Whooww! Epic rocks... one technical suggestion

[Sebastian Cramer]

What a great moment seeing Jim and Jarred presenting the Epic on IBC. Epic will change the way films are made and I can‘t wait to get it into my hands.

When I saw it, my only thought was, how easily can the camera been mounted on a steadycam in low mode or a 3D rig, hanging from the top? Here is a thought I just had and maybe someone else out there thinks this would be helpful, too.
Of course Red is very welcome to use these ideas, because my only intend here is to make my life easier and not because of any financial thoughts.

Here is what I think:

1) There will be a lot of situations in which one wants the camera hanging from the top in minimized configuration (lowmode steadycam and of course 3D). Two threads at the end corners of the camera module would help a lot.

2) Registration pins on both the top and bottom would make an end to the voodoo, when aligning cameras on a 3D rig. Steal inlets would be the best, but a simple bore is better than nothing.


Please feel free to add any thought to this. Thanks.

Best,
Sebastian Cramer, www.scramer.com

[Jeff Kilgroe]

What if you just mount the camera upside down and turn on an "upside down" mode in the menu that flips everything, monitoring, displays, recording, etc..? Not saying that it will do that, but I seem to recall that being discussed in the past.

[KETCH ROSSi]

I can't imagine the RED team not having taken consideration of multiple applications, and I strongly believe that the vast range of accessories will provide for just about any situation you might think of.

[Sebastian Cramer]

What if you just mount the camera upside down and turn on an "upside down" mode in the menu that flips everything, monitoring, displays, recording, etc..? Not saying that it will do that, but I seem to recall that being discussed in the past.

Would not work if your dealing with rolling shutter issues on a 3D rig...

[Michael Lindsay]

Hi Sebastian

As always your ideas are well thought and very constructive!

Perhaps there are the rear mounting points on another module that we are not seeing. I appreciate that would not allow for the smallest possible usable body. However I feel for both steady-cam and 3d we will need basic video out beyond EVF/Red Monitor (I may be wrong).

As for the possibility that Red offers the ability to change the way they camera reads out the chip... that would be a even better solution to the 3d rolling shutter problems. Inverting the camera only solves the major problem of top staying top in the read out. The left-right inversion it creates isn't ideal to my current thinking (i do need to test this so I may be misunderstanding the full consequences)

Any way I'm like you excited and keen to trade in..

kind regards

Michael L

[Sebastian Cramer]

Hi Michael,
great to hear from you.

Yes, there will be mounting holes on additional modules, but I would be very happy to be able to swap them, even if the camera is mounted from the top. Maybe I'm asking too much here and it can't be done anymore, but it just would be cool, to have it like this.

Best,
Sebastian

[Michael Lindsay]

Hey Sebastian

Your right and it would be great to see your ideas integrated.. I just suppose I'm hopeing Epic is days away and maybe the modification is not possible. If it's still not 100% finished then I hope they take your suggestion on board.

good luck

Michael L

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Those side mount points look pretty strong I wonder if you couldn't just put a U bracket on and create your own top mount points a half inch above the body. Like the red top handle but with a cheese plate of sorts.

[Sebastian Cramer]

Those side mount points look pretty strong I wonder if you couldn't just put a U bracket on and create your own top mount points a half inch above the body. Like the red top handle but with a cheese plate of sorts.

True, a lot of things can be done...

All I'm saying is, that a registered mounting of the camera body and therefor of the sensor plane and the optical mount can be valuable for various applications.

Sebastian

[Brook Willard]

I suspect that RED will match the holes/spacing on the new cameras to those on the RED ONE rather than modifying them. A lot of people are upgrading from the RED ONE and will not want to have to buy new accessories to mount on their camera. While I personally agree with you and would prefer that they use a pre-existing layout like that, there are enough RED-Arri or RED-Panavision adapters out there already that the market will survive.