Helicopter Shooting and RF interference

[Tom Gleeson]

I have an aerial job coming up and the Red camera is being suggested. We have done camera tests and we are very happy with pictures. The Aerial job is in a remote location so impossible to test before we get there so I was wondering if anyone had used the camera inflight and if RF from the radio transmitter and/or the position transponder had caused interference. This can be a problem with all electronic cameras. Has anyone been here yet ?

Tom Gleeson

[Greg M]

I have not shot w/ my Red yet but have been up dozens of times with just about every camera including arri, varicam, digital betacam, and betacams and never had an issue...of course none of these record to a harddrive so not sure if that would make a difference.

[kozmo]

I think it's unlikely you'll have a problem, particularly if your hand holding the camera.

I haven't shot aerials with a Red yet but I can offer this advice.

#1 Do not use the ships power for anything in your equipment chain.

#2 Keep all cabling to a minimum (lengths and number of cables).

#3 Have the pilot refrain from using the radio while you are recording, if he can't and you see noise see if he can change frequencies.

#4 He may be able to turn the transponder off during recording if it causes a problem but it is unlikely it will.

#5 Bring some heavy gauge aluminum foil for a last ditch effort to shield the camera should you see a problem. Again unlikely unless your shooting something like an aircraft carrier or a radar installation.

Have fun!

Richard Burton

[Gunleik Groven]

Saw some helicopter shots from Norway.

Interference was not an issue that was mentioned.

Gunleik

[jbeale]

THe only issue I've heard of with helicopter shooting is mechanical vibration when recording to hard drives (the Peter Jackson shoot using the prototypes Boris & Natasha). Since the Red hard drive aren't yet released, I don't think that's an issue.

[Terry Delahunt]

I have also shot with betacam from a helicopter without any problem.

Good luck!

[Harry Clark]

The only time I've ever had problems with aerials and electronic cameras has been going past the transmission tower on top of the Empire State Building. And then WOW! The picture IN CAMERA fuzzes out. Crazy. I guess no amount of shielding helps there. You have to be pretty close though; the pilot warned me that it was coming, and we just backed off a bit and it went away.
If I were somewhere remote and it was just the helicopter's instruments, I'd feel OK...
Cheers,
Harry

[Ethan Cooper]

About 3 years ago we shot a Varicam from a helicopter and DID have some interference problems. It wasn't terrible, but we lost a couple passes because of it. We had some gyro's strapped to the bottom of the camera, I don't know if this had anything to do with it.
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[JohnF]

Any external cables running from the cam should be of the highest quality with good robust RF shielding. Bad cables will act as antennas and one risks bypassing any on-board shielding the camera may have.

It's really noticeable with microphone cables and can ruin a sound recording. (you can hear the radar beam as it passes or a rising amount of noise or worse hear parts of the actual RF transmission coming out on ones sound track)

And as was said before do not use the on-board power systems.

JohnF