Red Questions

[Dan Ayers]

I have a one day commercial with the Red. It's owned by the DP, and he has V-lock batteries and the Cooke 18-55 lens. He states that it has NTSC in 720p, is this correct? He says it comes out of BNC. Is there a better lens choice and should I have them rent a downconverter? Does anyone have a power cable I can borrow?

 

Thanks

Dan Ayers

(818) 425-7252

[Marc Abernathy]

just use his batteries, no need for a power cable. if you have an analog monitor, you will need a down converter. worse case you can use the red monitor just as well.

[Peter Milanov]

If you don´t have an HD monitor you need a downconverter (You might need it anyway if you have a non HD transmitter).

 

Powercables are not that expensive, a couple for each camera you work with is a good investment, even on a RED the weight starts to build up when you add everything. Last time I flew one it was about the same weight as an ARRI LT (recorded on harddrive and using an IDX HD transmitter.)

[Charles Papert]

I've flown the RED three or four times, this past weekend was the first time it was "stupidly" equipped. What I mean by that is a mostly RED accessory package, which means 4 19mm steel rods, their dovetail assembly, no downconverter etc. The mattebox required minirods which would have meant retaining their base system which added probably 8 lbs to the payload and was full of play--all this just to provide two aluminum rods to mount the mattebox. I pulled it and made a mess of Lego with 15mm rods and dogbones from my kit which looked absurd but worked. No downconverter meant using the RED monitor, which of course didn't have an extension cable so I had to mount it to the side of the Preston. Completely alien place to view the image, threw me off significantly. I was just helping out a friend so I didn't bother to complain (or ask in advance what the package was, I had a feeling it was going to be sucky) and I figured I would see how the "other half" lives, i.e. all the ops who have had to deal with the wanky setup. I've been fortunate (or smart) enough to insist on the proper gear, which is the Element Technica bracketry and a downconverter on my previous shoots.

 

Anyway, it was a total clusterf. for me and my operating suffered for it, and I'm probably going to end up buying all of the ET bracketry to configure the camera properly for Steadicam, and will subsequently make it available to rent.

[Marc Abernathy]

ive flown the red a bunch of times as thats the poster camera of choise here in my neck of the woods. in one of the earlier "outings" with this camcorder i mounted the monitor this way as production forgot to (or were too cheap to) grab the downconverter. i ended up mounting the monitor a bit differently later to totally clear the bfd antenna.

 

be advised the red monitor has a very NARROW field of view so off axis viewing is really limited. i had to do a 360 lock off on this day the photo was taken and it took me a couple of takes to get it since for a couple seconds i was flying blind at certain points of the 360 due to the narrow off axis viewing.

 

it can be done but just be advised.... and yeah that red camera had a short monitor cable which prohibited me from mounting it atop my monitor.

[Richard James Lewis]

I quite like that little monitor; I was leading our actress up a very narrow, steep flight of stairs the other week. To keep her eye line, I was in low mode and don juan. I had that little monitor mounted looking up at me from the back of the camera. Fantastic, worked a treat!

Random, but it thought it was worth a mention if anyone finds themselves in the same situation?

 

Rick.

 

 

 

ive flown the red a bunch of times as thats the poster camera of choise here in my neck of the woods. in one of the earlier "outings" with this camcorder i mounted the monitor this way as production forgot to (or were too cheap to) grab the downconverter. i ended up mounting the monitor a bit differently later to totally clear the bfd antenna.

 

be advised the red monitor has a very NARROW field of view so off axis viewing is really limited. i had to do a 360 lock off on this day the photo was taken and it took me a couple of takes to get it since for a couple seconds i was flying blind at certain points of the 360 due to the narrow off axis viewing.

 

it can be done but just be advised.... and yeah that red camera had a short monitor cable which prohibited me from mounting it atop my monitor.

[Mike Germond SOC]

I worked 4 days last week with a crew shooting commercials for a university and they did their RED One setup right. It was Master Primes on 19mm steel rods with the arri mattebox. They chose CF cards so no need for the cage. I took their rear AB mount off and used a Terry West cable. Everything worked fine on my Flyer LE. The monitor took a bit of customization since they didn't have a down converter and my rig is SD. They had this ridiculous little extendable monitor arm on the handle that I rigged in place of my monitor, and the shorty cable they had was just able to reach. I do agree that the viewing angle sucks though..

 

It was a stretch, but good to know my Flyer LE can do it..

