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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RED DSMC Motion Mount has arrived!

Phil Holland

Phil Holland

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Apparently staying up late and choosing fast shipping has paid off. Today when I got home from a meeting I was pleasantly surprised to see my DSMC PL Motion Mount here waiting for me.

Over the next few days I'm going to be conducting some tests and experiments to see what the heck this thing can do. I'll be sharing my thoughts here likely early next week. I'm picking up a few things to use for those tests tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to getting this Motion Mount in the field.

If you're curious it does ship a bit differently than the other mounts:

phfx_RedPLMotionMount_0001.jpg


It comes in it's own compact rugged case, which is certainly a very nice touch. This bad guy has an electronic crystal shutter that must be protected.

phfx_RedPLMotionMount_0002.jpg


Furthering that protection concept this particular mount ships with a Back Body Cap as well as a Front Cap.


About to attach it to my brain right this second. Stay tuned.



Test #1 - Deep Filtration IR Contamination Test on post #34.





Test #2 - Quick and Dirty Whip Pan Test on post #40




Test #3 - Circular Polarizers, Variable ND, and Quarter Wave Retarders on post #60




Test #4 - Motion Control Pan Test on post #83



Test #5 - Quick Tungsten Light Tests and Even Quicker Strobe Tests on post #94



Test #5 - Temporal Aliasing/Anti-Aliasing, Daylight & Tungsten, Skin, IR, and Motion Control Tests with some additional notes on post #95




 
Very cool!
 
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Whelp in my first few minutes with the thing it feels pretty good. Currently I have my rocker on my DSMC Side Handle set to increment and decrement the ND value. I've also mapped each shutter mode to the 9.0" LCD Touch A, B, and C soft keys.

Just doing some basic ND tests here and I'm pretty bloody impressed. Tomorrow and Saturday I'll go out in the heat and see what the built in IR Cut filter can do. I'll also take a look at the Linear Polarization.

I'll be doing some high speed flicker tests on monitors, common motion picture lights, and testing out "strobe safe".

Soft Shutter..... I have so many interesting thoughts, but I need to delve deeper first. It feels good.
 
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I should add, having the ND at your fingertips is really going to blow people's minds. And we're not talking built in physical NDs, but rather precise and minutely adjustable electronic NDs. Right now I have mine set to 1/3 of a stop increments. This is going to come in really handy.
 
so exciting, can't wait for mine to arrive... :hurray:
 
I'm curious if shooting strobes around 60-120 fps when in square mode produces split frames. That'll be interesting to find out.
 
Phil Holland said:
I should add, having the ND at your fingertips is really going to blow people's minds. And we're not talking built in physical NDs, but rather precise and minutely adjustable electronic NDs. Right now I have mine set to 1/3 of a stop increments. This is going to come in really handy.
Click to expand...

Hot damn that will be nice to have that kind of control!
 
My two outstanding questions are:

1.) Does having this glass element behind the lens affect the back focus at all? Theoretically it SHOULD. I want to test to see if it does in a measurable fashion.

2.) Just HOW much IR protection is incorporated into this... I need to test to find the right combination of IR technology and how it responds to the Motion Mount.

I will be bringing one of these to New Zealand with me and will need to test this on the fly. I have tons of daylight work with both driving cars and helicopter work... Will be interesting to use the ND functions, as well as the shutter modes to make the motion true.

Finally, I have a moody smokey forest scene with Lighning Stikes units going off... I will need to put the Square shutter through its paces. I don't expect it to be a 100% global shutter solution, but I hope for at least a 90% over the current Epic's rolling shutter issues with strobes.

Phil, call me tomorrow, perhaps we can join maniacal minds and torture this thing!
 
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Christopher Probst said:
Phil, call me tomorrow, perhaps we can join maniacal minds and torture this thing!
Click to expand...

Will do. Might be a bit later in the day. Couldn't do much IR stuff tonight, but I will first thing tomorrow. I couldn't measure any effective back focus change, meaning I didn't have to adjust it. If there is a difference, it feels very slight.

One thing I haven't planned on testing, although relevant to what you're doing with helicopters, is to expose the Motion Mount to intense micro vibrations. I could theoretically see that interfering a bit. A test will tell the answer though.

I'll be doing some strobe tests for sure. I've got several flash heads lined up. In the manual there's "strobe safe" ranges to pay attention to and I'll likely test within and outside of that range.
 
While you guys are testing, I'd like to know how much placing the ND after the lens (instead of before it), modifies contrast. I'm assuming this contrast change would be dependant on lens coatings (i.e. I'd like to know how much my older lenses where the light knocks around a lot which reduces contrast, can deal with a large ND value behind them).
 
Very exciting stuff. Can't wait to break it ;)

I'll try and do my usual IR spectrum tests asap when our Canon and PL motion mounts turn up - just need to mod the rig for it as it currently replaces the lens mount - need to hack a PL on there :)
 
Would someone mind posting a photo of the back of the MM? Perhaps off angle so we get a sense of how deep it intrudes? Thanks.
 
Phil Bates said:
Would someone mind posting a photo of the back of the MM? Perhaps off angle so we get a sense of how deep it intrudes? Thanks.
Click to expand...

The MM mounts exactly the same as a regular mount, no issues there, the fact that some lenses can not be used with it, is do to the inner Glass element and the protruding glass element of the lens mounted which cam cause glass breakage.
 
Congrats Phil. Looking forward to your in depth testing. Thanks in advance for this.

I'm already dreaming of an 'even more awesome' motion mount v2 where the electronic glass part could somehow be mechanically removable either by sliding out like a behind the lens filder holder or pivoting and hiding above image path. Would be a quite a technical challenge to achieve but knowing RED's history of reaching high goals one can dream big ;-)


(And will we able to upgrade ? Hehehe)
 
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