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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 :)

RedMote - Please Red

Our REDmote is working very well... experience does vary... from what was written on the boards I thought I would never get it to work on a crane. Sorry to hear so many others are having problems though... albeit I think some of that is because of the local/remote feature being not easily interpretable.
 
We have 2 redmotes working just fine. Took a couple of tries to pair the first time and pairs perfectly every time now. It has ne we been on the back of the camera, maybe that's why it works wirelessly so well. Range is about 30 ft on stage. Our third had a non working enter button and is at red right now.

Tim
 
I had a redmote brand new come broken and they sent me a new one as I sent the broken one back and it works perfect. I get around 6-10 feet as well but not all the time. I used to with the epic and a very early build get at least 30 feet away from the camera. Can we bring that kind of range back.
 
Mine works.... Sometimes.. I would never rely on it though.. I think the ability to wire the REDmote would be HUGE until they solve the wireless issue. Wireless is just to finicky. It's a frigging awesome concept, and I will be extremely happy when it does work more than 60% of the time.
 
Mine works great. Don't have a need to be far from the camera. Used it about 8 feet from the camera and never missed a beat on a two hour shoot.
 
I've experienced piss-poor performance with the RedMote.

The Display is not always accurate, I cannot get IN/OUT of playback without looking at the EVF or LCD.
Battery is disappointing.

It slows down the camera.. I've had to (deliberately) turn off the RedMote to get smoother performance out of the EPIC.
 
Justin Marx said:
Mine works.... Sometimes.. I would never rely on it though.. I think the ability to wire the REDmote would be HUGE until they solve the wireless issue. Wireless is just to finicky. It's a frigging awesome concept, and I will be extremely happy when it does work more than 60% of the time.
Click to expand...

Well, Stuart knows I have been asking for remote control of Red Cameras (and then griping about the lack of it :-) ) since NAB2008. I thought we had it licked when they came out with the REDMOTE for Epic, but the unreliability of wireless is a setback. A wired option would go a long way toward a reliable solution. Seems like it would have been really easy to incorporate wired at the design stage, but still seems pretty straightforward to implement using the contacts on the rear of the camera and the redmote (and it would sure simplify my life on the underwater housing side :-) ).

But more importantly, this is the kind of thing that gives RED cameras a bad name because any kind of reliability issues seem to get magnified - and a rapid fix before it becomes ingrained in the production community would seem to me to be important and a priority. With no good options right now, making a cable to extend those contacts would probably go a long way toward keeping people happy.
 
My REDmote arrives tomorrow. Until then, I'll be in the car :-)

OK OK a couple of thoughts...

1. Wired option. Yes! Even never having used it, yes.

2. The communication protocol - wired or wireless - with the camera may have a few tricks and gotchas, but it's a long way from rocket science. Pretty straightforward stuff. This is exactly the kind of gadget that third party manufacturers could innovate with. There's no law saying that only RED can make REDmote-type devices... let's see what kind of REDmote alternative someone like Element Technica or Viewfactor can come up with. I'd personally like to see an 'analogue' REDmote; a larger box with nice clunky knobs for direct control of the basics: iris, shutter, ISO, frame rate. I seriously dislike poking about in menus for those. Direct control, just like good old mechanical cameras!

Mike
 
Michael Hastings said:
Well, Stuart knows I have been asking for remote control of Red Cameras (and then griping about the lack of it :-) ) since NAB2008. I thought we had it licked when they came out with the REDMOTE for Epic, but the unreliability of wireless is a setback. A wired option would go a long way toward a reliable solution. Seems like it would have been really easy to incorporate wired at the design stage, but still seems pretty straightforward to implement using the contacts on the rear of the camera and the redmote (and it would sure simplify my life on the underwater housing side :-) ).

But more importantly, this is the kind of thing that gives RED cameras a bad name because any kind of reliability issues seem to get magnified - and a rapid fix before it becomes ingrained in the production community would seem to me to be important and a priority. With no good options right now, making a cable to extend those contacts would probably go a long way toward keeping people happy.
Click to expand...

