A wholelotta suggestions on how to awesomeize the R1 even more

[Martin Weiss]

(This is not really a complaint, more an extended list of well meant suggestions. It is one way of saying Thank You to the tirelessly working RED team people. Just didn't find a more fitting section on reduser to post this.)

After a couple of weeks with our beloved RED 3971, here are some suggestions on how this camera could become even more awesome - for us. Surely opinions will vary.

It is important to note that I shoot with very small crews, often just me, myself and Red.

Red wishes - general

I often shoot documentary, and here quick mag changes are essential. I usually shoot off CF cards, and am not a big fan of all the buttons that have to be pushed in-between mag swaps. I would LOOOVE an option to auto-format empty CF cards. I.e. I put a blank CF card into the R1, and a few moments, without me having to push a single button, a “100%” on the media display shows me that everything is set to go. If there is anything on the card, then obviously there should be some warnings & confirmations along the way. But this single feature would make the R1 even more fun to use.

If mag is full, have option to auto eject.

I know this has been discussed hotly before, but with a limited crew and non-repeatable documentary shooting, it would be very, very, very helpful to have an option to erase certain shots - at least the last take. I understand why this option would be loathed in a scripted shooting situation, but it might be a life-saver for us small/independent/far-away/small budget productions. Please consider this, and find a smart way of disabling this feature.

I never thought I would ask for it, but - after a d-uh experience, I would also like that the Off button needs to be pushed for 2 seconds before turning off the camera. (This would also leave the option open that a quick push might at a later firmware invoke the sleep function, if that is at all possible.)

Would be great to save preferences between build upgrades.

Pre-record would make more sense if moved to project

Option to change resolution together with framerates and/or user button to cycle through different combinations.

Timelapse mode: interval as standard. When activated, take the current exposure time/shutter angle as standard.

I understand that the “Black sun” is there to protect the sensor in cases of extreme over-exposure. Would it be possible to have this display as just pure 100% white, rather than the grayish dot?

Would be cool to be able to connect External USB buttons, and make them programmable

I know you guys are working on it, and this is meant just as encouragement: would love the Sleep mode and/or faster bootup

Possibility to record Audio in timelapse and higher fps.

Is it possible to have Timelapse exposures longer than 1/2 seconds? Have one project where such a function is crucial.

Varispeed - option to go to higher framerate with little note on center screen warning of "3k" or "2k". Going back to the project's resolution when chosing lower frame rates or turning varispeed off.

Pre-recording times more flexible, 5,10,20,30,60,120 seconds. Great for sports to have the short ones, great for interviews to have longer ones.

Would be great to be able to assign one button to deal with the 4 audio channels. Maybe the joystick: Left/right would chose the channel, pushing would enable/disable the channel, turning would set the volume and up/down enable/disable the phantom power

Display

Would love an option to display which colorspace I am currently in. (You might gain some space by removing “RAW” [after all, everything is RAW, and that is why we love R1] and/or the SD card logo)

Boot logo: no black background. "Shot on red" should maybe be called something like "shooting on red" - and maybe put it into a top corner.

Battery voltage display, if possible

Zebras: have option of having only one value, not a range. I for one would like to display the Zebra only at 108 and 0.
Swap 1 and 2 - more logical to have the 1st one for the lower value. Alternative: have both zebras go from 0 to 108
Micro bug: it is possible to have the low setting higher than the lowest. The 0 zebra also “zebras” the black bars on top and bottom, which is a bit disturbing.

Would love option to superimpose a large histogram on the picture

1:1 option in playback would be swell

Display length of take during record - maybe both real time and according to project setting. I.e. a 10second take in 100fps would read “10:00 / 40:00” for a 25fps project.

Maybe display estimated remaining recording time with current settings.

Would love to have shutter displayed in degrees when chosen, not in exposure time. Old school...

When 1:1, turn off the center Marker and display a 1:1 in the upper corner - just to make it more obvious which mode one is on.

Playback

It is phantasmic to be able to playback clips right after they are shot. But moving around and within the clips is sometimes a bit clunky (is that an English word?). Some well meant ideas:

One push starts the playback of the last clip at once (rather than the first push getting into playback mode first.)

Display of fps and shutter angle during playback would be swell

While in playpack, pushing “exit” gets straight to displaying the current camera picture

Holding the “back” button goes to the first scene (or maybe: displays thumbnails)

When at the last clip, “forward” goes to the first clip - and vice versa. I.e. cycling. Right now it is a pain getting to the first shot.

