sync pulse for motion control?

[Jance Allen]

Hey, RedUsers. I've searched and found a bunch of posts about this but I couldn't find a definitive answer. My motion control operator asked me to "Please check into the red's ability to send sync pulses." Apparently the SI2k mini can do this, so that's our fallback, but we're hoping to shoot Red - if we can achieve perfect sync with it. I realize in some cases it's good enough to just hit record and then start the motion control, and line things up with the bloop light. But we need shutter sync, so I'm hoping to find out what's possible with the Red One, and what gear is necessary.

My guy has an advanced sync box on its way for his motion control rig (Cyclops + Flair). Can we achieve sync with the Red One?

Thanks for any info!

[Stuart English]

Unfortunately the RED ONE does not offer this type of output signal.

There are a number of RED ONES being used in MOCO applications, but the main restriction is that they either need to work at video frame rate or single frame at a time. In this latter case there is a GPIO handshake available.

[Jance Allen]

Thanks for the reply. I guess we'll have to go with the SI2k mini for this shoot. I would add sync pulse as a feature request for Red development.

[Cail Young]

If you don't need to go off-speed the video sync from the HDSDI outputs (even through our HD10MD3 downconverter) is enough to line up multiple takes.

[Jance Allen]

Thanks for the info. I read through several posts after my initial search and saw various options for video sync - genlock/timecode. But we're aiming for as perfect a lock as possible and we will be off-speed. I hope the next-gen Reds can output shutter sync pulse (or whatever the right term is).

[Sven Seynaeve]

We'd like to be able to use it with the milo aswell...

[Cail Young]

But we're aiming for as perfect a lock as possible and we will be off-speed.

It is perfect - until you're offspeed. So, SI2K for now, and we'll see what Scarlet/EPIC brings.