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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 :)

EPIC bottom only 1 hole

when using the biggest Optimo, it is cool to have two holes to make the rods a perfect fit.

btw. i dont care too, if the body is a little bigger then now.

but i will use the epic for cinestyle only,

it is definitly hard to build the universal cine/eng cam.

i wait and let me surprise by red, they will have some smart comcept i am sure
 
sorry guys... my earlier reply a few days ago was too brief too be meaningful.

There is a cheese plate that takes alignment from the front and back edges of the camera ( which has the best resistance for torque ) that is still in the prototype stages. The 2 holes on the bottom of the camera are meant for light duty "DSLR" shooting.. the cheese plate is for the big boys that raises the camera about 10mm, but gives a rock solid foundation.

My bad.. sometimes i forget which bits are still behind the curtain :)
 
sorry guys... my earlier reply a few days ago was too brief too be meaningful.

There is a cheese plate that takes alignment from the front and back edges of the camera ( which has the best resistance for torque ) that is still in the prototype stages. The 2 holes on the bottom of the camera are meant for light duty "DSLR" shooting.. the cheese plate is for the big boys that raises the camera about 10mm, but gives a rock solid foundation.

My bad.. sometimes i forget which bits are still behind the curtain :)

Jarred,

This sounds good. Im assuming the cheese plate attaches with more than one fixing to the camera ?

thanks again for the great work.

Dave
 
OK Jarred...
Looking forward to the design.
I'm sure you guys understand our concerns. As professional users of the product, we want it to be as robust as it can be. Certainly as robust as other cinema camera products out there!
Cheers,
Harry
 
Yeesh. This had me nervous. I hope the cheese plate is robust, and connects with more than one bottom screw. Redundancy is king. Recently worked on a feature where a Red body got dunked in a pond (crappy jib, not camera dept's fault). While the repair costs were surprisingly low, it emphasized that worst case scenarios do in fact happen routinely on set.

Interested to see Red's solution.
 
your forgetting one thing... if you put more holes.. it takes alot of internal space. each hole needs a pretty healthy piece of metal surrounding it internally to maintain strength, so the camera needs to get bigger, etc. etc. etc. if you want alot of holes.. just bolt a cheese plate to the bottom.

I think two 3/8"-16 holes at some sort of industry spacing (ARRI?) would be enough, although two 1/4"-20 would also be nice.

A 10mm plate that keys to the ends of the camera to prevent twist isn't the end of the world, but it would still be good to have the option of direct mounting with two bolts to save weight and height and still prevent twist - not to mention that just a single bolt always makes me nervous with big camera setups where they can be subjected to large G-forces or vibration.
 
Don't know why you guys are having such a problem with this. Jarred just said it: The cheeseplate has a lip on the front and back that keeps the camera from spinning. A single bolt would then lock it in place, with no room for spinning out and little to no way for any real possibility of shearing under even extreme stress. I imagine that this cheeseplate also functions as a height spacer to align it properly for a bridgeplate for frontrods. Sounds like a great solution to me.
 
Don't know why you guys are having such a problem with this. Jarred just said it: The cheeseplate has a lip on the front and back that keeps the camera from spinning. A single bolt would then lock it in place, with no room for spinning out and little to no way for any real possibility of shearing under even extreme stress. I imagine that this cheeseplate also functions as a height spacer to align it properly for a bridgeplate for frontrods. Sounds like a great solution to me.

I think this is great solution for holding it in place and not twisting but one bolt holding the camera is not good. If we put the rig on a wing mount or crane held on by one bolt and it comes adrift we wont be best flavour of the month. Sorry for going on but I think its important.
 
I don't care how many bolt holes are on the bottom of a camera, if I am mounting a camera on a wing then I'm adding a safety clamp or secondary mounting to the top of the camera. That's on any camera, not just a RED.

I've been doing this for about 25 years now, and I've worked with a lot of cameras with only a single mounting hole on the base. It might not be my first preference, but it certainly is not the big deal you're all painting it to be.
 
Two screws are definitely better than one screw for alignment, security and are more compatible with professional equipment.
Thank you Sergei for noticing it and RED guys please make second hole in new camera.
 
People keep mentioning alignment as one of the reasons for two pins and I will rebut with the opinion that the new design that actually has tongues to control position of the camera body is in fact way better for controlling alignment.
 
I think two (or more) is better, at some point sooner or later I will come across a shoot where I would want to mount the camera directly to something and not want the weight of a cheeseplate... I guess it´s too late anyway.
 
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I think two (or more) is better, at some point sooner or later I will come across a shoot where I would want to mount the camera directly to something and not want the weight of a cheeseplate... I guess it´s too late anyway.

I agree. I realize that the Epic is smaller and lighter than the camera's we're used to, but I would rather have two 3/4" bolt holes with a standard spacing in the bottom. It's more flexible that way - and isn't that what the Epic system is about?

What if I don't like your cheeseplate? What if I want to use gear I already own? What if I have this great rig, but I need 8mm more room above the cam, so I can't use the cheeseplate... It goes on and on.
 
What if adding another hole increases the base thickness by 8mm? What if it increases the weight by 4 ounces?

Interesting question, but isn´t it fair to assume that all RED has to do is make another hole from the beginning... and theoretically once you take delivery you could have a machine shop drill one for you.... (nothing I would do or recommend, and it would void the warranty for sure, so I hope RED still can change it)
 
People keep mentioning alignment as one of the reasons for two pins and I will rebut with the opinion that the new design that actually has tongues to control position of the camera body is in fact way better for controlling alignment.

That's fine if it's very low profile and interfaces with existing industry standards. Two holes gives you options though.
 
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