Epic-X first impressions

[Pawel Achtel]

Things that I love:

1. High precision, thin shell aluminium body. Beautifully engineered and exceptionally well made.
2. Very high quality PL mount with a confirmation click. In a word: brilliant. Worth every penny. Now I know what Jarred was talking about when he said we wouldn't like a garden variety aluminium version. He was right.
3. User interface is very intuitive and quick to navigate. Huge improvement from Red One and just about any other camera I have played with.
4. Quick boot time.
5. I like exposure meters and the way all the information is presented. It's clear to me that a lot of thought went into the design. These things take time, but the refinement is clearly visible and appreciated.
6. The image quality is stunning: the resolution, DR...way above expectations. Big grin on my face.
7. HDRx rocks.
8. Size, shape and weight are incredible.
9. The location of all the connections at the rear is very good for most applications.

Things to improve:

1. We do need ability to power the camera up remotely. It is must have for side-by-side 3D and, underwater, there is no workaround. For me, it is a blocker at present.
2. Cache recording is lacking (a must have for wildlife)
3. No ability to delete last clip (again, a must have for wildlife)
4. Some lenses and motors may interfere with the LCD plug located at the front of the camera. I would love to have an option to have the LCD socket facing the rear.

It looks like all of the shortcomings are, at least for most users, relatively minor and can be overcome with firmware updates or/and additional modules. I look forward to see the new options coming....until then...I think I will be busy shooting for a while

 

[Häakon]

4. Some lenses and motors may interfere with the LCD plug located at the front of the camera. I would love to have an option to have the LCD socket facing the rear.

It used to be this way, actually:

So it was obviously a conscious decision to change it. I, too, wish they hadn't... it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me to put the cable facing right next to the lens. But I'm sure there are some benefits to this way as well or they wouldn't have made the switch.

 

[Andrew Walker]

Yeah the cable position is kind of a pain in the ass and I'm not really seeing much of a benefit from it facing out towards the lens.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Are you guys using right-angled cables or straight cables? We are waiting for right-angled cable, as the straight one certainly gets in the way.

 

[Sam Taylor]

I echo the cache recording desire for wildlife film making especially and the delete last clip is a good idea top.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Are you guys using right-angled cables or straight cables? We are waiting for right-angled cable, as the straight one certainly gets in the way.

Yes, right angle, but it still protrudes more than it should in a place that gets very crowded by motors and Follow Focus.
And, with some alternative mounts, where focal distance is short, this location becomes problematic.

It used to be this way, actually....

Uhhh, that's precisely what doctor ordered. Hmmm...I wonder what the reason was...

 

[Jonathan Stevenson]

Funny thing is that so many people complained about the rear facing port originally, saying it would get in the way.

 

[Deanan]

If I remember correctly, the direction change happened because of the feedback here that it should face forward, not back.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

If I remember correctly, the direction change happened because of the feedback here that it should face forward, not back.

Duh, you were listening to the wrong people ...they must have been Sony camera owners, LOL.

Seriously, though, are there some workarounds or alternatives round the corner? You don't know the full story, but I would kill for a side SSD module with the LCD socket facing backwards. It's not just convinience, it's in the way of my new underwater optics.

Or, maybe you can ask Jarred if he wants his desk cluttered with various module prototypes replaced with a desk cluttered with cash instead?

 

[noah newtown]

WoW there are min. 1001 different setup possibilities time for a official-setup-thread