Today was my first real test of 3.2.8 beta on my Epic X. I had one glitch in power-ups before this, and that was a white screen ONE time on boot, which was cured like another poster mentioned by replugging in the LCD. Phantom power also worked like a charm, and I had pretty good sounding audio on inside tests run last week. So far I've had none of the other problems people have reported with hitting record crashing camera, etc. Everything seemed to go very smoothly today except when my V-mount battery ran out, the camera immediately crashed and shut off, no auto transition to the REDVOLT in the sidehandle. I unplugged the V-mount from the power port, making no other changes, and rebooted. Camera started up fine with the warning about improper shutdown. I presume the shot in progress was ruined (though I've not yet verified that).
I know this failure to transition from interrupted power source at the external power input to REDVOLT in side handle has been an issue with many people under many different builds. Still obviously needs attention here.
I will comment more on this in other threads, but yesterday I finally sat down to get to KNOW the camera a bit since I'd never really dug into presets or familiarized myself with the shooting tools/aids. Yesterday I did that, particularly spending a lot of time with the new preset/key mapping that's part of this beta. I am beyond excited by the power of those features and the ability to map, say, focus near/far to the rocker switch on the side handle and dedicate iris adjustment to the front rotary wheel. When the algorithms, increment size, and customizable parameters of focus near/far are polished and fine tuned for the various lenses, it will truly be possible for a single, practiced operator to both frame and focus a shot at the same time with great accuracy and ergonomic and practical ease. I haven't yet tried it with the REDmote, but assuming it works as well as sidehandle, we are looking at tremendous remote focus/iris control RIGHT NOW, never mind what a REDMOTE pro will bring to the table in the future. Iris is still too course for smooth live transitions on the lens I used today (Canon EF 24-70L - not the new version), and I assume that's a limit of the lens, not the firmware. But it looks to me that, with some refinement, subtle, smooth focus pulls will be possible with the ordinary accessories for this camera.
I'm so, SO glad that I bought an Epic and have invested in the philosophy of RED. There are certain headaches with this path, but they pale in comparison to the quality and CONTINUAL EVOLUTION (for free!) you get from the product. Thank you RED team.:-)
Originally Posted by Rob Ruffo
