I got to play with Epic the other day at Red Europe. I hasten to add that I did little than bug Alan whilst he busily emailed and answered phones around me!
Firstly the size. It's tiny for what it is but since I'd never held one or even seen one in person I had for some reason imagined it being slightly smaller. Talking out loud my initial reaction was to say 'It's a bit bigger than I expected', much to Alan's dismay. And rightly so. As you sit playing with it and running it through its paces you remember just how small it actually is. What it's capable of for the size is absolutely remarkable. It's a nice shiny chunk of metal, full of gorgeous gadgetry. It feels weighty enough but nothing like a Red One. A bit like holding two DSLR's at once I'd guestimate (Small to medium DSLRs just for those who might nitpick!). It had the Red 17-50mm attached and I would've been happy to wonder around most of the day with it.
The menu's are simple and intuitive to use as others have posted. Along the top you have the options such as Frame Rate, ISO, Shutter etc. You simply press on the screen on the object you want to alter and then slide the dial that appears beneath to alter it. On the bottom of the screen you have various information such as battery power, HDRx on or off symbol, audio menus, media etc. Clicking on the media lets you format or eject it. Clicking on the battery offers a power off option.
In the top right is a cycle type icon that changes the top menu to reveal a new menu with more options. These are the HDRx settings and preferences and such like. For those who've used the Red One extensively you'll recognise these options straight away, with one or two new things in there. But generally you'll have a pretty good knowledge of where everything is straight away.
Whilst the touch screen is useful I kind of preferred using the jog wheel on the handle to navigate. I dare say using it day to day I will find myself using the screen more because of it's speed but old habits die hard I guess. One small negative I found was the lack of a back button on either the screen or jog wheel section. There was a button too close the menu completely but not one to go backup. For instance if you drop down into a menu and then into another sub menu and realise you've made a mistake and want to go back up one, you can't. You have to close the menu and start at the top. Not a biggy and I'm sure it's something that Red will look at.
The only other negative I hadn't realised before was that you can only have either the Touch screen LCD or EVF attached at once without using the IO module.
HDRx seems like a piece of cake really. Expose as normal and if something is clipping simply close down till you see how many stops you need before it is no longer clipping. Then adjust the HDRx to however many stops go back to your previous setting and shoot. Takes seconds and gives you a tonne of leeway in post. Currently you can't see an onscreen demonstration of whats happening but I imagine this will evolve somewhat. With practice I think this will become second nature to use and with testing (And a good DIT on set) DoP's will quickly learn where and when to use HDRx and by how much.
All in all it felt a bit like handling a RedOne on steroids which doesn't require you to take steroids to hand hold it! All of the negative things about the RedOne have been fixed. It's simple and straight forward as a camera ought to be, yet packed full of potential that you can shoot your movies for years and years to come. I didn't get to really put it through it's paces technically but from what I saw I wouldn't want to be the competition.
Cheers
Paul
Originally Posted by PaulClements
