DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Taking apart a $45,000 8K RED camera

Jan 21, 2019 by John Aldred 1 Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

You might remember that a couple of years ago, Linus Tech Tips spent a somewhat insane $138,000 on a couple of 8K RED cameras & accessories. Well, like most of us after having a camera for this amount of time, they’re starting to notice some of the annoying quirks of their camera.

In this case, the loudness of it between takes as the fan kicks into overdrive. So, they decided to try and switch it over from fans to water cooling.

While not common, modifying our cameras to better suit our needs does happen. Particularly with Sony, apparently. But I don’t think many of us would consider taking apart a $45,000 camera even if just to peek inside, let alone attempting to swap out internal components. But that’s the plan for Linus.

It started off as a bit of a joke conversation about all the things you have to bolt onto a RED body to make it usable for shooting. The suggestion laughingly came of bolting a radiator onto the rig to help keep the camera cool. Well, jokes like this, on Linus Tech Tips quickly turn into “Challenge accepted!”.

The problem isn’t that the RED overheats, as such. But when you’re shooting in warm environments, the fan goes into overdrive between takes to cool down those components before you need to shoot again. It then turns the fan off while you’re actually shooting so as it doesn’t get picked up by microphones. But, if you’re shooting multiple cameras (they do have two of these), one could still be filming while the other’s making far too much noise.

Even when not filming, if two of these go into cooling mode at the same time, it could still get annoyingly loud for those nearby. And that’s why they’re looking into water cooling the camera. Water cooling in some cameras will help to reduce noise, especially on very long exposures. But here it’s purely for noise pollution reasons.

In this first part of the project, Linus dismantles the 8K RED camera into its various heatsinks, panels, and PCBs. It’s quite incredible just how much stuff RED packs into these relatively small camera bodies. And when you do some research on the components inside, you can start to understand why they cost so much money. One chip mentioned in the video costs $1,600. And that’s just one.

Hopefully, in the next video, even if Linus can’t figure out how to put water cooling in, they can at least figure out how to put it back together again without killing it.

It’s a bit extreme on a camera so expensive. I’m not sure I’d have the guts to try it. Would you?

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

When a $30,000 RED camera meets a red bowling ball who wins? It looks like RED will be the first to announce an RF mount video camera with the RED Komodo The amusing unboxing of $138,000 worth of 8K RED Weapon and accessories RED is having another go at smartphones with the RED Hydrogen 2

Filed Under: news Tagged With: 8K, Helium, Linus Tech Tips, LTT, red, Red Cinema, Red Weapon

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« Healthy skin tone – The Lighting Series #12
How to make your first $1,000 with your photography »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Photographer’s Block? Here’s how to get out of a creative rut
  • Zhiyun MOLUS G60 & X100 LED lights are tiny-tiny powerful LEDs
  • Three new full-frame and APS-C Sigma lenses coming soon
  • Sony launches DSC-HX99 retinal projection kit for the visually impaired
  • DIYP Quiz: AI or photo?

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy