Red One

[Igor Savatovic]

Is there some kind of down converters, for RED, so it can be seened on SD monitor. My biggest producer bought few RED's, but on my steadis I have Transvideo Cine III monitors, and swithcing to HD monitor is really not convinient!

 

:-)

[Afton Grant]

Midweek last week I got a call from Alec Jarnagin asking if I had plans on Saturday. I did not. He asked if I would be interested in joining him and his wife Jendra for an inaugural test of the first RED cameras to arrive in NYC. OffHollywood Studios of Manhattan took delivery on Friday of Red #'s 0006 and 0007 (boss). For some Steadicam tests, my gear was invited as well since Alec's is living on the camera truck of the show he is currently on. Humbly, he let me know there was no pay for the shoot. After a small chuckle, I told him I was about to ask how much it would cost me to be a part of it as I would've been willing to pay. After all, this wasn't just a test of the next version of the F900.

 

As many of you have seen, the camera body itself looks like none other. But probably the most overwhelming thing about opening the cases for the first time was the amount of brackets, rods, and other accessories included in the package. Even without knowing exactly what each was for, it was quickly obvious that the possibilities for different camera configurations would be virtually infinite.

 

The camera body alone is a mere 9 lbs and 12 inches long. Alec and I decided to add on as much stuff as possible, increasing mass and adding length. Neither the hard drive or viewfinder is ready at this time, so the camera setup turned out to be the body, prime lens, M-one motor,mattebox, AJA downconverter and onboard battery - all accessories supported by the included aluminum rods. Recording was done onto 8GB Compact Flash cards. The 4min of record time each provides might not sound like a lot, but you wouldn't get much more out of a 400' mag of 35mm film.

 

The exact weight, I do not know. However, my job previous to this was with a Panasonic HDX500 with DigiPrime lenses and when Alec first mounted the rig, my arm sank and had to be tuned UP - meaning the RED setup was slightly heavier than the previous. However, to be clear, it was not a heavy setup at all. The length and weight turned out to be very comfortable for a full size rig. As I mentioned before, we deliberately added as much as we could, but the modularity of the camera would have easily allowed us to strip most of that stuff off and turn it into an excellent lightweight camera for running, or basically whatever the situation calls for.

 

In flight, in my opinion, a camera is a camera like any other. If it balances and has a lens in the front that gets an image down to the monitor, the basics of operating don't change. Alec did the majority of the shooting, so perhaps he has a few remarks about it.

 

The final images we have yet to see. The cards were downloaded into a Mac and the footage is being assembled now.

 

Photo gallery can be seen here.

[RonBaldwin]

pretty cool

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Thanks Afton for your time, your gear, your help, and your informative post.

 

The RED flew well in the configuration you see. Not owning a Master Series, it is a little harder for me to compare this camera to others since my daily set-up is so different (I'm currently using an Arri 416 on a show and that has been an absolute pleasure - at some point I'll post about it). As Afton indicated, we decided to place a bunch of accessories on the camera giving it the "feel" of a full size camera. By keeping the accessory plate on the bottom of the camera, we raised the center of gravity a bit and allowed for the aluminum 19mm rods to remain. The "battery plate" and "hard drive bucket" attach to these rods allowing you to slide them back & forth (much like many sleds allow you to do for inertial control). The hard drive system is not ready yet so we recored to Compact Flash Cards and used the "hard drive bucket" to house the AJA downconverter. We also placed additional rods on the top of the camera adding more weight up high. This configuration placed the gimbal at a comfortable working height and kept the Master arm in check.

 

I look forward to playing with various configurations down the road (we met up with the camera owners straight from the airport and had very little daylight to shoot). This camera seems to be a true convertible allowing for countless configurations. Our dovetail plate can mount directly to the bottom of the camera & power provided via the sled allowing for an extremely light weight set-up. Various brackets for the RED allow for many set-ups in between as well (the battery can be mounted on top of the camera skipping the rail system, etc.)

 

Pretty neat stuff.

[Charles Papert]

Probably too early to tell Alec, but do we know at this point what the typical power draw of the camera is all-up, at least in the mode you had it in?

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Charles,

 

Great question and one that I didn't get to explore. Really, all we did was play for a bit. I powered the RED from its own battery (again no hard drive running). I don't think they ever changed the battery while on the Steadicam or once we went to shoot the sunset from a near-by rooftop (on sticks). I did notice the camera (when in stand-by) is very loud with the fans spinning away, but these fans shot off while rolling (ala the Genesis).

 

I'm sure this info will come.....

[Anders Holck Petersen]

According to Jarred Land, their 14.4v/140Wh battery runs for about 70-100 mins. on the RED ONE.

That would be around 5,8-8,3A at 14,4v if my math is correct....

[Charles Papert]

Naturally this will be tempered by various viewfinders, onboard monitors etc. But this sounds about what one would expect.

 

I've been starting to think somewhat seriously about a dock-mounted block battery setup with a quick-release connector to allow the camera to be powered up for lighting purposes etc. To minimize wear-and-tear on the power connectors and save time it would be great to have something that could be plugged in inline without having to switch between Steadicam power cable and block battery cable each time. This is not RED specific but applicable to all HD cameras, which obviously we'll all be working with more and more.

[Anders Holck Petersen]

Ok, he just updated it to say below 84W, and even lower of course if shooting to CF with no viewfinder or LCD.

 

Maybe Mr. Hill should add power pins to his docking bracket. Just dock the rig to switch to PSU. Watch out for those rainy days...

[Jon Myers]

I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in seeing some pictures? I got to fly one today.

 

Jon

[Philip J. Martinez SOC]

I always like seeing pictures, it is one of my favorite things on this fourm.

[David Shawl SOC]

Here is a sick setup from a prep today:

[Rob Vuona SOC]

I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in seeing some pictures? I got to fly one today.

 

Jon

------------

Hey Jon,

Who's camera are you using . . .? I sooo want to see them,

 

Oh and call me BTW I have some other questions for you

[Jon Myers]

Here are some pictures.

 

Jon

[Matt Burton]

Here are some pictures.

 

Jon

 

Very Very nice :rolleyes:

What was the weight like ?

I remeber a time when people thought the red was little more than a pipe dream.

Glad things are taking off now.

Interesting that all the ports ont the side of the camera are so exposed, i take it their is some kind of cover or plugs for them ?

Cheers for sharing.