Anyone Tried Repairing Red Drives? + Some Complaining

[Ken Martini]

I have had 2 Red Drive failures. I asked Red about changing my own HD's. They said it requires a reset that they won't divulge because it could reveal some trade secret.

I think the only secret it would reveal is that it is too profitable changing 2 drives that cost less than $50. each for $350. Lets see, that is $250. for 15 minutes work. I guess that enough motive to keep secrets.

If anyone has ripped apart a drive, let me know. Is there any reset jumpers? I have heard of so many failed drive stories, you would think they would extend the warranty.

I just had another drive start acting strange today, dropping frames. If this one goes it will be the third. I am starting to loose some of the faith I had.

I do not complain very often, but while I am at it here is couple. When I bought this camera I was somehow lead to believe that I would get 60 FPS at 4K. I also was under the impression that it was a S35 sized chip. Red has been so generous to offer a $10K upgrade so that my camera will actually do what it was originally stated to do. There have been missteps along the way by Red. As an early adapter I can expect to eat a few of them, but there is a limit. These are not $1000. cameras.

I am sorry, I do not get gushy over the fact they these guys are "sea changers" I am glad they are doing what they are doing. The video equipment industry was ripe for an enterprising firm to come along and grab some of that low lying fruit.

I feel fortunate that I was able to sell my 18-50 lens. As far as I am concerned that was a dog of a lens. It was a rehoused still film lens that breathed badly, the housing rubbed in a few places, and had a cheap tinny feeling to it. It also had an external moving element that drew exterior air into the lens, guaranteeing that it would be full of dust in short order. The telescoping front element was always waiting for an opportunity to collide with a filter. If you want honesty, here it is, don't buy that lens, arf arf.

That's all my venting for now.

[Craig Parkes]

As far as I know RED has never stated in ANY of the available configurations that the camera will do 4K at 60FPS - and it does do a LOT of things that it was never stated that it would be able to do.

I'm not aware of any other camera manufacturer that allows or supports the changing of internal components of shipped hardware.

Drives, ultimately, are media - and I guess should be treated as consumables.... I mean, how much would the equivalent shooting time in 16mm film stock cost you, without giving you anywhere near as clean a shot.

May I suggest you look at Compact Flash as a more sustainable media - or potentially the RED RAM drive. Those definitely won't have the failure rate that spinning hdd would, may save you money in the long run.

I can understand someone disliking a lens purchase for whatever reason, but your other complaints seem a bit unusual, given the nature of the technology you have brought into.

[Cail Young]

I just had another drive start acting strange today, dropping frames. If this one goes it will be the third. I am starting to loose some of the faith I had.

Are you sure it isn't the cable or the camera?


I feel fortunate that I was able to sell my 18-50 lens. As far as I am concerned that was a dog of a lens. ... The telescoping front element was always waiting for an opportunity to collide with a filter.

The front element never extends past the hood. Not sure how you'd collide with a filter (except perhaps a 6" diopter?).

As for 4K at 60P the sensor and monitoring path is quite capable of doing it - enable OPEN GATE when on 4K 29.97 and you'll see - however the compression engine is unable to keep up.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I'm with Cail. If you are experiencing this many drive failures, you probably have a cable or camera issue. Are you in contact with RED about this? If it does turn out to be a camera issue covered under warranty, I'd also push to get those drives replaced if they were over-volted by the camera or something of that nature.

As for the being led to believe 4K @ 60fps. it was only ever mentioned as a possibility for using the uncompressed RAW port. But that product was dropped for many reasons, one being that it just was not practical. And it was dropped before RED started shipping cameras.

I've been operating mostly with RED Drives for almost a year (since May '08) and I have yet to have one fail. I know there are several stories of failures out there, but the failure percentage is actually quite low. For you to have three of them seems highly indicative of a deeper problem. I'm concerned that if you spent the money for a RED Ram, it could suffer the same fate as your RED Drives if you don't isolate the cause of your failures. It still could be mechanical with the drives or induced by an environmental condition where you operate -- magnetic fields, low frequency vibrations, especially during transport if they're moved often and not properly contained, etc..

The sensor is S35-sized. Actually it's a bit larger. However, the internal processing just doesn't have enough horsepower to cope with the data. We will get a "4.5K" mode soon. It's 4480x1866, which is a 2.40:1 aspect and takes us right up to the full S35 width. RED was always open about this, but I can see where it gets confusing when they say the sensor is "S35 size" and it records 4K, but they never divulge the actual details. That's for prospective buyers to get out their calculators I think... ;)

The camera does have it's quirks and issues and I think that combined with customer loyalty is why RED will be offering the trade-in program. That said, I'm finding my RED One to be one of the finest, if not the best, digital cameras I have ever used and that is considering both video and still cameras.