Warning Light

Jon Rosenbloom · January 22, 2006

Shooting w/ the SDX-900. Everything seems to be working right, but there was an exclamation point illuminated in the viewfinder under the b/w screen all day yesterday. I checked tape a bunch of times, and the results seem fine, but the warning is a little worrying. Someone thought we should dry out the tape bay w/ a hair dryer, but we didn't. Any ideas? Thanks,

Jon ...

Stephen Williams · January 22, 2006

Shooting w/ the SDX-900. Everything seems to be working right, but there was an exclamation point illuminated in the viewfinder under the b/w screen all day yesterday. I checked tape a bunch of times, and the results seem fine, but the warning is a little worrying. Someone thought we should dry out the tape bay w/ a hair dryer, but we didn't. Any ideas? Thanks,

Jon ...

Hi,

Usually it means a non standard setting, mabe -3 db gain.

Stephen

Brian Drysdale · January 22, 2006

Humidity has the record warning light flashing.

The exclamation could be caused by a number of things, as Stephen mentioned a gain setting could be one. You should go into the menu and check the items for the ! LED. The Shutter being on could be another thing.

Jon Rosenbloom · January 22, 2006

"Non standard setting"?? The settings are 16:9 aspect, 50 mb recording, 24p, cine-gamma 2.

Thanks for the info. We had the rental house set up the camera, and I'm not really inclined to even touch the menu button ... it's the 2nd shoot w/ this camera, and I had a problem on the first shoot that I desperately want to avoid.

Tim J Durham · January 22, 2006

"Non standard setting"?? The settings are 16:9 aspect, 50 mb recording, 24p, cine-gamma 2.

Thanks for the info. We had the rental house set up the camera, and I'm not really inclined to even touch the menu button ... it's the 2nd shoot w/ this camera, and I had a problem on the first shoot that I desperately want to avoid.

It's probably the gain. If it is set anywhere EXCEPT 0dB, the exclamation point will appear in the viewfinder unless you have gone in and changed the factory parameters for the iLED or someone else did before you. WHAT turns on the iLED exclamation point is settable in the menus.

When you see it (the exclamation pt.), you can press a button right above the monitor and alarm pots called "mode check" that will bring up in the viewfinder which settings are turned on in the iLED menu (there are 14 different things that COULD turn on the exclamation point).

To access the iLED menu, you press and hold in the menu button while you are powering up the camera and go into the "VF" menu. You'll then see the iLED at the bottom of the list. It is useful to have a Goodman Guide with you when you are setting up the camera the night before as it explains the menus pretty well. The layout of the book can be somewhat frustrating but if you are not overly familiar w/ the camera, I'd say it is a necessity. Do not trust that the rental house will have returned the camera to factory specs after the last time it went out.

Your rental house SHOULD provide you with a copy of the GG if you ask them so you can set the camera up yourself. Which you should do, even if you trust the rental house.

David Mullen ASC · January 22, 2006

As everyone else is saying, you can select in the menu whatever change in setting to cause the ! to appear - it may be that "normal" is the tungsten filter setting so the daylight filter is !, and it may be switching the gain, it may be anything -- it's meant as a reminder for you as to whatever you want to be reminded of.

Just go into the ! menu and see what settings are "normal" (i.e. don't cause the ! to appear.)

Jon Rosenbloom · January 24, 2006

Well, after about 55 setups in 2 days, everything seems to have worked. Now the question is what to do w/ the 50mb tapes since our poor student filmmakers can't afford the playback deck to digitize from the camera originals. They seem to have the option to dub everything to DV-cam, which to me sounds like shooting on film and transferring to beta-sp. If it's their only option, it's their only option. My only question is, will the time-code transfer as well? (That way they could get some $ for a deck after they've finished editing.)

Actually, another question, what kind of image are we seeing on the little 8" field moniter? It's just composite video, right?

Thanks for the info!

J Ro...

Brian Drysdale · January 24, 2006

Well, after about 55 setups in 2 days, everything seems to have worked. Now the question is what to do w/ the 50mb tapes since our poor student filmmakers can't afford the playback deck to digitize from the camera originals. They seem to have the option to dub everything to DV-cam, which to me sounds like shooting on film and transferring to beta-sp. If it's their only option, it's their only option. My only question is, will the time-code transfer as well? (That way they could get some $ for a deck after they've finished editing.)

Actually, another question, what kind of image are we seeing on the little 8" field moniter? It's just composite video, right?

Thanks for the info!

J Ro...

Does the camera have a SDI output?

Jon Rosenbloom · January 24, 2006

I don't think sdi output comes as part of the basic rental package. It's a moot point, they somehow found a deck they can afford :) .

Tim J Durham · January 24, 2006

I don't think sdi output comes as part of the basic rental package. It's a moot point, they somehow found a deck they can afford :) .

That's good. I regularly rent an SD-930 deck for $200/day. If you can find an SD-93, it should be even less.

Not building firewire output into the camera is the one bummer. I guess they figured they didn't want people using the camera as a playback deck or else how could they sell all those $15K SD-930's?