ARRI accessories for DSMC

[George A.]

Hello!

As we all know, RED ONE had its own standards - not identical to Arri - as far as some accessories/specs are concerned. I am referring mostly to baseplates, optical center/height, and mattebox positioning etc. Element Technica came forward and designed most of these tools, to fit with the RED ONE.

I am wondering... will the new DSMC line of products match the long-established Arri standards? Will we be able to use Arri baseplates, matteboxes etc etc without the need of adapters?

That would be really nice since there is a huge inventory of Arri items out there. Knowing the fondness of the RED team for the Arri company, I expect that to be true.

George

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

if not.. then sales would drop dramatically.

 

[George A.]

Well, sales didn't exactly drop for the RED ONE... and it didn't match the Arri specs mentioned above... It would be great if the DSMC system matches them.

 

[Jannard]

While we certainly acknowledge that "the Arri Standard" is important and that consideration needs to be given to that standard, we have our own program that needs to be considered to deliver all the "new standard" features of the RED ONE, EPIC and Scarlet. An Arri baseplate does not fit a RED ONE, but we made our baseplate work with all the rest of the old standard... as did Element and others. The same will be true of EPIC and Scarlet. You'll need a new baseplate and then everything else works just fine. That is the easiest, simplest and most cost efficient way to delivery new technology that has compatibility with everything old.

Jim

 

[George A.]

Dear Jim,

A new baseplate altogether, or will the ET baseplate still work with Epic/Scarlet (with or without an adapter).

Thanks!
George

PS What you mentioned does seem like the easiest way IF the standard is different.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I believe it was said before... But the existing ET baseplates should work just fine with an adapter or shim plate.

Arri makes a few different baseplates to accommodate different models of their cameras. So not all Arri BP's fit all Arri cameras. The Arriflex standard dictates rod spacing; between rods, rod diameters and distances / offsets from optical center. The camera body and baseplate are incidental.

I've seen some people using the Arri BP-3 base plate with the RED One. I'm not sure why they would want to, probably because they already own one... It works, but it places the rods out of position vertically from optical center by about 3mm. Once again not a huge deal as most FF and mattebox systems can easily accommodate this.

 

[Stephen Lovett]

Makes perfect sense

Makes perfect sense

Makes sense Jim.

Given that a significant number, perhaps even a majority of RED owners have significant investments in "standard" gear, and the new more flexible form factor, from my perspective it would be beneficial to get the new Epic shells to ET, Innerspace, A&J, Allstar etc. as soon as practicable.

I know this is one of those strange areas of "coopetition" but if the uptake on Epic upgrades is as strong as I suspect it's going to be, those folks are going to need to front load design and manufacturing significantly. If it's just a base plate change, this is less of an issue, as long as top mounts, etc. will be available from RED to enable that all to work.

That said, these folks have done great work in the past, and I bet they'll come up with some clever designs in the future. Further given the complexity of Epic, the number of parts, subcontractors, software vendors, etc. constraints on some of the components are inevitable, no matter how well RED does it's job.

It would be good to have options.

$.02

Steve

 

[Jannard]

We agree about options. Element and others have added a tremendous amount of value to the RED program. Many companies have grown up out of their own garage to become significant contributors to this industry. We like that.

Jim

 

[Mitch Gross]

From the renders it looks like RED has lots of accessories lined up for the new cameras. There also looks to be lots of mounting opportunities, so trust me all of these companies are chomping at the bit to provide inbetweeners to make your favorite widget play nice with the new cameras. There is a huge chicken v. egg isue here, and sometimes the easiest and most effective answer is to put out the product with what you think works and then let the market and other manufacturers show what else is needed or desired.