[Charles Papert]

I worked 4 days last week with a crew shooting commercials for a university and they did their RED One setup right. It was Master Primes on 19mm steel rods with the arri mattebox.

 

I would call 15mm aluminum rods "more right", considering that the rods are only holding up the mattebox (and even more right still would have been a clip-on).

[Mike Germond SOC]

yes i suppose that's true...we also had follow focus, but no wireless.

[Mark Karavite]

Just wrapped my first RED show before Thanksgiving, a 5 week MOW. Here are some observations & how I configured the camera:

 

- *19mm rods, Arri baseplate, CF cards (no drive), powered from my sled via a Terry West cable, Ultra Primes, LMB clip on, handle with mounting for low mode bracket, Cine Tape, AJA downconverter, Clock it box.

 

* The main reason we had 19mm rods was to accommodate swing & shift lenses for all of the flashback scenes in the movie. We were going back and forth between Ultra Primes & Arri Swing & Shift, so for speed, we left the 19mm setup. What I found is I liked the weight of the baseplate & rods over the weight of an on board battery & drive. The battery & drive are on a bad mount that sticks out too far behind the camera for my taste. Sled power & CF cards for me.

 

- The camera behaved well on the Steadicam. I would agree that my setup was close to an LT, maybe a tad heavier.

 

- In Steadicam, we powered the Cine Tape off the 4 pin RED aux power on the back of the camera, and used the other 4 pin for MDR camera start. I had a cable made to power the AJA from my PRO J Box. This camera needs more aux power, instead of relying on the Anton Bauer P Taps. In my configuration, there was no P Tap available. The AC's were having trouble with the P Tap power cutting in and out in conventional mode. The V mount plates were intermittent, causing the power disruption.

 

- The 720P proxy image is very poor. Maybe it was my viewfinder, but it was one of the poorest VF images I have seen on a digital camera.

 

- I don't get the accolades the on board monitor receives. It has about the worst off axis viewing if have seen on a LCD, and it's not a very bright panel.

 

- We had several software failures with the camera bodies. We were a 2 camera show, and usually had 4 cameras with us. We joked that we were shooting 8K, because you needed 2 cameras to get each unit through the day.

 

Overall, the number of ergonomic issues is problematic. Also, our DP was not impressed with the camera's images, not enough latitude. With the problems, one must remember the price the camera sells for. "You get what you pay" for comes to mind. I will admit it's a lot of camera for $17K, but it's not a prime time player in my opinion.

 

Mark Karavite, SOC

[Jerry Franck]

Hey Mark,

 

what was the cable you got to power the aja downconverter? And where did u get it?

Also, is that the only way to get a signal from the RED to a wireless video transmitter like e.g. the TITAN?

I will be using it most likely on a Clipper 324.

 

Thank you,

Jerry

Edited February 24, 2009 by Jerry Franck

[Charles Papert]

This camera needs more aux power, instead of relying on the Anton Bauer P Taps. In my configuration, there was no P Tap available. The AC's were having trouble with the P Tap power cutting in and out in conventional mode. The V mount plates were intermittent, causing the power disruption.

 

The battery issue is well documented--the stock battery plates were machined improperly and most have had to be replaced aftermarket.

 

Many HD cameras these days seem to be shying away from providing power outputs as they require fairly intensive current. I've seen the same thing with an F35 and D21--Clairmont's power cable to the camera has a separate 2-pin Lemo breakout that powers breakout boxes on the camera.

 

I've had to invest in a series of "problem solvers" with the P-tap setup not just with the RED but for various other HD cameras that come my way. A PRO camera power to female P-tap cable comes in very handy, especially when coupled with the 4-way P-tap breakout box. This way I can power any accessory directly off the rig as needed. Just one more way to spend one's hard earned money--but it has saved me over and over again with unexpected AKS that gets thrown my way.

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

found something funny...

 

[Robert Starling SOC]

NO.... this is crazy funny:

 

[Matteo Quagliano]

AH AH AH .... Producer, Director and Dp, stay. The rest get out.

 

I'm on my first RED job, a short film in which I'm the main player. It's a dog POV from beginning to end, with lenses going from 16 to 105 reaching the end of the story, interesting and curious on how it will looks like. Just have big problems with a 85 shoot at night, with T1.3 in a getting closer movement to the talent. The focus puller just couldn't make it and my self too had great problems in seeing something trough the monitor. A part that... GREAT FUN!