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Fly by Wire- My Thoughts and Ideas

Kevin Olsen

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So we have been talking about what this term could mean, and most of what I have gathered from Jim's posts is that the Fixed 2/3" will have the motor system for the lens, in the larger Scarlet body for obvious reasons.

With that said, some people are worried about the auto focus and the ability to us a good Follow Focus like a traditional lens. Jim said the fixed lens will not have stops but they had a really cool solution that would knock our socks off. So I began to think, if I were Jim, what would I do to make it better?

I came up with this idea for the "Fly by Wire" feature.

Since Microsoft Surface has been turning some heads and Apple's iPhone is really popular, multitouch screens are gaining some useful purposes.

Since the Fixed will be AF, I am almost 100% certain this was stated somewhere, it will have the ability to detect focus using, probably, a contrast based system.

We know new displays are coming out, and the REDMote may have some cool tricks up its sleeve. Combine the above two aspects with the potential of the REDMote, and I think Fly By Wire could be a multi-touch screen based, follow focus.

Imagine having a screen, either on the camera or not, and being able to double tap the screen and the lens focuses on that part. Or, place one finger on a target and hold and then another on a new target and hold, then drag the first finger to the other to "pull" the focus. The calculations would be relatively simple, just detect the two focus points, calculate the desired "travel" and ramp to the new point based on the speed of the "pull."

The idea is basically a totally electronic follow focus that uses AF detection to move between focus points, thereby eliminating the need to have a conventional Follow Focus attached to the lens. This could expand to be used on a large touchscreens and wireless devices like the iPhone anywhere on set.

I am not an expert on focus pulling, many people may completely disagree, I understand. I hope though, that this may get the ideas flowing on what this could be and maybe spark some interest to add this and other features to RED's system.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
it would be cool if you could have a touch screen lcd.. and with a small stylus, you could highlight or point to the object you want to focus on, then at the hit of a button. it automatically will focus on that object.. whether its in the center of the frame or to the top left.

Just realized Zakaree posted this a bit ago, sorry about that, these ideas definitely overlap.
 
While I somewhat doubt that your idea is exactly what fly-by-wire will be, I do think that something similar may be possible in the future.
 
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