Red Epic-X #5232 "Spike"

[Norbert Jalitsch]

congrats phil!

 

[Phil Holland]

Thank you guys. My first few days were spent testing the camera out and yesterday I had a small, small shoot. I'm still excited, happy, and really looking forward to the potential of what Spike will be able to do for me.

can we get higher resolution of that photo?

Certainly. Here's a 4K version:
http://www.artbyphil.com/phfx/photography/redEpicSpike/4Ks/phfx_redEpic5232Spike.jpg
*also if you click the first image at the beginning of this thread it will open the 4K version in a new window.

And upgraded fans, top-plate 2.0, the 9in.. Rock and Roll!

I like your set up, simple and functional. What is that between the handle and the Tactical Top Plate of your Spikey? My Epic has just arrived on 2 July two days before my birthday (4th July) and still thinking of a name and its still pretty naked
so I am hunting for something like Spikey.

Sweet Spikey.

Bingo. You hit the nail on the head with the simple and functional concept. That's pretty much how I've rigged the Epic up. Also a good place to start this thread I think.

If you're curious about my rigging mindset, what you're seeing exactly:

- Epic-X
- QUICK RELEASE PLATFORM (DOVETAIL)
- 1X DSMC UNIVERSAL MOUNT 19MM
- BACKPACK QUICKPLATE (SHORT) COLLECTION
- DSMC FAN 2.0 UPGRADE KIT COLLECTION (EPIC M-X)
- 3X 100mm SWAT RAILS
- SLIDING TOP HANDLE
- RED 9.0" LCD TOUCH
- BOLT-ON SWAT RAIL CLAMP
- DSMC SIDE HANDLE

Other things:
- OConnor CFF-1 Follow Focus
- OConnor O-BOX WM
- Shoot35 15-19mm Bridge
- Schneider Cine-Xenar III Prime (35mm)


I've kinda gone super modular with this approach.

I've learned a lot shooting with the DSMC style bodies (Epic and Scarlet) over the last couple years. Specifically how it relates to my "way" of shooting, what works well on set, and what works for others around me.

In terms of my Top Plate 2.0, I'm mounting two 100mm SWAT RAILS on top and one on the left side. I'll sometimes add one to the right side. I've gone and fallen in love with the idea of quick release components and rigging. I attach a great deal of accessories, not just the LCD via RAIL CLAMPS. I sometimes like to keep the monitor to the camera's left when operating and I creating a SWAT RAIL that attaches via a SWAT RAIL CLAMP (ROSETTE) and ACCESSORY ATTACHMENT BRACKET. Interestingly enough I use that on my CLUTCH setup to place the LCD. I am more of LCD guy than an EVF guy. Just my style I guess. That 9.0" TOUCH works well for me as locking critical focus is extremely important to me and the type of work I do.

The idea of quick release is also used with the QUICK RELEASE PLATFORM. I'm dovetail guy and damn near everything I put a camera on has a dovetail on it. Super quick for moves, super quick for balance, just quick. There was a time when I wasn't using dovetails for shooting and I've basically thrown away that logic. It's just better for how I work having the ability to quickly adjust the camera's placement. Additionally I have a dovetail on my CLUTCH, so it's super fast attaching the rigged camera to the shoulder rig and going back to sticks.

I've made a full on switch to 19mm rods. I still have all my LWS 15mm stuff, but the freedom of space that the 19mm provides for yourself or the AC in terms of switching lenses or adjusting the follow focus is totally worth it. The added benefit is you get more stability with a 19mm system over 15mm. I did have to adapte my O-Box to that and I wasn't totally sold on the size and weight of the OConnor adapter, so I went with the Shoot35 15-19mm Bridge. Light, compact, fits just right. A new addition to the O-Box is that Universal Ring. It's a bit more compact and sleek than other donuts, which for whatever reason I loathe. However, this thing is super quick to put on and off and a bit more tidy when rigged. It's a bit pricey, but with the type of lenses I shoot with most of the time, it's totally worth it.

