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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 :)

I love my Scarlet BUT RED is driving me crazy! WTF?

Troy Bakewell

Troy Bakewell

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I LOVE my camera! I am so proud to be able to afford such a tool and I have become a huge fanboy as a result. The Scarlet is epic for what it does at its price point.

BUT I'm going crazy here!

What is the point of owning such a great and affordable camera if you are forced to buy PL glass that is so expensive?

Why did RED even bother to develop the Canon and Nikon mounts? Just to tease us and drive us crazy? What good is finally being able to use awesome and affordable glass if you can't pull focus worth a damn with them? Of course the Redmote Pro is the final answer. Myself and I'm sure every other owner of the Canon DSMC mount are dying in anticipation for the Redmote Pro. I bet 80% of Scarlet owners in particular are feeling the pain I'm feeling.

SO WHY WON'T RED THROW US A BONE AND TELL US WHAT's UP?

I'm eagerly and patiently waiting for the Redmote Pro to finally arrive. But please RED I begging, throw us a bone! Give us an update. Should I dump mt Canon glass or is the Redmote Pro getting close? I know many on this forum are relieved to know that RED is hearing them on the proxy module. How bout some love for us Redmote Pro guys?

Pretty please!

End of rant. :)
 
...that's what drives you crazy? I think its possibly time to check your priorities. Not sure what you thought you were getting into by buying a "Digital Cinema Camera" but expensive professional accessories including professional lenses, cost money.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
 
It's time to "check my priorities"? What exactly do you mean by that?

Of course professional lenses cost money. You don't consider Canon lenses professional? Please explain to me why RED bothers to make a $2000 TI Canon mount then? Why is the Redmote Pro even on the drawing boards?

How exactly am I biting the hand that feeds me?

Geesh! Forgive me for getting something off my chest. I thought that's what this section is for, I donno, maybe because that's what it says.

WTF???
 
Hi Troy,

What is it about the Canon glass that is driving you crazy? Is it the short focus throw or is it something about the quality?

I actually had a bit of a problem with some of the glass I was using at the start. Cheap non-"L" lenses, but as soon as we upgraded the lenses, things really improved.

The focus throw still drives me nuts. But that's the price we pay for using still glass. What I did was pick up some larger gears for the lenses and things are much better now. :)
 
Zeiss ZE/ZF lenses may be your compromise. They have hard stops and longer focus throws than electronic still lenses.
 
Hey Miles

I love my Canon glass and the images I get! I have all L series glass except the 100 f2, which is an awesome lens! But yeah, the manual focus is a drag. The 50, 100, 135 aren't too bad, but the 24, 35, 85 are very hard to pull focus with. Any pull near infinity? Even harder.

Chris

Yeah I just hate to dump my EF glass because I use them for stills.


Has anyone actually used the Birger Mount with the Impero? That is the future I bet. We just need the Redmote Pro. Will manual focus cine lenses still be the norm 20 years from now? I bet not. Will big budget features still be shot on cameras that are out of reach of lover budget filmmakers 20 years from now? Again, I bet not. Hell we are almost there now.

I've heard it speculated that the reason RED is mostly out of stock on RPP's is that they are developing their own set of electronic lenses. Perhaps the Redmote Pro will follow soon after?

Who knows?

But that's my point. RED, please chime in here. Give us a tiny hint anyway. Is the Redmote Pro still in the works? If so, ETA?

Exciting times that's for sure. :)
 
Troy Bakewell said:
Of course professional lenses cost money. You don't consider Canon lenses professional?

WTF???
Click to expand...

At risk of sounding like a complete **shole: No I don't consider Canon still lenses to be professional cinema lenses. They are still glass meant for still cameras, Pro cine lenses (usually in PL or PV mount) are a different animal full stop.

The canon / nikon mounts really are a stopgap (in my opinion) that allow people on a budget get into the game - with all the drawbacks of trying to use lenses that were designed for a different use - optically they may be great, but...
 
First off it's not the PL mount that makes cine lenses so pricey -- the Compact Primes come in EF mount but they're still very expensive -- it's the fact that they're cine lenses!

Second, a good 1st AC can deal. Right now I'm editing a feature that was shot on a 5D with L-series primes, often close to wide-open. Are there occasionally takes lost because of bad focus? Yes. Is the focus perfect at f/1.6 on the 85 with the actor moving around? No. But all in all it's totally fine. Our 1st AC's did a fantastic job, and if you find someone who really knows what they're doing they can cope.
 
Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm pretty sure Optitek had an electronic follow focus for Canon lenses at Cinegear this year. It was hard wired, but it pulled focus nice and smooth. Hopefully, there will be options just around the corner.
 
