Universal Timecode?

[Michael "Dorkman" Scott]

I've got a question. People are always worrying about timecode and reels and sync and stuff like that.

How difficult would it be (theoretically, I know it's too late to implement in RED ONE) to place an atomic clock in a camera and use that as timecode?

If every camera had the atomic clock in it, running at all times, then all cameras would always be in sync. You could do multicam deals with no problem. Need to know the date you shot something? It's part of the timecode.

I guess the problem comes in frame rates, but even then, just implement it so that it can segment each second into "Frames" on the fly, and otherwise leave the rest of the timecode the same.

Admittedly I don't know much about how atomic clocks work, and perhaps a date-time stamp for timecode is a bad idea for some reason, but that's why I'm asking the question!

[Ziggy Uszkurat]

Problem is, most people shoot single camera most if not all of the time. Even with multi-camera shoots, if you are feeding into an OB then time of day timecode is irrelevant. Timecode is for logging purposes rather than for locking cameras.

Hope that helps
ziggx

[Chris Kenny]

Apparently it is now possible to make "chip scale" atomic clocks that don't use much power. A somewhat more reasonable approach, though, would be to just stick GPS hardware in every camera. GPS delivers atomic time as well as location data, and (conventional) on-board timekeeping would be good enough to keep things consistent for the periods when the camera was indoors, etc. and couldn't receive GPS signals.

Plus, everyone would be keeping time in the same frame of reference -- that of the satellites. No messy issues with cameras drifting out of sync after centuries of air travel as a result of relativity. :biggrin:

[Adrian T.]

I'm pretty sure that the RED ONE will run accurately enough to record synchronous takes up to maybe 10 minutes with multiple cams. I believe the timelines won't drift apart.

Much more of a problem might be action shots where you may want the frames to be sampled at exactly the same point in time (you have the same problem with film cams too). That's where an external clock signal comes in handy.

[GlennChan]

A third party solution would be to use something like a Lockit box (external timecode + sync generator).

Some practical info on using them:
http://www.jkor.com/peter/lockits.html

Not everyone will need this solution, so I don't think there is enough incentive to put really good clocks in each Red. (?)