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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 :)

Full menu control with only EVF/SSD on brain

John Marchant

John Marchant

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Want to shoot with full control and only the EVF and SSD to keep the brain company? Here's a simple fix.

In the standard factory configuration you need to have a touch LCD around to make any kind of adjustments to the camera. Cable swapping hell if you have no sidehandle or Redmote. However, RED are smart and gave us all the tools we need to customise the camera settings. (They also give us credit for being smart enough to make good use of this kind of customisation :wink5: )

I've created up a user key preset which you can download which works as follows:


To navigate the menus:

Left and right = EVF user keys
Up and down = User keys 1 + 2 on the side SSD
Toggle between menus or 'back' from a submenu = Both 1+2 together on the side SSD
Select = Half press the side SSD record button

With these keys set you can do pretty much everything you need to in the menu structure. Learning the keys is actually pretty intuitive, and the half press is quite tactile to use as menu select.

Installing:

Download the .zip file here, extract it, and copy the entire 'presets' to the root of an SSD card, remembering first to set it to 'read-write' with the Red Watchdog menu bar utility.

Insert the SSD into the camera, and using the touch screen (as you'll have to for one last time) navigate to 'presets', click 'import/export' then choose my 'KIPPERTIE EVF_SSD MENU CONTROL" preset from the 'Disk Presets' menu. Import it, and click 'yes' to apply it straight away if you wish. The preset will be saved on camera along with any others you've created.

Keep the preset safe on your computer though, as it can be lost when upgrading firmware or resetting factory settings.

Two small notes:

1. If toggling the menu with 1+2 together is revealing detailed settings instead (for example in shutter speed), you need to move the highlight away to an item like ISO first. Easy to learn.
2. This is a 'keys only' preset, so it won't scrub your project settings etc when you load it.

Enjoy :smiley:
 
Wow, John, that is a really neat solution. I didn't even think that it is possible to operate the camera with just the EVF alone.
 
What do you mean "cable swap hell" with the touchscreen? Just that you'd have to plug it in when you need to adjust and then unplug when you go evf-only? That's not too hellish (although, it'd definitely not as easy as your custom control/evf solution.)

This is definitely cool, by the way.
 
Hey John, was wondering how comfortable this may get - am still waiting for my X and refused to check the manual.
Cool you made this available. Thanks!
 
hehe nice...so anyone want to make a online button config tool to map the keys?
 
Anders Holck said:
hehe nice...so anyone want to make a online button config tool to map the keys?
Click to expand...

No idea whether Red would want us poking around at stuff like that, although the config file looks very plain and simple; I imagine you could potentially wreak some havoc with a preset file that doesn't play by the rules.
 
Brilliant! Thank you, John.

Mike
 
Way Cool! tho I'm hoping my Side Handle will take care of most of this ;)
...this is the kind of stuff that makes this forum amazing.
thank you!
Stu Aull
Alaska
 
Good thinking. I had most buttons assigned to things like eject media, check raw, punch in , zebra, etc. already (things that you need constantly and in a pinch). Would have to see if assigning all my buttons to navigation functionality speeds up the process or slows it down... But def great out of the box thinking.
 
The presets are IMHO one of the most useful ergonomic features in the interface design, but I don't see much talk about them. Think creatively about how to apply them and you can create some excellent shortcuts to preferred configs - do in one button what would normally take minutes to work through in the menus, and share or save the resulting files too. Great stuff, and possibly under appreciated.
 
No, it's pretty Hellish! Was on a 5 camera Red shoot and was constantly swapping between LCD and EVF and it was a major pain. This solution is fantastic, wish I new about it last week!

Mike P. said:
What do you mean "cable swap hell" with the touchscreen? Just that you'd have to plug it in when you need to adjust and then unplug when you go evf-only? That's not too hellish (although, it'd definitely not as easy as your custom control/evf solution.)

This is definitely cool, by the way.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you very much for this tip. Does this mean that a person who receives his/her scarlet without lcd and no sidehandle and no redmote, could connect to a monitor via hdmi out, and start setting the camera up for
shooting?
 
er - I think you need at least ONE RED device that has programmable buttons to actually configure...?

Stu Aull
Alaska
 
aha, one has to use the touch screen "one last time" ... thx
 
Thank you for this set up John. It's awesome. we set our scarlet up with it and it works great.
 
This is brilliant functionality that few of us knew about. One of the things that makes this forum great is sharing this kind of knowledge. I uploaded your preset this morning to use with my ultra light weight handheld set up on Monday. I really like it. I can't seem to get to the alternative menus needed to change the view or eject the media. Can this be done? Am I missing something? Please advise…

John, thank you so much for sharing! Thank you Red for making it possible.
 
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