5" touch vs. side grip

[ben galland]

My question: can i successfully operate the Scarlet with the side grip controls or is it better to use a 5" touch monitor. IM shooting outdoors and worried that monitor will have too many glare issues. Also trying to find a cheaper solution for monitoring.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.
cheers.

 

[ericyoung]

If I could only have one, I would have the 5" Touch. Just get the Hoodman made specifically for it - it is elasticated at the bottom to allow your hand or a stylus to reach.

 

[Grzegorz Gill]

If I could only have one, I would have the 5" Touch. Just get the Hoodman made specifically for it - it is elasticated at the bottom to allow your hand or a stylus to reach.

Also, I don't think there's a way to format media from the DSMC Side Handle, although that may or may not have changed in recent firmware.

Side handle has so many keys that you can customize to to do as you please. For example my #2 key is format media. I chose the side handle and bomb evf set up, loving the combination.

 

[Scott Crawley]

The thumb wheel and center button on the side handle are a very speedy way to navigate the menus, so you can operate everything with it and a monitor of some kind.

Many side handle users, myself included find it is not uncommon to accidentally activate it's rear facing buttons. I advocate keeping speed, shutter compression, roll, eject and format media off of those. Iris is OK because it is readily apparent if you accidentally change it and correction can happen quickly but the others may be harder, slower or even impossible to recover from.

 

[Stefan Viklund]

I have both and I like them, both! But I find myself using the SH way more than the touchscreen. The customizable buttons are fantastic for a speedy way to shoot and I've assigned "lock SH" to one button which can save you from mistakenly turning something on/off. Plus, you can use small REDVOLTS!!!!
I also have a 7" no name 1280x720 hdmi monitor for judging focus (sometimes) and when showing playback to others. You can get like 3-4 of these monitors for the price of one 5" LCD from RED. Yes, it is hdmi and nowhere near the build quality of the 5", but it works quite nice. Same panel as one of the much pricier Ikan monitors, I think. "All made in Taiwan"

The touchscreen is more of a luxury item, for me, but I love to use it, and the Hoodman is great in bright outdoor situations. And for me, two control options are a minimum. If you only have one, and it dies, what then?!

Also, I don't think there's a way to format media from the DSMC Side Handle, although that may or may not have changed in recent firmware.

I've never heard nor experienced this, since you can reach everything in the menus with the SH that you can with the 5".

 

[ericyoung]

...
I've never heard nor experienced this, since you can reach everything in the menus with the SH that you can with the 5".

You're right. I was actually thinking of the Redmote used remotely without sight of the menus! Shouldn't post hasty answers! :smile:

As long as he has a third party monitor capable of showing all the menus, then yes he can control everything.
Until recent firmware, if he only had an HD-SDI monitor it wasn't possible to see menus. And not all HDMI monitors played nicely with the Red HDMI outputs.

 

[Wil Wong]

If you are renting it or allowing clients or others to use your camera, I recommend the 5" Touch. The side grip is great but to a person renting, having the visual menus and easy access is more important and better for them then using dials, and buttons.

If you're not renting and strictly for yourself, I find the monitor is the first choice followed by both if possible. I do like having the SH battery but know that this doesn't last long. Also the weight is still pretty heavy to use it as a dslr style handheld in my opinion.

 

[paul schefz]

first of all: i shoot more then 50% hand held and if you would have asked me 6 months ago, i would have said i can't live without the SH....had to take it off a little while ago to save some weight and haven't put it back on....now i finally got the XL module and now i really won't use it anymore....it's not that i did not like using it, but i notice now how many times i accidentally hit a button (i had them all mapped out, and it really does not matter which one, it ruins the shot right there and then if you hit one).....and how ergonomically not quite right it was for hand holding....the red is just too heavy to hold it like that....
now i use the touch screen, i don't really change settings that often, f stop is on the lens and the touch has a couple of buttons on the side as well....i use the grid finder and just pop it on and off if i have to go into the menus....i hold the epic like i used to hold my medium format cameras (one hand under the body, my wrist is MUCH happier)...i have the red mote, but honestly never use it either.....
the XL module really was the last straw because the 20-25 min of the small red volts was always a little nerve wrecking anyway....the XLs last for at least 40 min, makes a HUGE difference in how you shoot, you really don't have to think about it....i still use the belt clip with Vlock to change batteries or for longer set ups....
it really is funny how something that you thought you could not live without becomes superfluous in such a short time.....