The Black and Blue

Filmmaking Tips for Camera Assistants

How Many Hours Does Your RED One Have?

How Many Hours Does Your RED One Have?

Have you ever been curious how many hours a RED One camera has logged in the field? Well, me neither, but when I found out it was possible I suddenly became interested. There definitely are some buggy RED cameras that I've worked with and wanted to know what they've been through over the years to make them so troublesome. Maybe this will help tell part of that tale.

by | Cameras | February 9, 2011 | Comments: 1

Over at the REDuser forums, Jarred Land has revealed a neat trick to get the cameras to cough up their active life in hours.

To find out how many hours a RED One has logged, simply press the undo button and press the joystick into the center at the same time. It will bring up a data screen with info about the RED you’re currently using (see picture above.) The number of hours logged by the camera is designated by “HRS.” Land clarified that this calculates both recording and standby times, essentially whenever the camera has been on.

It seems like most heavy hitters in the forum thread are posting numbers around 3,000 hours or 125 days of continuous usage. What I’d really like to see is the numbers Peter Jackson or Steven Soderbergh could post up! Soderbergh’s cameras especially have gone through some serious productions including Che, District 9 and most recently, The Social Network with Jeff Cronenweth behind the lens.

This isn’t something I would consider essential information, but it is cool nonetheless!