessemf.com/fabric.html

[Leo Ticheli]

Finished my test.

The Van de Graaff generator doesn't put out enough light to cause a problem with the Rolling Shutter and I observed no electrical problems.

Different story with the Tesla Coil Lightning Generator; I got 174 dropped frames shooting that demonstration. The frames dropped a few times of varying durations during the shot. The flashes were very bright, going well into clip shooting at 320 with a Zeiss Standard wide open at T2.1, but I see no Rolling Shutter artifacts.

I suspect the dropped frames were the result of acoustic vibration, not electrical interference. Unfortunately, I did not have a CF card with me to test that hypothesis, but the Tesla rig is so noisy that ear protection is required.

Certainly sounds like the same issue reported shooting music videos.

A hearty thank-you to all who provided their advice!

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo Ticheli
Director/Cinematographer

[Erasmus]

Leo;
I used to shoot still photographs of very expensive aircraft switches. We always worked on an anti-esd mat. . . .

I was about to suggest the exact same thing
:)