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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 :)

Scarlet Buying Guide

Nice! Great job on this. There are a lot of things on their website which can be quite confusing if you don't know what they do.

I just wanted to add that I use the Zacuto EVF with my Scarlet and it works very well. I also use there Scarlet baseplate that also works very well. Of course these are probably not as good as having Red parts but if you are on a budget it will work (and well)

I also am using globalmediapro batteries. They also work well (I'm using the AB mount) but you only get the voltage readout, not percentage (at least with the ones I bought - I think you can spend more and get that functionality)

I also added a Wooden Camera battery plate, quickback and AB plate + their Safety Nato (150 mm) on top for adding additional items.

BTW my old Betacam Rainjacket works well on my Scarlet rig.
 
Fixed! Thank you.

Andi Loor said:
Two small issues. DSMC is a way to separate Epic and Scarlet cameras from the Red One camera.
Tokina is making a 11-16 mm zoom not 11-18 mm
Best regards
Andi
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And I thought it was I alone having problems deciding on RED parts and accessories I needed !! Still researching so this write up comes at a great time and will be very useful for me. Thanks a million Mark!
 
You are very welcome!

Oje Unuigboje said:
And I thought it was I alone having problems deciding on RED parts and accessories I needed !! Still researching so this write up comes at a great time and will be very useful for me. Thanks a million Mark!
Click to expand...
 
If you wrote a comprehensive book on the epic / scarlet system, I'd buy it.
 
I wish I had the time. I am probably going to start a wiki and let people contribute to it so we can all build a comprehensive guide together.
 
Hey Mark, this is a great resource for someone like me researching to assemble a budget-scarlet package. Thanks for taking time out for the community. Its greatly appreciated. Cheers!
 
Quick Question - using Canon lenses on the Scarlet - what is the best way for remote focus control? And will a FF unit interfere with the autofocus? Can a rack focus be pre-programed manually? Thanks for any help in understanding these issues.
 
Great post Mark. You could edit the "control" section with a little more info. I am interested to know if the Redmote and the DSMC Side handle will give you ALL the controls over the camera that you will get with the 5" touchscreen?
I figure a lot of people like me already have existing EVFs or LCDs and might save some money if we can get the same control with the any of the two optional controllers.
 
On remote follow focus: I've only used one unit and it was with PL glass, not Canon, so I'm no help to you there.

On controls...the side handle and redmote will have the control wheel/d-pad which will allow you to access all the menu items. Let me double check on that...there are some advanced menu options that I want to make sure work.

As for redmotes, all wireless gear is subject to interference, so if you want rock solid dependability, go with the side handle.
 
I'm new here, and instantly navigated to your post-- which is a must for newbies; and although I do know how to operate a RED, found this useful as I'm looking to buy my own Scarlet, with all I need to start filming.
 
Mark,

As a new Scarlet-X owner, I thank you for the leg work you have saved me. I did skimp on the 5" Touch LCD in favor of using the side handle and my Steadicam monitor. Let let say NO GOOD, sooooooooo you really, really, really should just take the plunge and make the touch monitor an "essential" as other external monitors do not do justice!

Again,

Thanks!
 
Very useful thread, if only it existed when i was buying my Scarlet :thumbup:...But i had to do this "homework" by myself. If i might add something is that you have to keep in mind that redvolt batteries last less than 20 minutes, so if it's the only source of power - you need a lot of them. Another thing you need to remember shopping at red.com for your Scarlet rail components are the rod standards. DSLR film makers looking to upgrade probably have most accessories in 15mm lightweight standard, but it's not the same 15mm as in The DSMC Universal Mount 15mm for example, because the spacing is different. Also the lens mount on Scarlet is higher than in most cameras so you'll probably need a rod riser to align matte box and follow focus.
As always the devil is in the details...
 

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Input?

Input?

Hey guys, I would love some input if anyone has a few minutes to help out a hapless producer / director who is trying to put this package together so that it works properly. The toughest part for me is that I'm in Portland, OR, now and I'm flying up my cinematographer from Los Angeles for a short film shoot. That means he can't really help as hands-on as if we were in the same city still, putting this package together piece by piece.

I will state my goals so that you can make proper recommendations, since a lot of what equipment you need is based on what you shoot. I run a corporate media production company, but hire shooters nationwide on lower budgets, usually shooting with DSLR setups and other lower level HD cameras, so it's unlikely that I would be using the Scarlet-X for corporate work too much. I have a 5D Mark III myself that I take out on simple B-roll shoots and I like it. Final delivery of most of our work is Web video, with occasional local television spots. I bought my Scarlet-X for possible future feature film work, higher end corporate work, and fun projects like this summer's short film I am planning. The short will be shot over two days, mostly interior (6 scenes inside, 2 outside), and I have no reason that I would ever be shooting for a long duration. In other words, no documentary work or reality TV work, so the need for a very long run time continuously or tons of storage space is probably not there.

