Red Lenses

[Carl-August Savgård]

There have been alot of talk of Spike, witch is nice. How aboot them lenses... I headed over too Cooke Optics site, when I saw the lens mount... Are the Red lenses also equipped with some sort of /i technology. Seems like a good thing when our projects go to the Post process...

/i Electronics
http://www.cookeoptics.com/cooke.nsf/dcb2d81e7e2672ed85256e710062d65e/48dc354c93cba35485256e850072db6a?OpenDocument

/i datalink
http://www.cookeoptics.com/cooke.nsf/dcb2d81e7e2672ed85256e710062d65e/72c09d12311d3fee85257205005800cc?OpenDocument

Edit...
More on the Arri LDM (Lens Data Mount)

http://www.arri.com/prod/cam/lds_data_mount/lds_data_mount.htm

[Greg M]

That would be a welcome feature, but don't count on that being included in the initial units.
I would be willing to pay extra for this option though as I have the Arri LDS Ultra Primes, which have the same feature.

[CVB]

I thougt Arris LDS was just to convey general lens info and not necessarily full positional data like zoom/focus/iris values. They offer conversion rings for older lenses so I assume thats the case.

[Greg M]

I thougt Arris LDS was just to convey general lens info and not necessarily full positional data like zoom/focus/iris values. They offer conversion rings for older lenses so I assume thats the case.

The LDS lenses provide a lot more than general lens info:
What is LDS?

LDS (Lens Data System) provides various time and money saving features by displaying lens & camera related information on Lens Data-Displays or the video assist.

The advantages of the LDS are as follows:

* Depth of Field is graphically displayed which make setting up table top shots faster plus allows the assistant to quickly judge whether the object is still within the depth of field.
* LDD-FP (Lens Data Display for Focus Pullers) can be mounted on matte-boxes so that the Assistant can work more efficient because the LDD-FP is in his field of vision.
* Any ramp involving the iris requires no more complex setup anymore because the camera knows the iris setting automatically.
* When the camera is in a remote situation (Crane, Steadicam, Shotmaker, Helicopter?) the Assistant get precise and reliable information about lens & camera status without use of cumbersome whitness cameras. This can be done wired or wireless with the WMU-3.
* DP, Director and Script appreciate having the lens information on Video Assist, witch also acts as an accurate log on video tape.
* By providing an interface for external distance measuring devices (currently the Cine Tape Measure) special features like focus tracking are possible.
* Since the LDD shows a numeric value for any position on the lens ring, Assistants can work faster without using messy tape on the lenses.

In Summary the LDS reduces the Assistants work load and makes working with cameras and lenses more efficient. The advantages of the LDS where first introduced with the ARRICAM System and then expanded to the 435 Advanced. The System will be further expanded to function on any camera with any lens.

[Greg M]

Jim,
Any chance of this feature as an option?

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Do these systems use a generic/common interface or would red have to make one Arri and one Cooke mount.

Edit: It looks like the i/link should be compatible since it's not in the mount.

[Stephen Williams]

Do these systems use a generic/common interface or would red have to make one Arri and one Cooke mount.

Edit: It looks like the i/link should be compatible since it's not in the mount.

Hi Gavin,

Cooke & Arri both use the Arri PL mount.

Stephen

[Greg M]

He was referring to the electronic contacts in the new Arri (LDS or Lens Data System) or Cooke's "I" contacts, not the PL mount.

I believe these are exactly the same.

[J. Bernard Vallon]

This might not be the best thread for this question, but I bought this lens for still photography, just to test it out:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=284402&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

it being an off-brand lens, I was skeptical. I did some test and i was happily impressed. Super sharp images for the full zoom range at full aperture (2.8 full range), all the way down to f8. I havent tested it more.

I'd like to use it for my RED, but it has a very light weight focus barrel, meaning it should breath like a chain-smoker.

If instead of buying the nikkor equivalent 17-55 f2.8, i bought a redrock followfocus

http://www.redrockmicro.com/mff_product.htm

would that help solve the breathing problem for my tamron?

[Matthew Greene]

I'm thinking that you may be slightly mixed up as to what breathing is. It's an byproduct of pulling focus, not the drifting of the ring on a zoom lens. Breathing happens in primes (fixed focal length) lenses too.

With regards to the Redrock product(s): No, if the lens breathes... well, it breathes. You could consider correcting for breathing in post with some animated scaling.

[Carl-August Savgård]

I can't remember who said that there will be a port (USB) for storing metadata on the footage.

How is this data stored? How much data can be stored per frame? Will anybody be intressed in a device that will take for example X,Y,Z, rotation, pan/tilt (GPS) from sensors and output them on to a USB device and then input on the RED. And of course lens data as aperture, zoom, focus (If there is a port on Red lenses). I'm thining crane work here.

[Simon Blackledge]

x,y,z , pan... tilt.. lens height etc... all very useful for us vfx guys..

[Stuart English]

Conceptually, yes to all of the above. Total data size per frame being worked out, but even storing all of what you describe would only be a few bytes of data.

[Ruairi Robinson]

Conceptually, yes to all of the above. Total data size per frame being worked out, but even storing all of what you describe would only be a few bytes of data.

Hey Stuart, can you tell me what kinds of data will or won't be transmittable via USB from the camera/lenses?

I would dearly love to see a low cost and accurate automated method of tracking 3D camera data on set, with the 3D data stored as metadata per frame. Would make VFX shots a gazillion times easier. Especially if info from the lens was passed through (animated focal length, etc - tracking shots with zooms is currently a nightmare in post!)

Hey one other question - is there any automated way to deal with lens distortion? normally you shoot a reference grid, but is there any other way...?

[Greg M]

Stuart,
Back to the origin of this thread....will the Red support the data connections on Zeiss Ultra primes (LDS) and Cooke S4's?

[Carl-August Savgård]

Stuart,

Have you not nailed this details down yet? =)

As digitalfx pointed out, will there be any output from RED lenses that store zoom, aperture and focus as metadata aka Cooke /i Arri LDM.

Just to clearify the origin of the thread...

[Andrew Benz]

As digitalfx pointed out, will there be any output from RED lenses that store zoom, aperture and focus as metadata aka Cooke /i Arri LDM.

Just to clearify the origin of the thread...

Hi Nilsson,

From what I have read since March, this issue was brought up before and it was stated by the RED team that the lenses were fully manual--no electronics. At least to the extent that Arri and Cooke offer... One of the goals was to keep costs to us--down. Now, things change and I could be wrong, but this is what I understand so far. Does not mean that a 3rd party or a RED solution will not happen down the road though.