I'm a big DSMC SIDE HANDLE user. I map focus and exposure tools to all of the buttons. Also, I have shortcuts for cycling through display modes. I'm keeping the up and down rocker open for when the MOTION MOUNT is available and that will be my electronic ND switch at my fingertips. Can't freaking wait for that.

The new DSMC FANS 2.0 and TOP PLATE 2.0 have been really fun to experiment with over the last week. I'm using Adaptive the most, set it at 70°C, and also black shaded to that. This pretty much keeps the camera quiet during recording and running. The TOP PLATE 2.0 seems to serve a bit more like a larger heat sink as it gets warm, but fades off in temperature towards the front. I don't know if that was a designed feature, but it appears to assist in heat displacement. What is designed on there are two port holes for the TOP FAN to breath through. The SLIDING TOP HANDLE is pretty much a must have accessory for me. Comes in handy for just moving the camera about, but also really a great place to grab if you're leveling the camera on a 100mm or 150mm ball. Additionally with that SWAT RAIL on the left I sometimes mount the handle on the side which gives me a "steering wheel" effect when I go to a single REDVOLT in the DSMC SIDE HANDLE, which is nice for real handheld shooting.

Apart from that, the new short BACKPACK QUICKPLATE is a nice surprise. I picked it up as it's in my game plan to eventually get the Red Element Electronic Follow Focus System (3 channel) and I feel this is a good way to go with it. Also, I may add a +1 Module into this mix at some point (another reason to have the SWAT RAILS for that extra monitor). It slides off quickly and locks in tightly. I saw some sort of HALF QUICKPLATE thing at NAB 2013 and I think I'd like to attach that rear of my CLUTCH when it's released, but it's not in the store yet. I've used and even own some 3rd party V-Mount plates, but the build on this thing is really impressive. Also, the QUICKPLATE itself protects the electronics when I go to handheld/single REDVOLT power. Dig that.

That's pretty much my mindset. Works for me. I use lenses that usually fall in the up to 6lb range and that's effected some other things like how I've "morphed" my CLUTCH and where the camera rests:

It's sort of next to my head 90's boombox style, but I have access to the DSMC SIDE HANDLE and can operate the follow focus easily from the dumb side (right side). The OConnor CFF-1 accepts knobs on both sides and it's a quick release system, so adjusting that is a snap. You can also see in the picture on the left side of the CLUTCH where I mount my display on the ROSETTE TO SWAT RAIL ADAPTER via that extra DOGBONE A.

The general concept behind all insanity was to speed up the time between and during setups. Been running with a similar setup for a couple months now. It's worked well so far. The camera is small overall and can be made smaller or lighter very quickly if needed.

 

[Isaac Marchionna]

Congrats, Phil! Have you toyed with converting your O-Box to swing away?

 

[Alex Rawet]

Phil, I'd just like to say your posts over the year or so I've been on here have been some of the most useful and informative around. They've been a real resource for me; so I tip my hat to you sir and wish you all the best with Spike

 

[Phil Holland]

Phil, I'd just like to say your posts over the year or so I've been on here have been some of the most useful and informative around. They've been a real resource for me; so I tip my hat to you sir and wish you all the best with Spike

Thank you Alex. I appreciate that.

Congrats, Phil! Have you toyed with converting your O-Box to swing away?

Whelp, after our internet interaction I went sleuthing and took a trip to both Filmtools and AbelCine today and they don't have the Zacuto Zwing Away adapter in, so I couldn't test that out.

However, here are all the options I could scrounge up:
Zacuto Zwing Away
Genus Elite Mattebox Swing Away Bracket (which shares some design elements with the Zacuto, mainly it's dual hinge)
Movcam Swing-Away Bracket for 15mm Rods
Chrosziel DSW 500 Adaptor (official name = Chrosziel C-401-503 DSW 500 Adaptor with Clamp 450W-20)
LANPARTE MATTEBOX SWING-AWAY CLAMP
DOP Swing-away Adapter (harder to find)

All land in various price points ranging from $40-$465. Lanparte gets you in the cheepest, but sort of defeats the "speedy" concept with having a locking screw dead center and rear, which could make it not fun to reach. If you can find the DOP model you can remove the matte box attachment clamp it would provide essentially the same thing. They were cheap, but apparently are now discontinued.