So far, here is what I have:
Scarlet-X package that came with the brain, 2 Redvolts, the 5" monitor, AC adapter, DSMC side handle, 1.8" REDMAG, etc.
18-85mm RED Zoom lens

Here is what I'm thinking of getting:
O'Connor Ultimate 1030D Fluid Head and 30L Tripod System Package (my DP recommended this, at a cost of just under $8,500; he thinks it will be great for professional use on a rig like this)
Red Pro Matte Box w/Cage & Side Flags
Redmote (necessary pretty much, right?)
REDMag 1.8" SSD 4-pack (64 gigs)
Redvolt Charger (Quad)
Redvolt 4-Pack - should I get two four packs? Or maybe a four pack plus 2 extra singles?

Someone recommended this shoulder rig: http://x.corecommerce.com/RED/Shoulder-Rigs-RED/Shoulder-Rig-Base-Black-Leather.html

What I don't know ANYTHING about is the rail support and rail systems, or what the heck I need there. Or what else I might need? I want to keep costs reasonable, but I'm willing to pay a bit more sometimes to make sure we have a smooth shoot. For instance, I don't want to be short on batteries or media. That just doesn't make sense long-term.

Is media offload to a laptop (pre-editing) very easy, like a Compact Flash card is from a 5D, or is there a lot involved? In other words, can my DP and I handle it ourselves to save on cost, or do I really need to hire a DIT? I need to keep a small crew on this shoot so I'm trying to cut on positions that aren't absolutely required. I have a MacBook Pro that's still very fast (it was top of the line two years ago) and has a 500 gig solid state drive, so I was thinking during the day I can offload to the laptop first, then maybe backup to an external hard drive on the shoot as well. At the end of the day I can backup to a CalDigit HDOne with 8 TBs that I have at home, so data should be very secure after each shoot day.

Any and all thoughts here would be welcome... this is tough for me because as much as I try to be knowledgeable about each area of production, the specifics of putting together a professional camera package like this are a bit lost on me. I am not a DP by any means, and whatever I shoot is no-lighting-required B-roll for low budget clients. I hire professionals for the rest of the work and rely on their kits.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to ask, are there any reasonable priced solutions for a follow focus? Again I don't know that much about these types of things, except that it seems like professional DPs are going to want to have a follow focus and matte box, no?
 
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Jonathan, if you have some spare time, I would recommend reading Phil's Skully thread http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?69226-Red-Scarlet-X-316-quot-Skully-quot

Here's my take on your set up:

You only need the REDMOTE, if you want to control the camera on a jib or crane for example, if you cant reach the sidehandle or touchscreen in tight corners or if it really suits your workflow because of the crew. I love it but don't need it that often, if I can stand behind the camera myself.

If you have a finite budget, I'd invest the money in the clutch (maybe and get the 509HD Manfrotto fluid head with carbon sticks.
If you have the budget get the oConnor.

Handheld rig: see above. There's a lot of options but I personally love the RED clutch. Get the battle tested if you're on a budget. If you rarely go handheld maybe your option is sufficient. Never tried it though. Check the scarlet rig thread for thousand other options.

If you already have 2 red volts, get a 4 pack + 2 more and the quad charger. That should get you through the day if you can charge while shooting. If you're shooting out in the woods a lot get up to two more 4 packs on top of that. 4 batteries = 2hrs - 3hrs of power if you're shooting on 4.0x and use the power saving options. So with 4 x 4packs you get 8 hrs of shooting without any power saving.

More in the next post.
 
Red mags:

for copying itself you don't really need anything sophisticated. Some people even use netbooks with USB3 to get it done.
Use checksum copying (if you don't know how, get one of the ready to buy apps to do it for you) and you're pretty much ok. Best to get at least 2 to 3 copies per mag on different drives. I don't advise to format the Mag before the second copy is done! You can do it yourself, but it will cut down on your shooting time, because you're busy copying. After all it just depends on your shooting style. But as to what you described this might work for you. This said, this is almost the same thing I did with DSLR shooting. It's just more data to cope with.

A 64GB mag gives you a bit less than 25min in highest quality recording time for 4K. Then you should calculate to see if that suits your shooting style.

