Epic : Noise and heat ? Epic M users ?

[Luca Immesi]

We shot my movie in August, Italy summer, 40° celsius and more, it was an hell working with that hot temperature but the camera never overheated. We had some noise sound problems in close spaces even with the fan at 33% during recording. It was an early Epic M.

[Eric Haase]

Hi Eric, you are not alone! I had a very similar experience two weeks ago. House day interior, minimal lighting, interview setup on sticks, and we had the same issue. Epic-X with VF top plate, side handle with Redvolt, AB plate with v-lock adapter, with Preston powered via d-tap. I set the fan to manual (50/100%) but still had the same issue. We were running the previous firmware, sounds like it fixes some temperature warning issues...

Edit: ours was a rental house camera that works all the time.

This is a new Epic X on it's 4th day of shooting- all stage shoots. Running the latest release build.

[Jay A. Kelley]

I am confident this will be fixed if nessesary. A noisy camera is death on set... It will be handled.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Edit: @ Eric Haase

Bummer, sorry to hear that. Please keep us updated on how it turns out.

[cjderosa]

This is a new Epic X on it's 4th day of shooting- all stage shoots. Running the latest release build.

I've had the exact same problem as Eric. My Epic-X is brand new and seems to overheat (hit 75C) very quickly at which point the fan bursts on.

I did two tests:

5K 90fps 12:1 - the fan came on at 10 mins

5K 1fps 12:1 - the fan came on at 13 mins

This makes no sense and is extremely worrisome.

[Deanan]

What's your fan set to?

[KETCH ROSSi]

When in doubt leave the Fan settings to AUTO... We set the Fan ratings depending in specific need, which is best to control sound, if recording IT, otherwise in AUTO...

Our two EPIC M have been in +130°F +45°C inside Underwater Housing, inside a Sauna, and in the DUBAI's Deserts out side RAK... NEVER, a single problem, EPIC is solid as a ROCK...


Even if couple of times we could not hold on to the SSD Media, because of how HOT it was!!


Never stopped running never dropped a single frame!!

[Marc Wielage]

I am confident this will be fixed if nessesary. A noisy camera is death on set... It will be handled.

I know of several productions where the Epics have caused sound problems in quiet indoor scenes. Having a fan at 35% is still quite audible, especially when the camera is close to the actors indoors. It's not really a problem outdoors, or on very large sets. The problem is that the fan noise is broadband, and is not easily notched out, unlike a "whistle" or a hum.

I like the pictures the camera makes, but I think the mechanical noise issues really should be addressed. I'd love to see somebody take a weighted Sound Pressure Level meter reading of the camera at Standby and during Record. (And in fairness to the Epic, I've heard some noisy 35mm film cameras in my time, too.)

I was on a Red One shoot a few weeks ago, and the camera wasn't nearly as much of a problem for sound as the DIT cart. Too many drives, too many fans, tons of noise.

[Eric Haase]

What's your fan set to?

When I had the issue it was set to Auto. Haven't shot with it since but hoping to test it soon. Have 3 shoots coming up with long takes in small rooms and am very nervous about the overheating.

[dave_garcia]

I've found that setting the camera to 42% on run worked well for long interview takes. Mostly recording 12:1.

We were basically rolling whole 128G cards for the duration without cuts. Initially there were overheating issues, but 42% seemed to do the trick.