Dropped frames caused footage loss

[Vesa Rönty]

We were filming from helicopter with Red Raid on a shock mount. We made a one 20min shot. In the middle of shot camera had 105 drop frames, maybe because I slightly touched tylermount with my camera. After touching and having those drops the timecode keep running as normal and I continued filming. On the ground I stopped filming and camera was doing post about 30min. I had to shut it down.

Now when I look on the hard drive, there is only material from start to the point where the drop frames are occured.

Could it be possible that the rest of the footage is there but it´s hidden or unindexed?

-Vesa Rönty / Lapland Memories

[Jason Diamond]

the drive may not have finished writing out the file when you shut it down or got into a hang which is why it took so long to post write.

[Vesa Rönty]

Before I shut it down the post text was disapeared but the camera was frozen, I couldn´t unmount media etc. Do you know is there any method to see if there is anything else than my windows explorer is showing?

[Conrad Hunziker]

You really should be using the Red Ram when in a heilo. The forces and shaking up there are usually too intense for even a shock mount,

As for the footage, you may be able to retrieve it using a file recovery software. However, I wouldnt think the chances of it being there are good, if you had 105 dropped frames.

Does the amount and size of the R3D files add up to the amount of time you were shooting?

[Vesa Rönty]

The plan was to film a over an hour flight of an UAV plane. So it couldn´t be possible to film it with Red Ram or CF cards. We knew the risks but we had no drop frames during tests and other takeoffs.

The r3d files that I´m seeing are the size that I can open in red cine, but I never stopped filming on air and the timecode rolled untill we came down and I pushed red button to stop it.

[Conrad Hunziker]

What Im getting at here is if the files were even written. Say you rolled for 30 minutes at 4k resolution. I would expect there to be about 30 R3D files, each 2Gb big, in one RDC folder. If there are only 15 files, but you think you rolled for an hour, then Id think the last 45 minutes were not actually written to the drive.

BTW, the timecode rolling isnt tied directly to the camera actually recording, as it would be in tape based systems. I realize you may be indicating it was rolling to show the camera was still working, but it doesnt mean the camera was rolling that whole time.

Also, I assume that you are talking about one continuous roll, not starting and stopping in the air. As such, a long post after you cut would be expected as it tries to create the mov files. You can get around that by turning off the QT ref movies in the menu, and the post should be much quicker on extreme long takes.

[Conrad Hunziker]

One last point - the Red Ram should be able to hold about an hour of footage at 4k 2:1, 23.98 RC36.