The Zacuto and Genus are alarmingly similar. Both suffer from only having one locking clamp to the support rods. The Zacuto has pin on the under belly that locks via lever and the Genus locks via spring loaded push button camera left, yet on the top of the plate. Both don't seem like their are in the best places, but both could work just fine. Both share the dual hinge and allow that "straight" off movement which some would desire.

The Movcam is pretty smart and features a single knob that locks both 15mm rods and also has the release pin/screw on the left side. This would be ideal for me.

Chrosziel's looks to be the most interesting to me. It is the most expensive, however, it does provide a "100mm swing radius" and swings the box way out there. I like this because it allows you or your AC to really get in there and examine a lens if it needs to be cleaned and also really gets the box out of the way for lens changes. It's sort of a nice medium between the idea of the "straight" out movement that the dual hinge provides by basically having such a large radius. Additionally the locking pin is also on camera left.

So for me, the decision is really between Chrosziel and Movcam. Both companies make quality gear. One's cheaper and compact, the other is more idea for larger lenses and day to day production.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

As I said elsewhere Phil... Congrats on your upgrade!! Very happy for you, and thanks again for all your great contributions here on RU!

 

[Ulf Krentz]

Congrats! I´m sure "Spike" will shine in your hands. And I also want to thank you for your indepth concise posts here, I keep learning all the time.
Enjoy your ride!!

 

[dylanglockler]

You referred to the 'Red Element Electronic Follow Focus System' - are you talking about the motors and meizler or have I missed another Red product with that frustrating 'coming soon' icon in the store?

 

[Phil Holland]

As I said elsewhere Phil... Congrats on your upgrade!! Very happy for you, and thanks again for all your great contributions here on RU!

Thank you Ketch. You're certainly somebody that made that upgrade decision easy for me My time is sparse at the moment, but I'll see what I can do to contribute to RoaB. Dream big. Do big things.

Congrats! I´m sure "Spike" will shine in your hands. And I also want to thank you for your indepth concise posts here, I keep learning all the time.
Enjoy your ride!!

Thanks Ulf. So far so good. I'll do my best to post more images from set and any BTS I can muster this time around. Loving the Epic so far.

You referred to the 'Red Element Electronic Follow Focus System' - are you talking about the motors and meizler or have I missed another Red product with that frustrating 'coming soon' icon in the store?

Element Technica was purchased by Red just before NAB 2013 and became "Red Element". Red Motors were demoed at NAB 2013 on Meizler and more recently out here in LA with the Red Element WMD 3-Axis Wireless Lens Control System. Which is neato. A full system with controller is pricey, but currently they are the most interesting motors on the market with one of the better remotes out there. No delay, strong, and modular in terms of placing the receiver anywhere you want. Meizler is currently going through some sort of redesign from what I understand and likely could be called a WIP at the moment.


Busy one today. Just wrapped a 14 hour day on a commercial and my feet are a little soar, but the Epic did great. Think I had the camera on for 9 hours of the day. Shot on my Schneider Cine-Xenar III lenses. Used most of the lengths, minus the 95mm, I used the 50mm and 75mm for CUs. Heck of shooting day. 7 light soft light interior. Tricky higher key soft light situation. Knocked out a lot of takes and setups. Three room shoot. Two art dec'd and one hallway that I just hit with a 220W daylight fluorescent gelled blue for some interesting moonlight-ish effect. The soft light created a very "fat" .R3D. The soft light was hitting everywhere and I barely flagged anything at all. Doing a lot of contrasting angles to rake the light across surfaces like faces to generate some texture. Looks nice. I'll have to check out the footage in the morning once I get some sleep. Will post grabs when I can for sure. Fun one.

