KOMODO....

[Bob Gundu]

Will there be any inherent advantage to H1 integration with Komodo over other similar class smart phones?
I am weighing whether to buy one at the current discounted price.

Just my guess but I doubt it will have any advantage.

 

[Chris McKechnie]

My guess is Komodo is meant for the run-n-gun low light doc guys who want the power of raw in their pocket (well maybe can't quite fit in the pocket). It's designed for a very specific market - the indie guys, since RED already has the pro guy cams. RED needed a piece of the "lower end" but bigger market, and this will be their attempt at it. Honestly, it could be the most successful RED ever if it's priced right.

 

[andrewhake]

We use someone else's oven like everyone else does, and we do jump around to different ovens as needed but it is our design.

I know there are conspiracy theories out there and crazy videos that try their best to claim we don't have a sensor team and jump and down screaming that we don't design our own pixels... which is completely false... and disrespectful to our team who have been designing some of the best sensors on the planet for more than a decade.

Nothing makes me more angry than the disrespectful mindset that the manufacturer is the designer. It's such a silly speculative state of mind and people just love to build branching assumptions. I work with a ton of product engineers and it infuriates me that people who think they are tech savvy assume because X manufacturer made a component for company Y, that they also designed it for company Y. When in reality company Y also designed the manufacturing process, and then worked with company X to manufacture it at scale.

Thank you for not letting this slide.

 

[Bastien Tribalat]

Just my guess but I doubt it will have any advantage.

MY guess would be : monitoring stereoscopic content on the cheap. (assuming the EXT port on the camera can be used to sync two Komodos together)

 

[Robert Hofmeyr]

Will there be any inherent advantage to H1 integration with Komodo over other similar class smart phones?
I am weighing whether to buy one at the current discounted price.

I would wait to find out a few things:

1. Us there still a Hydrogen cradle, that utilises the Hydrogen pogo pins and magnets, in the works (IMO this is the only advantage of Hydrogen as a monitor)?
2. Is the Hydrogen discount applicable to new phones?
3. What does the non-smartphone monitor cost?

 

[Robert Hofmeyr]

MY guess would be : monitoring stereoscopic content on the cheap. (assuming the EXT port on the camera can be used to sync two Komodos together)

Very much doubt Red will invest in stereo monitoring on Hydrogen after the project was scrapped.

 

[Jarred Land]

Nothing makes me more angry than the disrespectful mindset that the manufacturer is the designer. It's such a silly speculative state of mind and people just love to build branching assumptions. I work with a ton of product engineers and it infuriates me that people who think they are tech savvy assume because X manufacturer made a component for company Y, that they also designed it for company Y. When in reality company Y also designed the manufacturing process, and then worked with company X to manufacture it at scale.

Thank you for not letting this slide.

To build a facility with the ovens to make sensors (wafers) costs at least a billion dollars... and that was 10 years ago. And you are right.. the pixel design has way way way more importance than the oven. It's a lot like making bread... you can have the best oven in the world but if you recipe sucks, it really doesn't matter. It is why our sensors are better than companies that even have their own ovens.. Sony etc. RED pixel designers combined with the work that Graeme does is really what matters.

 

[Jarred Land]

Will there be any inherent advantage to H1 integration with Komodo over other similar class smart phones?
I am weighing whether to buy one at the current discounted price.

We are investigating that as we speak. The main advantage before really was mechanical. RED camera never went down the 4V path so we were never planning on that implementation.

But there may be a better use for those pins now.... And no , it's not changing it to use existing RED monitors, there is no foundation for that. Lots of exciting exploration going on right now, but only a couple months left till we need to lock everything down .

 

[Robert Hofmeyr]

But there may be a better use for those pins now.... And no , it's not changing it to use existing RED monitors, there is no foundation for that.

Can you elaborate? I don't understand. Changing what to use existing Red monitors?

 

[Maz Mawlawi]

Jarred, you guys still considering letting some indie people do some testing with Komodo? ;-)

 

[Robert Hofmeyr]

Jarred, you guys still considering letting some indie people do some testing with Komodo? ;-)

Hope so. My hand is still up for this.

 

[RJ_Ortiz]

Can you elaborate? I don't understand. Changing what to use existing Red monitors?

I believe he means that they do not intend on modifying the existing pin design to adapt current DSMC2 monitors.

 

[Robert Hofmeyr]

I believe he means that they do not intend on modifying the existing pin design to adapt current DSMC2 monitors.

So he is saying there won't be an adapter from Komodo pins to DSMC2 monitor pins? I thought he was talking about Hydrogen pins.

 

[Bastien Tribalat]

So he is saying there won't be an adapter from Komodo pins to DSMC2 monitor pins? I thought he was talking about Hydrogen pins.

The pins we saw on the Komodo body are Hydrogen pins (well, plus 2 pins allegedly for power). They are not compatible with current RED DSMC2 monitors.
Don't know if there will be an adapter. I kinda have the impression that one of the way RED is developping Komodo is by cutting as much as possible proprietary accessories in favor of third party ones to keep the cost down, the size down and focus more on the quality of the sensor.
That's just my 2cts.

