Open RED Thoughts and Discussion

[nick franco]

So after spending some time with the Red here is the configuration that worked for me. Camera came from Keslow.

XCS plates top and bottom, two preston motors mounted off the top plate. AJA velcroed to the left side of the camera along with the Red LCD, allowed the assistants and the DP to keep an eye on things. Video out of the Element Technica breakout box. We chose to power the camera off of the Red batteries, the rig felt better for this show with the weight. Will pick up one of the Y cables for those times where you don't have the 90 seconds to wait for the reboot(and that's if it boots the first time) Got lucky and got a good set of batteries, the chargers were a lacking, we had to swap out three of them over the course of 8 weeks. Hung the battery off of the rods that were mounted to the Element Technica top plate. Comtek velcroed to the top of the battery mount for scratch track.

ARRI Ultra primes, clipon matte box. We used the cards for 99% of the show, the drives only came out for some music performances.

Oh yea, the drives hate helicopters.

Only two batteries in the back position, PRO II sled.

Not a bad camera overall for video, a little light for some stuff but doesn't beat you up at the end of the day.

Just frustrating dealing with some of the waiting issues,boot time lack of image for the 90secs, we were using Build 15 and the director could see an image at the village about 30 seconds before I could at the camera. I'm told Build 16 solves this but not the boot time.

 

nick

[Charles Papert]

Just frustrating dealing with some of the waiting issues,boot time lack of image for the 90secs, we were using Build 15 and the director could see an image at the village about 30 seconds before I could at the camera. I'm told Build 16 solves this but not the boot time.

 

Confirmed, Build 16 allows for the camera image to be viewable after perhaps 15 seconds, albeit with a RED logo imprinted in it to indicate that the camera is not ready to run (which will become more transparent on the next build, allegedly).

 

One thing about the Y cable that occurred to me (and why I didn't bother getting one); the camera doesn't draw enough amperage to really justify having the Y cable for maximum draw like you do with the Genesis in one-piece mode, so it would just be a convenience for hot-swapping batteries. However with 2 batteries on the sled for camera power they are already running in parallel so you can still hotswap with a standard power cable.

[Brad Grimmett]

Confirmed, Build 16 allows for the camera image to be viewable after perhaps 15 seconds, albeit with a RED logo imprinted in it to indicate that the camera is not ready to run (which will become more transparent on the next build, allegedly).

Was that actually the case on your job Chas, or is that just what the Red folks are saying?

I didn't find this to be the case on my recent job using build 16. I found that it normally took about 45 seconds to a minute before we could see any image and even then there is a huge logo covering the center third of the frame, so I found it a bit useless anyway since that tends to be an important part of the frame.

[Lawrence Karman]

One thing about the Y cable that occurred to me (and why I didn't bother getting one); the camera doesn't draw enough amperage to really justify having the Y cable for maximum draw like you do with the Genesis in one-piece mode, so it would just be a convenience for hot-swapping batteries. However with 2 batteries on the sled for camera power they are already running in parallel so you can still hotswap with a standard power cable.

 

 

For some reason I always thought the PRO 2 battery rack used only one battery for 12v, marked Camera, and the other was dedicated to the Accessory plug (and 24v focus power). At least that is what those different battery jumpers that you plug in the front indicate. That is why I chose to get the Y cable. Can anyone confirm this?

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Doc,

 

You are correct. The first generation battery cage had a parallel/serial switch, but the PRO 2 base uses the blocks. You can get an optional 12V only block from PRO that puts these two batteries in parallel but otherwise it should be done with a Y-Cable. Charles uses a Rig Engineering battery base which I assume has a switch to place the batteries in parallel.

[Charles Papert]

I never knew what the "standard" blocks supplied with the PRO2 base were but I always assumed the 12v dual rear battery mode would be one of them; if you are powering virtually any 12v camera you would want both batteries supplying it, wouldn't you? Especially if it was power hog like F900...? Traditionally the only camera that required the "separate" mode was the ARRI3, because of the discrete needs of the motor base, and then more recently the Y cable for the Genesis, but I thought I heard that people were getting "special" blocks for that mode as the Arri 3 was pretty much out of the picture by the time the PRO2 rolled out.

 

I'd be interested to hear more info on this.

 

Yes, I have the Steadyrig base but specifically I have a modified PRO1 junction box that allows 3 batts in 24/12 parallel/12 separate mode, 2 batts in 24/12 mode or 1 batt in 12v mode--it also allows me to assign the different functions of each battery, i.e. instead of the traditional front battery=monitor/video, top rear=camera, bottom rear=aux, I can reassign this so that the rear battery=video and the front=camera etc. Handy if need more weight/heavier battery in the front or something but want to power the camera with that. Sounds complicated (and I don't use that feature much) but I thought it would be worth it when wiring up the junction box.

[nick franco]

There is a separate block that gives you 12V out of both back batts. My PROII only came with 3 blocks, I picked up the double 12v block and the matching power cable for some F900 work. Didn't think about not needing the Y cable with that block until Charles mentioned it.