 

[Phil Holland]

Congrats, Phil! Have you toyed with converting your O-Box to swing away?

Whelp. A quick follow up on this one tonight as you did peak my curiosity a bit.

After some brief testing of a few different adapter brackets (and even one custom made one a buddy has) I went with:


(opens in new window)

The main reason I went the Chrosziel is that it really swings way out there to provide plenty of clearance around the lens. Great for ACs, lens changes, and larger glass. Downsides so far is that the box tilts down a bit when swung open, but that doesn't bother me too much. I've only had one "true day" of shooting with it. We'll see how it does after a few weeks of torture.

So far, neat little solution though. Weirdly it's gear from 3 different manufacturers from the United States, Germany, and England. Crazy.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

The 4k shot of SPIKE is truly EPIC!!!!!

Congrats, Mr. Holland

 

[Adam Beck]

Whelp. A quick follow up on this one tonight as you did peak my curiosity a bit.

After some brief testing of a few different adapter brackets (and even one custom made one a buddy has) I went with:


(opens in new window)

The main reason I went the Chrosziel is that it really swings way out there to provide plenty of clearance around the lens. Great for ACs, lens changes, and larger glass. Downsides so far is that the box tilts down a bit when swung open, but that doesn't bother me too much. I've only had one "true day" of shooting with it. We'll see how it does after a few weeks of torture.

So far, neat little solution though. Weirdly it's gear from 3 different manufacturers from the United States, Germany, and England. Crazy.

Thanks Phil, I think I'm going to copy this for my O-Box. This was one of my cons for not buying the O-Box, glad I bought it anyway.

 

[Phil Holland]

A quicky update.

Just thought I'd share some black and white grabs. These are "nothing special" as they were shot in my backyard with the primary focus to test out look, sharpness, texture, and grain patterns for REDRAY. All of these are from Epic or Scarlet via Mysterium-X at various formats like 5K, 5K 2:1, 5K HD, and 4K all cropped to a 2:1 aspect ratio and placed in a UHD 4K (3840 wax width) container.

My goal here was to find a balance between a somewhat sharp image and something that has a bit more of an organic feel. Mostly playing around here and experimenting between sharpening techniques and grain patterns. A clean look is pretty easy to achieve, this is obviously more of subjective concept.

If you click on any of the images below it will open a full resolution (3840x1920) image in a new window (although a bit contaminated by web compression jpg artifacts). Each one is a slightly different variation. I made about 60 different unique looks, but these are the fun ones.

Lately I've had many thoughts on my mind on how to proceed with choice of capture format and finishing for modern UHD 4K displays, which seem to be mostly focused on that 3840x2160. There will obviously be some projects where 2.35:1, 2.37:1, or 2.40:1 will be the goal, and of course 16x9 is pretty much going to be the broadcast standard for a while. Gigs will sometimes determine the format obviously. For my own work I think I'm going to find myself shooting at 6K 2:1 and perhaps 6K HD a whole bunch when Dragon lands. There's something that feels good about a 2:1 frame.


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[Zhibo Lai]

Big congrats Phil.. Mine is a few numbers behind yours.. Thanks for all your informative posts.. I bought some gear based on your recommendations and very happy with it thus far. Like to see some of your slow-mo work.. I put mine to a 120fps martial arts shoot recently...

 

[Jason Comparetto]

Congratulations Phil

 

[Eric Santiago]

Phil those frames made my day

 

[Adam Beck]

A quicky update.

Just thought I'd share some black and white grabs. These are "nothing special" as they were shot in my backyard with the primary focus to test out look, sharpness, texture, and grain patterns for REDRAY. All of these are from Epic or Scarlet via Mysterium-X at various formats like 5K, 5K 2:1, 5K HD, and 4K all cropped to a 2:1 aspect ratio and placed in a UHD 4K (3840 wax width) container.