I agree that the unreliability of gear has hurt RED's reputation quite a bit- from the early days of the RED One all the way through these issues with the Redmote. It's a shame that the redmote is so unreliable not only for lack of usability but for the fact that a lot of people perceive the camera system to be inferior and unreliable based on one piece of gear (rightly so in my mind). If you're going to make something and sell it as part of a professional production tool, make sure it works reliably. If I performed my job as reliably as the redmote performed its job I would be fired and never hired again by anyone. As cinematographers we have to be able to rely on our gear to perform as expected as frequently as possible. There are too many other variables during production that we have to deal with. The redmote is quickly gaining the reputation of being a "piece of junk" due to it's reliability, and likely hurting the perception of the camera system. I think it's good for RED to know this so they can choose to act (or not).
 
Do I need to fill out a support ticket for the REDMOTE working poorly?
 
Mine has connection issues sometimes. On a recent shoot, I went to hang out at the Directors monitor during a simple dolly shot. I started the camera rolling from about 25 feet away. Worked flawlessly for several takes. Also did this for some jib shots and other stuff where I didn't want to touch the camera.

Clearly I'm more fortunate than others...
 
I remember working the redmote with the epic-M's a while back and it had a lot of issues. Since receiving my redmote for my Epic-X I can say the experience has improved a lot. Pairing is no longer a guess work. I've been able to get a good 20' away from camera. best of all I can easily control two cameras (an epic and a scarlett is paired to my redmote) with ease. You dont simultaneously comtrol the camera, just switching back and forth between the two is easy and fast:-)
 
Surely in a professional tool you except it the be reliable all the time, not varied at all.

If you're using a AB battery on the back of the camera you cover the ports (Wooden Camera Quick Back, Red V Lock batteries)
So you have to go with a wireless connection even though the RedMote is on the side of the camera.

For people who don't want to run the camera on RedVolts this is a problem. You have to run the remote via wireless.

Why are we forced into using a TouchLCD or Side Handle to control the camera.
The RedMote is made to be the control of the camera so how come "works sometimes" is okay with Red?
 
This is confusing! I'd really like to order one, but ...

For those who have problems, is there any gear that could be obstructing the signal (as Rory mentioned the AB batteries, Wooden Quick Back, etc. seem to)? I probably need about 12 feet.

For the non-working buttons, are they getting damaged in shipment - or does it appear they may not be getting tested thoroughly enough?

Gearing up a manufacturing operation is a lot of work. Setting up all the test procedures for something as complex as the Epic/Scarlet & the accessories, with electronic as well as mechanical components ... takes time and is an iterative process.

There can only be improvement if there is feedback. I noted one gentleman who was out of the country who didn't have time to deal with it.

If RED doesn't know about it, they can't fix it.
 
George Tsai said:
I remember working the redmote with the epic-M's a while back and it had a lot of issues. Since receiving my redmote for my Epic-X I can say the experience has improved a lot. Pairing is no longer a guess work. I've been able to get a good 20' away from camera. best of all I can easily control two cameras (an epic and a scarlett is paired to my redmote) with ease. You dont simultaneously comtrol the camera, just switching back and forth between the two is easy and fast:-)
Click to expand...

I'd suggest that's the majority experience, I've run to 150ft on several occasions (not saying that's the spec, but that's a result)

Performance has improved since initial EPIC-M shipments. If your unit is not working then RED support ought to know about it.
 
Hey Rory,

There are ways to use AB batteries and still attach the REDmote on the back.
This uses a simple, custom 19mm "U" mount off the back:

Depending on how you set it up, it can swing up so as not to block the screen:



Here is an off-the-shelf version with parts from ET and Berkey System. Cost is under 100 bucks probably:


I'm sure there are plenty of other ways too.
 
Sometimes it does work 70ft. that makes people wow when they see it. When those wow-ed people take it for a shoot, it never does more than 10ft. They get real disappointed when it doesn't do under 10ft. when the cam is on a jib. Not reliable..

As people pointed out, professional tools doesn't sometimes work. It has to work all the time up to a certain spec.
 
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