Why (formerly not) Canon EOS lenses?

[Mark Tyson]

Eric;

Is this planned for both the Canon & Nikon mounts?

Mark Tyson

 

[Erik Widding]

Is this planned for both the Canon & Nikon mounts?

Canon first. Nikon later. On the industrial side, we have promised Nikon by November. This is a conservative promise. The RED version will be available shortly after the industrial version.

 

[ericyoung]

Canon for now. Nikon in the future - more complicated as the Nikon lenses do not have integral focus motors, so will require a Birger mount to have some sort of motor drive.

Edit: Oops. Erik beat me to it! :biggrin:

 

[ColinSmith]

Zoom Control.... There will be motorized zoom supported through the use of an external motor, and using the encoder already in the lens we should be able to interpolate a pretty accurate zoom position in fractions of a mm.

Wow, surprised
I suppose it was always possible to rig, but I'm pleasantly surprised that is is accurate...... be interesting to see for sure - things keep on leaping ahead...

 

[Mark Tyson]

Thanks for the rapid response and great news.

Mark Tyson

 

[Clint Johnson]

Thanks for fielding a few questions. There will be a few more features than we initially promised. We will have the details out in the next few days... I promise. A few features that are going to add to the RED specific mount...

BlueTooth... we tested it today, and it works fantastically. No latency issues that we noticed. Our hand controller will also have BT. This will be an open protocol, so anything that can do 1SPP protocol over BT (basically an emulated serial port, the most basic profile) can talk to the lens mount. This could be a laptop, PDA, or some third party follow focus control. The antenna will screw into the top of the mount.

Zoom Control.... There will be motorized zoom supported through the use of an external motor, and using the encoder already in the lens we should be able to interpolate a pretty accurate zoom position in fractions of a mm.

I have been quiet for a few days. We have been busy.

This keeps getting better and better! There is going to have to be a pretty substantial increase in quality with the PL cine lenses to wean me off of Birger's EOS system if it works as well as it specs.

 

[Hugh]

This all sounds fantastic, guys....

I've just spent the last 10 minutes or so reading through the whole thread, and I'm excited to see that Canon EF lenses will be supported (I had originally mis-read the RED website and thought that they already were....)

Do you know what happened to the press release on the RED site? It seems to have disappeared....

 

[Michael Hastings]

Re: additional features on Birger Mount

Re: additional features on Birger Mount

Erik:

That sounds great, keep the hits coming.

Thanks for fielding a few questions. There will be a few more features than we initially promised. We will have the details out in the next few days... I promise. A few features that are going to add to the RED specific mount...

BlueTooth...

Zoom Control.... There will be motorized zoom supported through the use of an external motor, and using the encoder already in the lens we should be able to interpolate a pretty accurate zoom position in fractions of a mm.

I have been quiet for a few days. We have been busy.

 

[Shawn Nelson]

Canon first. Nikon later. On the industrial side, we have promised Nikon by November. This is a conservative promise. The RED version will be available shortly after the industrial version.

Okay, so does this mean we can generally expect the Canon EF mount around December? I was sure hoping it would be this summer!

 

[Hugh]

Shawn: I believe he was talking specifically about the Nikon mount....

The timeline, as I understand it, is:

Canon EF (for RED)
Nikon (generic)
Nikon (for RED)

 

[Erik Widding]

Okay, so does this mean we can generally expect the Canon EF mount around December? I was sure hoping it would be this summer!

Canon EF has already been on Natasha, but this was simply a mechanical adapter with our industrial product. Production units should be available right around the time your camera ships. FCC testing may delay the legal use of BlueTooth feature. So you may have to be wired for the first few weeks.

 

[Evin Grant]

Erik, will a controler be included with the unit?

 

[Erik Widding]

Erik, will a controler be included with the unit?

This will be an a la carte option. We will offer an inexpensive controller, and know of at least one other third party option from MTL Video in Montreal.

We just bought a 3D printer, it will be here next week:
http://www.dimensionprinting.com/printers/printing-sst.shtml
So we will have some very functional beta units long before we have to finalize the design, and have molds made.

We hope to work with some of the earliest adopters to refine the ergonomics. We will reward for this Beta testing in some way or another. Just not yet sure of the plan yet.:whistling:

 

[Tom Lowe]

So this will work with EFS lenses as well?

 

[Erik Widding]

So this will work with EFS lenses as well?

Yes..

 

[Keith Brust]

Erik,

I would love to have a follow focus type knob and be able to set the close and infinity focus for a range that is comfortable. It would also be great if you could set points in between that you could either feel when you hit them or press a button and jump to the preset. I would like to be able to clamp this knob to a 15mm rod or a handle.

 

[Mark A. Beal]

Erik,

I would love to have a follow focus type knob and be able to set the close and infinity focus for a range that is comfortable. . . . I would like to be able to clamp this knob to a 15mm rod or a handle.

I had a similar thought. Perhaps something along the lines of the Bebob FOXI?

 

[Evin Grant]

I'm sure they can do better than the Foxi.

 

[Mark A. Beal]

I'm sure they can do better than the Foxi.

I would hope so. But the Foxi is only all electronic lens control I'm aware of with a follow-focus style form factor.

 

[Evin Grant]

Here's the Preston unit...