3rd party Batts

[Nick Gardner]

Dear Jim, Jarred, and all of red team,

I am sorry to be the turd in the punch bowl, but this is a real issue. You need to have the camera monitor voltage, warn you, and shutdown by it's self if it gets too low. The only time in 17 years of production that I have had to shoot an insurance day, was after a d-20 crashed due to low power, and the venom flash mag went to crazy town. The camera screamed and hollered that there was low voltage, the AC was just not very attentive.

I refucking-fuse to carry around an extra battery on steadicam just because a very simple software voltage monitoring system is not employed.

I would ask every one else that is a motion picture professional to please pipe up about this issue. It should be an easy fix, which would make the camera interface with professional systems much better. Cranes, steadicam, helicopter mounts, dolly for christ sake. An on board battery is not the norm for 35mm production for a reason. I know it's Red, it's different whatever. But for fucks sake lets not re invent the wheel.

I beg the red community to back me up here.

Still love the red, I just want it to be as smart as my clock radio,

Nick Gardner

[Brent J. Craig]

I agree 100%.

A professional camera that crashes when an industry-standard battery goes low is not a professional camera. We are NOT all going to use Red Blocks all the time. That's not how it works.

But if the camera was smart enough to monitor its voltage, they wouldn't make as much money on batteries, would they?

[Adrian Correia]

I agree with Nick...this should absolutely be implemented in a future build.

[reality]

I would ask every one else that is a motion picture professional to please pipe up about this issue. It should be an easy fix, which would make the camera interface with professional systems much better. Cranes, steadicam, helicopter mounts, dolly for christ sake. An on board battery is not the norm for 35mm production for a reason. I know it's Red, it's different whatever. But for fucks sake lets not re invent the wheel.r

I want to use my 3rd party batteries as much as you but hatever happened to asking politely? This site has turned into a lets all act like spoiled brats and demand what we want until RED does it. How much longer before this tactic backfires on you and REST of us all want things but have some professional to engage RED with some courtesy and respect.

[vincelucero]

I have a feeling RED is more focused on enabling other options fully and improving image/audio quality at the moment. The RED batts work fine so this may be low on the priority meter. Although I do agree it's a necessity.

In the meantime check out Rich's solution here: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8397

[Joel Smith]

I agree 100%.

A professional camera that crashes when an industry-standard battery goes low is not a professional camera. We are NOT all going to use Red Blocks all the time. That's not how it works.

But if the camera was smart enough to monitor its voltage, they wouldn't make as much money on batteries, would they?

Crewpix, you sure know how to be an ass.

[Leo Ticheli]

As great as the Red is, there are some problems that really shouldn't exist.

I can't believe that most Red purchasers do not already own a complete system of batteries and chargers; the camera should be designed to operate with the industry standard.

Good shooting and best regards to all,

Leo

[Harry Clark]

I wish that politeness would factor in more on this...
but I do agree that it's a very odd oversight that this camera cannot simply and accurately monitor incoming voltage and warn when it's getting too low. That's something my $400 DV home movie camera can do, and it's not dependent on having the same brand of battery as the camera. It's certainly a "must have" on any professional gear.
I think that we could make use of a third party solution here, but boy it would be great if Red would find a way...
Still enjoying the camera though! ;)
Cheers,
Harry

[NateWeaver]

I would assume the Red folks are aware and it's on a long list of things to be worked on.

But, I suppose there's a chance that nobody realized big rentals/established owners would need it so badly...

Sounds like this should be in Build 15 if it isn't already.

[Ariana]

As great as the Red is, there are some problems that really shouldn't exist.

I can't believe that most Red purchasers do not already own a complete system of batteries and chargers; the camera should be designed to operate with the industry standard.

Good shooting and best regards to all,

Leo

Which industry standard would that be?

Everyone uses different methods to communicate battery status to the camera. If you're only reading voltage then you're not communicating battery status but the voltage dependent on the cable. This can give you incorrect battery status which is cable dependent.