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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 :)

Optitron 2 - experiences

David Battistella said:
That is ver cool. I guess just a custom cable or wire up soemthing to send it wirelessly form that path and it could be a pretty quick turnaround thing. But I literally have seen roll, cut, view with liveplay, but only with HD from the camera HD-SDI cleanfeed, serving client iPads, etc, but all that can be right in an NLE right after each take as well and then relink to the r3d.
Click to expand...


Yes, but the big difference between the past and weapon is that those weapon proress files are actually not only TC correct and named as the r3d´s they also work for off camera speeds SDI recorders does not do any of that.
And GigE should not be too difficult to make wireless already from camera.

Edit you can can get the naming right on SDI record but not the rest.
 
Just as a temporal update:

I agree with all Stephens findings.

I now have Foolcontrol, and hope to have it up and running together with Optitron over the next week (this is a "hope to" not really a "promise to" thing)
Super excited to see how these two could compliment eachother, especially as the Optitron doesn't have user programmeable buttons.

I will (and this is promise to) do a pretty wide sample of lenses. Probably wednesday.

And after this I can write my first review.

Then I will bring it on-set on a week long production and see how it holds up in real-world normal production.

then comes pt 2

But so far, I can just concur with Stephen. I am very impressed.
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
So much for that idea. My other idea, to make the camera as wire-free and small/lightweight as possible, would be to power both transmitters with something like this:

http://www.aukey.com/product/pb-n30-portable-external-battery-pack-aipower

It weighs only 3 ounces.

So whaddaya think, Jacek?

Or do you have a better idea to power both an Aries and the wireless unit?

Stephen
Click to expand...

Hi Stephen, can you briefly chime in on your opinion of the Aries Pro? Sorry for going astray on the subject of the Optitron...
 
Enrique: I personally have not used it, but a friend of mine has one on his Scarlet and considers it a worthy piece of gear. I'm looking to buy one now, but it seems to be quite rare in commerce at the moment. . . and at a vastly higher price than previously.

Stephen
 
I know that the price point is tempting but there are so much better solutions for cameras now. The low tolerance on the 5V input will doom your Aries pretty quickly.
I strongly recommend the units out there that have 7-17v voltage range- that alone will save you tons of jerry rigging, hassle, time and money
For $1200 you can get the super light Amimon Connex and couple of other systems that were designed for camera use. Aries was designaed is for stationary home use with AC power supply. Horrible for on camera use.
I'm not involved in wireless video any more but have few manufacturing samples that a world ahead of the Aries and its twins rebranded.
What used to cost $3-4K a year or two ago is $1k today. What was $10K one two years ago is $3-4k today.
I wouldn't bother with the likes of Aries today....
 
Tested a bunch of EF glass today and will put up videos in the RedLink lens thread, and even though it's not technically an evaluation of the Optitron, it would to me be pretty crucial info in a buying decision.

The Optitron itself works great as it is.
A way to program the buttons to send redlink commands you want to control would probably be pretty great.

The situation for Sigma (Outside the Art 18-35, 24, 35, 50) lenses doesn't seem too good.

The Canon lenses I tried, mostly worked super-good.
 
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Now entering a week of testing Optitron with Foolcontrol + Movieslate 8 beta.

Metadata metadata metadata.

As this setup isn't in any way recomended or even supported by optitron and that thread is more metadata oriented I have set up a separate thread for that.

But I guess you guess that this test wouldn't have been relevant if the Optitron didn't perform very well.
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?136091-Foolcontrol-Optitron2-movieslate-LABO-FLOW

There is even a little quick and dirty video there...
 
Björn Benckert said:
Yes, but the big difference between the past and weapon is that those weapon proress files are actually not only TC correct and named as the r3d´s they also work for off camera speeds SDI recorders does not do any of that.
And GigE should not be too difficult to make wireless already from camera.

Edit you can can get the naming right on SDI record but not the rest.
Click to expand...

You can have the TC correct.
 
Have had the pleasure of demo'ing Optitron to a couple of DoP's and 1st AC's the last few days. And they react like me:

Gee. This actually works.
 
It sure does. Love the system here in Kansas City! A friend of mine who saw it said simply, "that is so cool!"

:-)

Stephen
 
I think we are getting to the point of (inevitable haha) group buy.
Should we make a new thread to gage the interest?
 
Gunleik, any way to check out the Optitron in person? I've been talking to Jacek last year about buying, but never got around to it as I couldn't try it out
 
Jacek Zakowicz said:
I think we are getting to the point of (inevitable haha) group buy.
Should we make a new thread to gage the interest?
Click to expand...

I think groupbuys are great. And I have no issues recomending the optitron, as long as people know that they need to know which lenses it works well with.
Which would coincide with which lenses work well with the RedLink protocol.

My list so far is here:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...F-Nikon-mount-with-remote-control)&highlight=

It is noteable that most Sigma lenses will not work, but that the Art series seem to be good with the right firmware.
I had issues with my 18-35, but have had a firmwareupgrade which shoud fix it.
the 24-35 I tried did not work at all, but there is a new firmware from sigma fixing that.

I haven't had time to work with Nikon lenses yet, but have heard from others that they don't hold calibration the way EF lenses do.
I would take that into consideration before buying.

It is also important to know that manual focusing makes you lose calibration (again RedLink, not Optitron issue), and that a re-calibrate button on the unit could be extremely handy, as calibration only takes a few seconds in case calibration is lost.
For remote work, I would lock down the focus ring.

Also the led's can be an issue on dark scenes, and there are no way I know of to disable them.
And I would hope Jacek released a way to program the buttons. They are plentyful, and could be used to send a lot of useful and customizeable redlink commands.

Outside these (to me minor) inconveniencies.
I think the unit is well built, easy to set up and works repeatedly as you would expect.

As to group buys, they have to be facilitated by a reduser, and I think there is an issue with non-sponsor companies arranging their own.
OTOH, I see this as a great tool for many users.

I am literally the worst organizer of something like a GB, my schedule is far too erratic for that responsibility, but I'd love to see if if Maik or someone else can arrange it and will support it in the ways I can.

A thing to note is that in the box, there is a very elegant 15mm rods adapter to mount the Optitron like you would an FF4.
I would hope it would be possible to choose between a 15 and 19 mm (or a combo) solution.

I have brought the unit around to shops and sets and people, and their response have been similar to mine. Some see it as a special-case tool, others seem to think that they can base more/all of their production on that solution. None have been not impressed. It's super responsive and feels really good to work with.

That said:
Go for it Jacek.

Great work!
 
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We are now looking into the SDK to make sure we can implement all the requested features (start/stop recording, 1:1 punch in, lens initialize, etc...) with a new firmware. Of the top of my head I don't see a problem but we need to make sure we make good on a promise...
 
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