Would be lovely to enable the joystick when in playback mode: “left” goes to beginning of clip but keeps playing. “Right” goes to next clip, keep playing. Pushing joystick start/stops. “Up”/”down” 10 seconds forwards/back.

A minor bug I found: When pushing the back button multiple times, the screen starts flashing.

Maybe make playback buttons programmable when not in playback mode?



And finally a question: What is the undo button for?


Thanks for listening!

[Stuart English]

Thanks Martin.

Lots of good feedback there!

[Brent@RED]

Thanks, Martin, very well thought out and presented. Constructive feedback like this never goes unnoticed.

BC

[Cail Young]

While in playpack, pushing “exit” gets straight to displaying the current camera picture

Some great stuff in there, but this should already be the case... does it not do it for you?

[Martin Weiss]

Thanks for all the feedback - especially on a Saturday, just hours after the christmas party :)


Some great stuff in there, but this should already be the case... does it not do it for you?

I have to push play once first (to get into pause mode), and then exit gets the camera to show the "current" picture.

[Martin Weiss]

With the cold season approaching (and the R1 buttons being a bit too small for clumsy (though warm) gloves) and longer, dark evenings giving time to muse about, here are a few more friendly suggestions:

1. Under assign user buttons, it would be great, no, fantastico, if each user button could have multiple changes at once.

For example: Button 1: Change resolution to 2k (keeping the current ratio), max frame rate, keeping the current shutter angle. Push button again to return to previous state. (Can't count the number of situations where I missed a cool slo-mo shot because by the time I had changed both resolution and vari-speed settings, it was over)
Button 2: Toggle between 1:1 pixel display/Menu display off and previous state (I love seeing my histogram, but when I want to check focus, I dislike having to push the extra button.)

2. Could it be possible to capture the histogram of a scene, save it to the SD card, and then overlay it onto the histogram at a later point? Might be of good help when trying to match reverse angles.

3. It is a bit cumbersome that audio is spread over 2 different menu settings. Maybe have it all under "System>Audio"?

4. Could it be possible to see the audio levels while changing the sensitivity?

5. Suggestion; when not in playback mode, and no menu is selected, pushing the joystick brings up a quick menu to adjust audio levels. Pushing the joystick up choses channel 1, pushing right channel 2, and so on. Turning the joystick sets the level. Pushing the undo button would toggle between enabling this channel/enabling this channel with phantom power on/disabling this channel).

6. Would it be possible to save black shading settings onto the SD card? When I for example do evening landscape shots, I like to switch between 24fps and timelapses. Ideally I should do a blackshading whenever I switch the framerates, but that is just not feasible. (I know that one should do new calibrations when changing environments; so as a precautionary measure these saved black shadings could expire after say 8 hours or a power cycle).

7. Would it be possible to map out all R1 buttons to an external USB keyboard? This might have several advantages: 1.) When cold, one could push bigger buttons 2.) Remote control of the camera, for example for underwater or aerial photography 3.) quick fix if a button/joystick was broken 4.) Access to extra user buttons, even when using only the EVF or only the LCD (or: only an external monitor).

8. Could it be possible to map audio inputs to multiple channels for enhanced range? I.e. have a mike plugged into channel 1, record it at a low level on channel 1, and a high level on channel 2.

9. And this might be far out - but I always wondered: would it be possible to record audio so that it is always at maximum audio level, and then record the actual level as meta-data?

10. When chosing to display the shutter angle, is there a way that one could then change the shutter angle (rather than changing the exposure time, which then in return gets displayed as shutter angle.) I'm just so old-school in that way - even after a year I don't quite get my head around this.

11. With all the option between resolution and format (which is great, no debate) - maybe it should be split into two menu options; one for changing resolution, and one for chosing format

12. if 1.) is not possible; when setting varispeed, maybe you could employ using the playback buttons. "|<" would go to the minimum setting, "<<" would decrease the current value by 10; ">" would set it to the project frame rate; ">>" would increase the current value by 10; ">|" would set it to the maximum setting.

13. Would it be possible to plug in a simple GPS module into the USB port, and the data would be saved as meta data?

Finally, I need a feature that makes sleep unnecessary. From your working hours it is obvious that RED has the technology for it, now it is time to share it ;)