 

[Björn Benckert]

My wishlist for komodo from what we know now.


- Make adapters for Red EVFs and touchscreens, Think I´m not alone when I say I possibly buy a Komodo, but I really don't feel like kitting out another camera with a new set of accessories, I got plenty laying on the shelfs allready. I rather take the EVF from the main cam and put it on Komodo and run the main cam with only monitor. And I hate to have stuff that is not interchangable. I preferably use red cameras for that reason, I dont want to rent a lite sony cam for the behind the scenes as it comes with its own set of batteries, media, card readers, etc. Rather use a scarlet then. So even if it´s a different camera make it compatible with what we got all ready.

- Make good adapters for IOS phones. Skip the whole Hydrogen/android thing. I Love the DJIGO iphone app. Something like that is all thats needed. Make a plastic, low cost loupe to use with iphones. Then I can keep the screen and EVF on the main cam...

- Make an adapter that sits in-between the two battery mounts off Komodo and a V-lock battery. Sure, small batteries is nice at times. But frankly 90% of the time battery size is no issue especially not compared to buying and carrying multiple battery types and chargers around. Being able to power everything with one sort of power is gold. Whatever the small betteries are Im sure I for one would rate have a big brick on the back of the back of the camera pretty much always.

- Make a komodo Minimag module. Same there, having to buy new media types is not really on anyones wishlist. Instead of just going for a new standard, make a CFast to minimag module and just lower the cost for mini mags and sell a shitload of them.

- Finally and this is key. Make sure Komodo has a high frequency gyro. Preferably one that writes a few times per frame. Without saying to much I can confirm that we have been hard at coding the last couple of weeks and without saying to much. I can only confirm we are onto something. Something in camera gyro related and yes, Komodo with it´s global shutter would be sort of the king of cameras if it also has a good highfreqency interal gyro that writes multiple values per frame. That would be bigger than RF mount, small formfactor and low price and high framerates combind. Im not shitting.

 

[Bob Gundu]

So he is saying there won't be an adapter from Komodo pins to DSMC2 monitor pins? I thought he was talking about Hydrogen pins.

I'm pretty sure monitoring and control will be via phone. First Android, and then iOS.

 

[David Rasberry]

I'm pretty sure monitoring and control will be via phone. First Android, and then iOS.

That is my take too. Jarred did say there will be a more generic phone cradle with a USB-C port that mounts to those pins. Android apps coming first, then IOS. Far less expensive monitoring option than a Red touchscreen and it opens up a lot of possibilities to make use of a phone's other built in functions for things like live streaming or recording proxies.
Imagine loading Newtek's NDI app and using multiple Komodo's for wireless live event coverage via a Newtek IP production switcher. Those apps already exist for both Android and IOS phones. I designed a campus production system for a university media journalism program based on students using their phones for live interviews and event coverage over the campus WI-FI network tied to the production studio.

 

[Jarred Land]

The pins we saw on the Komodo body are Hydrogen pins (well, plus 2 pins allegedly for power). They are not compatible with current RED DSMC2 monitors.
Don't know if there will be an adapter.
That's just my 2cts.

Correct. The pins on DSMC2 and the Pins on Komodo are not only mechanically different, they are completely different signals. On DSMC2 the pins carry monitor and power. On Komodo ( and Hydrogen ) those pins carry a form of CSI and Ethernet which allows the Komodo to mimic a camera to the phone.. i.e when hooked up to a phone the phone thinks the Komodo is it's own camera. Komodo doesn't send a normal video signal that any traditional or DSMC2 monitor would receive.. so the idea of just bolting a DSMC2 monitor or adapter on the top of it wouldn't work.

A "smart" adapter may work... but that would basically need to be a phone chip inside the cradle with a video conversion which would add latency.. in which case you are kinda better of just using the SDI port.

 

[Jason Henne]

@Jarred Land - Are you able to comment what you anticipate the boot up time for the Komodo will be?

 

[Robert Hofmeyr]

Correct. The pins on DSMC2 and the Pins on Komodo are not only mechanically different, they are completely different signals. On DSMC2 the pins carry monitor and power. On Komodo ( and Hydrogen ) those pins carry a form of CSI and Ethernet which allows the Komodo to mimic a camera to the phone.. i.e when hooked up to a phone the phone thinks the Komodo is it's own camera. Komodo doesn't send a normal video signal that any traditional or DSMC2 monitor would receive.. so the idea of just bolting a DSMC2 monitor or adapter on the top of it wouldn't work.

A "smart" adapter may work... but that would basically need to be a phone chip inside the cradle with a video conversion which would add latency.. in which case you are kinda better of just using the SDI port.

Thanks for the explanation Jarred. Not sure if this has been answered before, but will Hydrogen have the same features as other devices when connected to the Komodo? Is there an advantage, other than the rear pins and magnets, to using Hydrogen with this camera?