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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-X AL #610 - Grand Rapids, Michigan.

M

Matt Johnston

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Jan 27, 2008
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Arrived this morning. Stoked!

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From the box, immediately to....

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and

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But wait...

It's 40 degrees in January, raining, and blowing all over. Which means I will sit inside and stare at my scarlet right now. I have no Touch LCD, no Sidehandle. And the only way I can monitor HDMI is from my helicopters HDMI conversion and video downlink. Gah.

I can't wait to take this thing out and shoot beautiful wide angle (non aerials) that are not totally mush and moire. Then some aerials, and then some cable cam shots. This little box is so amazing and well rounded.

My name is Matt Johnston. I'm from Michigan but am often traveling all over the place. I specialize in field work. Action sports and doco. I have a couple custom helicopters, a custom cable cam and all sorts of other custom goodies that I travel with. I've been waiting for Scarlet since it was FIRST annouced.
 
Congrats!! I don't know if strapping my Scarlet to a remote helicopter would be the FIRST thing I did, but it looks like you're keeping it in the safeness of your living room for now. How will you power it when it's airborne? Side handle I'm assuming? So did you make that thing?
 
Brennan Clark said:
How will you power it when it's airborne? Side handle I'm assuming? So did you make that thing?
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No, it's powered directly from the helo power supply. Yup, all my aerial platforms are custom built for rugged, folding, easy repairable, field work. 2 helos, power system etc.. all folds or breaks down into 2 pelican cases. I just finished up a custom cable cam rig, that fits into one more case.
 
Finally that day you've dreamed about has come! A really wicked dream by the way!! I have always wanted to do 'helicopter' shots but have no experience flying them and I hear they can be pretty tricky to get right. Last thing I would want is to crash my new Scarlet! Since you've built the rig yourself I'm sure that you have a lot more confidence in getting shots without issues. Wide angles in 4K would be just like living life as an eagle. On a 4K screen...WOW! Please share even a teaser with us all when the first shots get made. Your type of work and rig setups are what make REDvolts the only way to go. With the upcoming dual module attached, you could be in the air for as long as was needed to get some pretty spectacular footage. Cheers to the future of your work -Sky's the limit!
 
Congrats Matt! Hope to see your first aerial shots.
 
Congrats! Can't wait to see what you shoot!
 
Congrats Matt... do you mind sharing your SO#? We did a remote heli shoot using a 28mm Nikon AIS f1.8 lens with a Canon adapter with awesome results. The lens is really small and light, which has obvious benefits on the remote copter and it resolves to 4K+. If you don't already, you can snag one at KEH pretty cheap.
 
Carelton Holt said:
Congrats Matt... do you mind sharing your SO#? We did a remote heli shoot using a 28mm Nikon AIS f1.8 lens with a Canon adapter with awesome results. The lens is really small and light, which has obvious benefits on the remote copter and it resolves to 4K+. If you don't already, you can snag one at KEH pretty cheap.
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SO was 1121

I got the brain, station, redvolts, travel and AC. No Sidehandle OR touchscreen. Which is kinda lame.
 
I have received one of our touchscreens, all our memory, Redvolts and a few other msc accessories, but still waiting for a brain (in more ways than one)
 
Hi Matt, welcome to the party.

How much fly time do you get out of your heli?
 
I am jealous and happy for you! Now if our state can just leave us alone long enough to finish building it's film industry... ;-)
 
Steve Tenuto said:
Hey Matt, would love to see pictures of your cablecam setup!? Thanks.
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Here is a vid from testing earlier this month.


Gyro stabbed gimbal with Nex 5N. With the Scarlet (and other larger cams) I move up to the larger gimbal. The vid is from my first real test on cheap stretchy line, before I packaged up all the wiring and goodies :) So, it looks a mess. I also hadn't re-configured the gyros on the gimbal, or messed with traction control and braking on the drive or anything back then. That's all working well now.

Here is a still grab (AVCHD 1080p don't kill me) from the cable in use on a shoot last weekend on 600ft of cable at ~50mph:

ChrisFrontOn.jpg


Shot started as far back as you can see where the road turns left, and ended about 10 frames after this still grab. Cable cam is my little custom build. So that it can be quickly deployed. It packs into 1 smallish case, and I can rig it with 1 assistant in ~20-30 minutes.

Same shoot, but from my smaller helicopter setup. Again AVCHD 1080p grab. Can't wait til I can grab truly great stills from 4k source.

ChrisBigSlideDown.jpg


And since neither of those shots are Scarlet Related, and to keep this thread on topic. Here is my Scarlet today:

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Justin O'Neill said:
Dude that cable setup is super sweet. With Scarlets resolution you could run that through Warp and it would be smooth as buuuuuttah. So cool.
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It actually is natively REALLY smooth. I spend a lot of time with various stabilizers for all sorts of projects, and the cable doesn't really need it. Once I changed the parameters on the gyros and switched line to no-stretch so I could tighten the heck out of it. That testing video I'm using run of the mill accessory cord, that had 6% stretch. I've since switched to technical wire alternative. It was literally me just hanging out and thinking "what an abnormally warm January day" and rigging it up down by the river. The roll gyro was completely off. I can't post the shots from the shoot I just used it on, but I can guarantee they are "No stabilization needed"

There is some unwanted oscillations during the initial movement and braking when it is geared for high-speed. But it isnt a big deal, it is only 1-2ft of line while it gets moving, or when I really slam the brakes. Once it is going, it is smooth sailing.
 
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