Practicality of sidekick for run and gun

[Chris Jordan]

I've always had a touch screen, but i'm beyond irritated with the quality they give in the field. If it's sunny at all, good luck seeing anything. Beyond that, good luck pulling focus. So i'm at a place where I need to decide on a good hi res outdoor monitor, and how to control the camera quickly. Fool control is too slow, so it's either I keep the 4.7 just to control the camera, or I buy a sidekick.

Thoughts?

CJ

 

[Jan Schuster]

Sidekick is much slower than fool control in my opinion. Best case is get a 7" Red touch and sun shade. Or go SmallHD 702 bright with fool control or sidekick for camera control.

I personally run 702 bright with fool control as my main settings control. And also have side kick for a "just in case" situation. And I keep my 4.7 in a bag as well for back up.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

Evf

 

[Ben Scott]

I would absolutely love if instead of a Sidekick Red released a replacement module for that side that just has 10-20 user keys we could program with an LCD saying what it was.

 

[Hugh Scully]

I'm a big fan of the sidekick. I use it exclusively and so have gotten pretty quick with it. I also use an EVF outside or when I am pulling focus myself hand-held shoulder mounted. I wouldn't try to pull focus outside off a monitor. It's fine for framing with a hood but not pulling focus myself.

 

[Brendan H. Banks]

I'm a big fan of the sidekick. I use it exclusively and so have gotten pretty quick with it. I also use an EVF outside or when I am pulling focus myself hand-held shoulder mounted. I wouldn't try to pull focus outside off a monitor. It's fine for framing with a hood but not pulling focus myself.

This. Also, someone above said that for them fool control was way faster than the sidekick and I personally disagree. The sidekick is integrated and works well once you get the hang of it. I often opt for it over touch on set because for whatever reason, touch doesn't always like my fingers. It's a huge bonus to have for run and gun.

Edit: to be clear, this is very much a preference choice and I'm not saying anyone is wrong. Just how I like to do things!

 

[Chris Jordan]

Thanks guys. I feel like the buttons and wheel on the sidekick would be a win for me. I like the tactile feel. Foolcontrol always seems to be slow or crash for me.

 

[Chris McKechnie]

Check out Osee's new 7" high bright. It's cheap (only around $750) and is amazing quality. That, coupled with the sidekick and you should be golden.

 

[Bérenger Brillante]

Foolcontrol is fast if you turn off the sleepoff, stay on & connected all the time. Be prepared to get a USB battery though. Get an iPhone bracket in 1/4" or 3/8", a Hibright monitor liek the Osee and you're done.


For Run and Gun, I'm personnaly fond of the 4.7"+Ocean glare+Side Handle, with a Canon mount and Redvolt-V (well 16 of them) you'll be the lightest you can possibly be.

I'm looking for anti reflection phone filter, to add the the 4.7. But have not found one yet.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

How about a smart handle, that can be mounted to a rosette on an arm/rod you can position as desired, that provides all the functionality of the sidekick? Sounds great, but what if I accidentally bump a control during a shot? It should have a toggle to restrict active controls (to start/stop/zoom/iris for example) as desired.

For most solo RED shooting, it's either:
1) LCD for everything - menu operations/framing/focus
2) EVF and sidekick

For exteriors, particularly off the shoulder, the EVF is the bomb (couldn't resist) but the location of the sidekick is not exactly an ergonomic win. I appreciate that RED has provided such a lightweight control panel that slickly snaps into the side of the admirably tiny DSMC2 body, but for hand held shooting it's awkward.

I still dream of a day when I can operate my Weapon with two handles that provide both menu access and FIZ/run-stop control that I can position to suit whatever setup I desire.

Cheers - #19

 

[Sergio Perez]

Another vote for the side handle. It is the fastest and most convenient way for run and gun. However, the handle design, the gun shape handle, is, in my opinion, ergonomically worse than both the DSMC1 side handle and event the outrigger handle. I work mainly with the old 5" Touch and the Outrigger for Run and Gun on my Weapon. And I keep the sidekick just in case the touch fails.