motion mount

[Lee Kelly]

Hi anyone,

Have you any experience with the motion mount?
I just watched the video Red display on their store page and wowee it shows you how to change the mount!
How well does the ND filter work? Do you control this via side handle?
How does this ND handle IR?
Is it the exact same dimensions as the normal TI Canon and PL mounts, meaning will a camera with the motion mount still fit with configurations I use the camera in now?
Anything else you think we should know, from a hands on, real world experience point of view?

Thanks for the answers.

 

[Phil Holland]

He Lee,

I've had it for a while now, here are some of my many thoughts:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?105885-RED-DSMC-Motion-Mount-has-arrived!&highlight=

 

[Björn Benckert]

WE shot with it. It's really nice.

Also very well engineered, just loose the screws for your current mount and swap. restart camera and it works. There is a menu in settings where you change your ND and the motion mount settings for "global shutter" and such.

A few things.

It's not doing a complete global shutter, as it's not completely close to black out the sensor but it goes a long way, like ND 9 or such. Also it does not work for any framerate but for a lot of them, see chart at REd.com.

One little issue we had was that (it was a rental) the little rubber thing that goes around the glass on the inside that is glued on to the mount collect a bit of dust that get stuck in the rubber… this is a potential "dust in gate" thing. So watch that it's clean when you put it on.

And yes you can set hotkeys to your side handle to dribble ND's up and down, which is super nice.

What I also realised today when we shot with the mövi is that for such things it's really nice to be able to have built in ND that does not change weight of the camera. Saves a lot of time not having to recalibrate the balance of the rig as you have to do when adding normal nd's and also it helps the motion blur and rolling shutter when doing quick camera moves and such.

But to me the nicest thing about it all is that it gives better / nicer motion blur.

Also a little side note the AC told me today that Fincher had "motion mounts" allready on his red one MX cameras when he shot dragon tattoo here in stockholm. He then did not have it for the epic and apparently that was one of the reasons he keep the Red ones on the production even when he had the Epics.

When using it I was a bit bummed that it does not do a full global shutter but all in all I really want one so many good ways to use it. But you also want to keep your old mount as it eats at least (I think) 1.3 stops when used. So simply it's not ideal for lowlight stuff.

 

[Phil Holland]

But you also want to keep your old mount as it eats at least (I think) 1.3 stops when used. So simply it's not ideal for lowlight stuff.

When the Motion Mount is attached:

- You have a permanent 1.6 stops of ND on.
- You can have a 1.6-8 stop range.
- If you shoot wide open with faster aperture lenses you'll be using 1.6-4 stops range and you'll want to carry a 1.2 ND if you need more density.
- It's an "always on" linear polarizer.
- You have access to ND Only Mode, Square Shutter Mode (Global-ish shutter), and Soft Shutter Mode.
- IR Cut and color calibration between individual ND adjustments means color is good and consistent.

Flicker free/strobe free operation and safe shutter speeds can be found in the manual as they are resolution independent.

 

[Roy Rossovich]

Also a little side note the AC told me today that Fincher had "motion mounts" allready on his red one MX cameras when he shot dragon tattoo here in stockholm. He then did not have it for the epic and apparently that was one of the reasons he keep the Red ones on the production even when he had the Epics.

Cool tidbit of info Bjorn, leave it to Fincher to have all the fun goodies ahead of time, was like when RED built him carbon fiber RED ONES to use in the boat scenes on Social Network. Oh what big budgets can do.