Pulling focuw on those canon lenses is always going to suck. they were not designed for it.
 
The mechanics in still glass being terrible has nothing to do with Red or any camera for that matter. Red already sells the cheapest PL glass on the market essentially to help people who can't afford the more expensive brands.
 
The point of my rant wasn't to complain about pulling focus on still lenses (although thanks for all the info guys) but to try and get a response from Red on the Remote Pro.

Isnt anyone else curious about it? Isn't anyone else a bit disappointed in the lack of an update?

Please RED. Give us a tiny hint anyway.
 
Troy Bakewell said:
What good is finally being able to use awesome and affordable glass if you can't pull focus worth a damn with them?
Click to expand...

Owning a pro camera means upping your game and improving your skill set to match what the camera can do...aspiring filmmakers on a budget have been pulling focus with still lenses since the 35mm ground glass adapter days. Just keep at it until you become one with your camera....
 
RED is giving you options for the EPIC/SCARLETT evolution.


PL-Mount is just one of them. The RED company could have easily and more cost-effectively for itself, confined itself to an exclusive mount system, its own lens kit and locked you into that like the stills-camera makers do. It would also vex a lot of customers and RED has not gone there. Life for the company would be a lot less complicated if it had confined itself.


"What is the point of owning such a great and affordable camera if you are forced to buy PL glass that is so expensive?" That question is one that you and only you can answer for yourself. Affordability is the key word.

No one is forcing you. You are the arbiter of your own choices. For the actions which follow, you bear responsibility to yourself.

If you want the convenience of a robust mount system, the final evolution of quality optics and time-efficient operability that have taken the better of a century or so to get sorted, then your choices are going to be costly. They are made in fewer numbers to meet high standards of reliable performance and consistency across a product range. There is not the same economy of scale to keep the production costs down.

Stills lenses which come up to those standards and performance are correspondingly costly. Tellingly, lenses like the Noct-Nikkor 58mm f1.2 and Nikon 28mm f1.4 are no longer made. Affordability and profit return were a likely factor in their discontinuance.

Good stills lenses will not stifle a genuine talent and ambition. Their limitations may make things a little harder. The more severe limitations of old 1950s motion picture lenses turning in their mounts or baulking and jamming at time for lens changes do not seem to have stifled some of the genuine artistry of those times.


Enjoy your camera. I would if I had it and happily use my Nikons left over from P+S Technik Mini35/Letus Extreme days. That might for now require workarounds. As it is, I happily play with a SI2K and old newscamera CP-Mount primes retrofitted with PL-Mounts.


As for how long some things take to come along, the enterprise may have a backer with deep pockets but the resources are not limitless. As my old granny used to tell me to my abject annoyance, "patience brings its own rewards".
 
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First off, I get it, you're hoping the RedMote Pro is close at hand and will make quality stills lenses usable for cinema applications.

1) RED changed their policy about pre-annoucing products to avoid frustration over "delays" (not that they can always restrain themselves ;-)) so lack of buzz about the RedMote Pro may or may not indicate how far along it is.

2) Even if it dropped tomorrow the RedMote Pro may or may not provide "cinema" quality focus pulls - in part because the internal mechanics of lenses designed for stills usage are not engineered for it.

3) As far as I can tell RED really did understand the need for "affordable" PL lenses with mechanics appropriate for cinema usage. They responded by putting out a line of lenses that have serious bang for the buck. Implying that they don't "get" your situation is unfair in my book.

Cheers - #19
 
Troy Bakewell;1057037 but to try and get a response from Red on the Remote Pro. Isnt anyone else curious about it? Isn't anyone else a bit disappointed in the lack of an update? Please RED. Give us a tiny hint anyway.[/QUOTE said:
NOPE--not interested in hearing from RED on this or anything else about timing---because then you will be left with false expectations and many will rant and complain more when that date comes and goes by with no product. Best to plan with what is available now and if you get a follow focus, that is your BEST tool. Forget electronic redmote for pulling focus because it don't exist for us today...maybe it will another day, but for now it dont and most things electronic have a way of causing pain...redmote pro sounds great, but it's not hear today and you are better off today using a manual follow focus that will cause you to learn pulling focus and get good at it.
...as for hints--we got it. Red is developing it and coming soon. That should be good enough for all of us that have been around here long enough to know what it takes to go form idea to development to manufacture to sales....In other words troy, don't hold your breath...there are a lot of tools out there to help you with focus not just a redmote pro that does not yet exist. Well, maybe it does at red, but as i recall a line from (not sure the movie)....i like pulling it the old fashioned way.
Click to expand...
 
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