What to buy beyond 15.9k package for a scarlet's basic kit?

[gustavo godinho]

Hi, folks. My first post here. WTB a basic scarlet kit, almost sure it's the 15.9k one, canon mount. What else should i consider for this kit? It's basically for my personal use and for eventual rentals. I already own a zacuto monitor, a marshall monitor and a redrock rig.

 

[Brian Merlen]

More redmags and redvolts for sure, some glass... Some storage raid for editing, NLE software if you don't have it yet... Even a barebones kit is like 20k once you really think about all the cards and volts you need at a minimum. Plus other accessories, sticks, glass, etc, adds up.

 

[Arnold F.]

I would say an NLE IF you also want to be an editor as well as a shooter. I'm finding the price of being able to edit, or even properly look at the footage, is too high. I'll stick with shooting.

More redmags and redvolts for sure, some glass... Some storage raid for editing, NLE software if you don't have it yet... Even a barebones kit is like 20k once you really think about all the cards and volts you need at a minimum. Plus other accessories, sticks, glass, etc, adds up.

 

[Andrew PC Smith]

Wish someone would've told me, if you're going to be using Adobe Premiere 5.5 for editing, you need a high-end nVidia card to enable real-time playback with CUDA working for Mercury Engine. As it stands, I have one of the fastest iMacs you can get with a 2GB AMD Radeon card, 16GB ram and playback can sometimes be sluggish even at 1/4 res. Also I agree with what Brian said.

 

[Tan Kang Wei]

Wish someone would've told me, if you're going to be using Adobe Premiere 5.5 for editing, you need a high-end nVidia card to enable real-time playback with CUDA working for Mercury Engine. As it stands, I have one of the fastest iMacs you can get with a 2GB AMD Radeon card, 16GB ram and playback can sometimes be sluggish even at 1/4 res. Also I agree with what Brian said.

You don't have to get a high-end card. A $90 card will actually suffice, you'll just have to replace a config file so CS5.5 recognizes it and enables Mercury Engine. Here's a good site I found with instructions - http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

Not sure how easy it'd be to replace a GPU in an iMac but if you manage to, it's worth it.

 

[Aaron De Pry]

The Hack is really easy to do and works great, the only catch is that if you use a really lightweight card it can crash under high stress. I have heard a rumor that CS 6 might be able to use the ATI cards for streaming so you might want to wait and see what happens.

 

[Michael Panfeld]

Glass, as in both lenses and a basic filter kit (NDs, pol, IR cut or Hot Mirror). Matte box. Cases to store/transport gear so it stays nice. Unless you are doing silent movies: a good mic. And more importantly, a good book/video/seminar on how to use a mic and set levels.

 

[Nick Wernham]

The Hack is really easy to do and works great, the only catch is that if you use a really lightweight card it can crash under high stress. I have heard a rumor that CS 6 might be able to use the ATI cards for streaming so you might want to wait and see what happens.

My great hope is that we get some benefit from SLI or even 3-way SLI configurations in CS6. 3xGTX580 = very close to Red Rocket-level performance?

 

[Les Dittert]

The GPU / graphics card does nothing to accelerate the plain non effects playback. This is because the RED SDK that is used to get to the R3D does nothing with the GPU.
The Mercury engine GPU stuff helps re-sizing and effects layered onto the video.
The slow part is decoding the R3D compression. The debayer is also non GPU, but it is not as hard to do as the decompression.

I just wanted to remind new users of this.

 

[Brian Merlen]

Plus insurance on whatever gear you buy...It all adds up to a lot once you account for all the bits and pieces. If your lucky you already have some of what you will need, so then its not so overwhelming.

 

[Arnold F.]

Technically, it wouldn't be silent if you have a mic but you're going to need a Sound Mixer if you're doing anything except b-roll/ambient sound. The mic you get need only be good enough for that. I don't think we want to imply the choices are silent and proper sound, with only a camera mic as the hurdle.

Glass, as in both lenses and a basic filter kit (NDs, pol, IR cut or Hot Mirror). Matte box. Cases to store/transport gear so it stays nice. Unless you are doing silent movies: a good mic. And more importantly, a good book/video/seminar on how to use a mic and set levels.