Lately I've had many thoughts on my mind on how to proceed with choice of capture format and finishing for modern UHD 4K displays, which seem to be mostly focused on that 3840x2160. There will obviously be some projects where 2.35:1, 2.37:1, or 2.40:1 will be the goal, and of course 16x9 is pretty much going to be the broadcast standard for a while. Gigs will sometimes determine the format obviously. For my own work I think I'm going to find myself shooting at 6K 2:1 and perhaps 6K HD a whole bunch when Dragon lands. There's something that feels good about a 2:1 frame.

Phil,

16:9 doesn't seem to be wide enough for me, at least for what I want to shoot most of the time(personal projects). Obviously there are occasions where a 16x9 is perfect. There's nothing like balancing an image with a CU of the eyes in a 2:40 frame.
It's important to have the ability to capture at 6K, it allows us to be creative with a unique aspect ratio if need be and maintain a 4K wide image.

 

[Dustin Veneman]

Great post Phil thanks for sharing your rig.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Thank you Ketch. You're certainly somebody that made that upgrade decision easy for me My time is sparse at the moment, but I'll see what I can do to contribute to RoaB. Dream big. Do big things.

Very glad to hear that Phil, it makes me fill really good every time I hear that I contributed some how to a decision which lead to the purchase of an Epic, as IMO even so just a tool, it is a great tool, and in the right hands can and will produce fantastic imagery and allow the individual Filmmaker to surpass his/hers exceptions of they'r won work, while of course been allowed to also evolve thanks to the technical capacity of this insane camera... Then there is DRAGON...

I see what EPIC has done to me in this past years, and for this I will not stop pricing this incredible camera,and share my love for it, as unlike many which wish to to be the few to have a tool that really works, I instead wish that all those that I know and those that I don't but that do love the same Art of Cinema and photography imagery as I do, to share this tool, and create fantastic imagery that I can then enjoy watching, simple really...

And when some one like you is that Filmmaker that takes such a tool in hands, it is a true pleasure see the results... Look forward to see your film on EPIC Phil!!

And I guess I'll see you soon in LA!!



Those btw are some really nice and very detailed frame grabs Phil, love them!!

 

[Nick Fury]

A quicky update....

Just thought I'd share some black and white grabs. These are "nothing special" as they were shot in my backyard with the primary focus to test out look, sharpness, texture, and grain patterns for REDRAY. All of these are from Epic or Scarlet via Mysterium-X at various formats like 5K, 5K 2:1, 5K HD, and 4K all cropped to a 2:1 aspect ratio and placed in a UHD 4K (3840 wax width) container.

My goal here was to find a balance between a somewhat sharp image and something that has a bit more of an organic feel. Mostly playing around here and experimenting between sharpening techniques and grain patterns. A clean look is pretty easy to achieve, this is obviously more of subjective concept.

If you click on any of the images below it will open a full resolution (3840x1920) image in a new window (although a bit contaminated by web compression jpg artifacts). Each one is a slightly different variation. I made about 60 different unique looks, but these are the fun ones.

Lately I've had many thoughts on my mind on how to proceed with choice of capture format and finishing for modern UHD 4K displays, which seem to be mostly focused on that 3840x2160. There will obviously be some projects where 2.35:1, 2.37:1, or 2.40:1 will be the goal, and of course 16x9 is pretty much going to be the broadcast standard for a while. Gigs will sometimes determine the format obviously. For my own work I think I'm going to find myself shooting at 6K 2:1 and perhaps 6K HD a whole bunch when Dragon lands. There's something that feels good about a 2:1 frame....

Hi Phil,

Really like the scooter shots...can't get those everywhere.

Interested in your use/plan, for a matte boxe and filters sizes, currently and going forward. The wider end at 6K and even FF 5K, at, say the 19mm end of the Cabrio, is an issue. Now, the Bright Tangerine pieces have the Strummer that can take 6" filters, but the newly released VIV 5 is also really appealing, on the basis of the weight, wider than most ,useful image port, while having a tidy form factor (especially handheld). The VIV 5, of course, takes 5 X 5, as well as 4 X 5.65, for other shooting choices/camera options. Very interested in your thoughts.

Thank you very much

Fury