What exactly do I need to order?

[Nic van Oudtshoorn]

I am planning to order a Red One camera this week but am unsure exactly what to include in the order from the website.

I am a wildlife documentary maker based in Australia but travel regularly to Africa etc and weight is obviously a major consideration for air travel.

I have a large range of Canon lenses as well as Anton Bauer batteries, chargers etc (from my 2/3" Panasonic 910 cameras). I would prefer to use these batteries and I also understand there are problems shipping Red batteries by air. Do I need to order any power attachments with the Red One or will this product from AbelCine be sufficient:

"Anton Bauer QR RH Handle for RED ONE with Gold Mount and Hot Swap"

I plan to order a Birger mount for my Canon lenses. Do I simply order the Red One body with the default mount and then fit the Birger myself?

Any advice on a viewfinder v LCD (I usually prefer to work with a viewfinder but am not sure that magnifications and focus aids the Red viewfinder offers).

Also I note the Red store advises that for quite a few items where is limited stock and items will be shipped "whenavailable". Is that usual and what kind of delays can I expect.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Ryan S]

Hi Nic, welcome to the wonderful world of Red!

I can't answer all of your questions, but for what I can:

You order the Red body, it comes with the PL-mount. The Birger you'll install yourself. I haven't used the birger, but if mounting it is anything like the Red Nikon mount, it's very simple.

The EVF (Viewfinder) is very nice, but it's heavy. The Red Arm is really not sufficient to support its weight. There are a variety of solutions out there- Element Technica and Zacuto each have one, and prices range from 400-ish to 1200.

I'm quite partial to the LCD myself. I have the 5.6" one right now, but I'll be getting the 7" model, which is very slick. Both are lighter than the EVF, and the Red Arm will support them without issue.

Regarding other accesories, check this thread for availability. http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7253

You can also call Red for a status update if the shipping schedule hasn't been updated for a week or two.

I can't say about the Anton Bauer solution, but Mitch from Abelcine is always lurking on the forum, I'm sure he'll be able to help you.

Ask lots of questions here, there's lots of advice and help to be had. Good luck, happy shooting!

[Scott Miller]

From someone who just ordered a Red, I can tell what I wanted and was not available.

1. Red Drive.. backordered, no date
2. EVF.......... " "
3. Bolt Set.... " "

[Ryan S]

1. Red Drive.. backordered, no date
2. EVF.......... " "
3. Bolt Set.... " "

I find it weird that the drives are on backorder; maybe something to do with the switch to 640GB? When I got the email that my camera body was ready to ship, the drives were only a week behind, and that was a year ago.

The bolt set is just funny.

[Dave Blackham]

We shoot wildlife here too. Here's some thougths in no particular order. The parts we found we needed were lens supports, the Red universal mount is fine but we tend to have a couple in the lens kits. There's a good one on the Visual Products site also. We use 19mm and don't use 15mm on our systems. If weight is an issue use aluminium bars or carbon if you can afford it on the top rail if you use them. We used stainless 19mm for the lens support. We used very little from the base production kit.

Dare I say there is some third party mounts and the like on ebay but I know Ill get shot down for this.

Our choice was for EVF and 7 inch LCD. If you mount the EFV we used the Ronford mount which is great but two (not one) Red arms on the EVF will work fine as well, sing one at the front and one at the back, there is a thread here some where about setting this up. I think we used a 5 inch and 7 in arm on the top mount. If you use just one arm the whole thing is unstable and not solid. Also buy a hoodman for the LCD.

If your using the Birger mount then you may chose to use an Inclino from Viewfactor to control it. Also check what Allstar are up to with their new mount which looks good as it may be an option.

Buy a spare of each cable and be sure to check the Lemo cover on the EVF and LCD cables and make sure they are tight, we use a small dab of Loctite on them as then seem to come apart.

All of the third party meccano is a killer price wise so choose carefully.

This is just our set up you may find other solutions but hope this helps,

Dave

[hans de vries]

Hi Nic,
I myself only use the 7" lcd and never missed not having the viewfinder; backorder items can be huge trouble; I ordered the 6 feet drive cable and after 2.5 months I canceled the order because the shoot for which I wanted it had already happened. I know little about anton bauer; and before you start ordering things like the mantis (which is not from red) or other shoulder supports I'll tell you this: I ordered the production pack and found the whole thing rigged up nearly unbearable for longer periods; I think the total weighed up to 12 kilo's; now I've been able to strip it down to about 6,5, which makes it bearable for documentary style shooting. If you like I can post a few photos in a couple of hours

[James Press]

Welcome Nic! There is a very active Red community in Oz. Keep an eye on the local forum (http://www.reduser.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=16). We have regular get-togethers in Sydney.

Steve Gibby does a lot of wildlife shooting and is a red savant--a quick search for his threads would be very helpful I imagine-- starting with this: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30756

Good luck with it all!

James