Follow focus and matte box
Here it's important to know what lenses you're shooting on.
Basically you're mattebox is to keep you from getting lens flares and for holding the filters (which you also need: ND and IR) the rod system is to attach any accessories like follow focus, mattebox if its not clip on and additional stuff.
For follow focus the oConnor cff-1 is a safe decision. For lower budget the redrock micro blue seems a good value.
If you're shooting on DSLR lenses, you need focus gear with that.

Do you record sound on site externally or do you want the scarlet to record it? Get at least something small to record a sync track on it if you record on site.
 
Thank you

Thank you

Thank you so much, that's really helpful! I think I will spring for the O'Connor because I believe that long-term, having a great tripod is a good investment that is worthwhile for a quality image.

For batteries, I think it would be wise right now to buy just for the upcoming projects I am filming (where 8 batteries is sufficient, as you say) and then in the future, if I need more, I could always buy more. But no reason right now to go crazy with more than I would need. That was super helpful advice on offloading the media, though. Great to know, so back up the media at least twice before you delete a mag. That's a good call. I think we could also probably get away with only offloading mags for the first half of the day, because if we have 5 cards, and we're shooting narrative, it's honestly not likely that we would we go through them all more than once in a day. I would say it's even quite possible that 5 is enough for an entire day's filming. I've had a lot of 12 hour days where the total actual filming time was only 45 to 75 minutes, because the rest was lighting, rehearsals, production design, company moves, etc. Plus, for a 10 minute short, even filming at 10 times your final output, you are looking at 100 minutes. Spread over two days that is 50 minutes per day. If you filmed at 15 times, assuming my actors just aren't really nailing it as I want and I have to be more patient (possible, since I'm probably filming non-SAG for the first time since... well, film school), that would still be only 75 minutes per day, or an amount that 5 64 gig cards could handle. So we may not have to clear mags until the end of the day, although I'm paranoid and I like the idea of backing them up as soon as they are finished.

My biggest question, and I ask this literally not knowing how this stuff works at all (I'm really just a writer-director-producer, I rarely shoot anything, and the Scarlet is so much more sophisticated than what I've actually used, like the HVX200, XL-1s back in the day, and now my Canon 5D), is how much of a difference in quality / experience are we talking about between a $3,300 O'Connor follow focus unit and a $600 or so Red Rock Micro Blue follow focus? I have to admit that the difference in price could be very substantial for me, because I'm not willing to spend more than $20,000 to complete my Scarlet package all-in. So right now, I have a "functional" Scarlet package in the sense that it can *technically* shoot a shot, but that's about it. Clearly, batteries and media are essential and non-negotiable. A better tripod is essential (although I could go with a lower end one, let's call that an area where I'm willing to spend). That may leave items like the Redmote, some form of shoulder rig, matte box unit, and follow focus as items that are highly recommended but not essential. So among those, perhaps it is important to identify what is most essential, and to me that would seem to be the follow focus unit right? Indoors, a matte box doesn't matter as much right? It's just much more useful for cutting light out of the edges of the camera that you don't want in your picture, if I am understanding correctly, and for putting filters in outdoors especially that help reduce glare. It still seems like a matte box is a pretty essential thing. So then all of that being said, where do you choose to say, "Ok we need the absolute best matte box that money can buy," or "We need the best follow focus that money can buy," or "Hmm, well I guess for the follow focus this budget option is sufficient for our purposes."

EDIT: Excuse me, what I meant is $20,000 MORE than I've already spent, which is about $25,000 (Scarlet-X TI package plus RED Zoom 18-85mm). It's my understanding that $45,000 including a tripod isn't an unreasonably low amount to get a solid but not spectacular package right? I am sure that going forward, in the future, I could add even more gear as needed. It's also possible that we could say, alright, what do we need here and what could I rent in town that's just better to rent when needed rather than buy it? But it seems like things along the lines of a follow focus and matte box are going to be used always, so I'm not sure about the wisdom of renting them. Unless you're going to rent the entire package, and that's not what we're talking about. In case someone wonders, my limited usage of my Scarlet would indicate someone like me should rent the camera, not buy it. I realize that. What happened is that two X-mases ago, my dad gave me the Scarlet-X package (he asked if there is anything I really wanted that could help for my business, and let's just say he gifts great gifts), and because I was being frugal fully realizing that it wasn't worth spending my money on completing the package, I just kept the stuff unopened. Then last X-mas, I asked for the 18-85mm Zoom lens. At this point, I just figured alright, I'm more than half-way there, let's get this thing functional.
 
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