Red - controls,menus,connections,etc.

kikndrummer

kikndrummer

Active member
Just curious if anyone has seen or has pictures of how you'd actually operate this camera. The over design seems alright....I would be a little concerned in populated areas if I was trying to shoot documentary footage....some people may think it was something other than a camera!

If the picture quality is what they claim it to be that's awesome, but it just doesn't seem like a functional camera out in the field....as far as I can see now anyway. I was hoping someone may have a pic of controls or the layout they plan to use to operate the Red.
 
the controls and layout are completely in development... so they are expected to change. Your suggestions probally would be valuable if you wanted to share, Jim is listening.
 
thanks for the fast reply Jarred....I will give that some thought and post some constructive feature requests. ...as I'm sure many others will too.

Maybe as a side product Red may make some mini replica Red metal sculptures for some of us desk jockey's out there too!! :)

Tony
 
they gave me a little titanium desk sculpture when i put down a reservation. everyone gets one if they reserve.
 
>>Maybe as a side product Red may make some mini replica Red metal sculptures for some of us desk jockey's out there too!!

Jim's working on one now. It'll be $9.95........and shoot 2k......
 
I still don't know what kind of screen RED's going to use (of course), but I think they should take a long, hard look at Silicon Imaging's design for their new camera. I don't know yet about the embedded operating system (although it might help if you're trying to support RAID and HD streaming functionality) but I think the touch-screen has a lot of potential. Imagine a touch-sensitive screen with one big dial next to it, where you tap the shutter speed/focus/whatever and just roll the dial to switch settings. If you could access all the basic/common functions this way, you could have a special menu button which would go into further details, like color gamma controls and black levels et al.
All in all, the best menu designs are 1) Intuitive 2) Fast 3) Comprehensive, in that order. Make a camera where the most used functions are the easiest to find, and one thing logically leads to another, and it'll be perfect.
 
touchscreen is a very cool idea... they can be a little bit of a pain in the ass though, so the buttons would need to be big and as you suggested there would need to be a hard scroll and select buttons.
 
My Pref would be: Try to put as much vital buttons on the body (as much as it fits without wrecking the exellent design) and shove the rest in a touch screen menu enviroment. Some vital controls could be put on the (Black stripes) if the monitor is a 4:3.

My only advice would be to put a lot of thought into this, very very important!

/A
 
If I'm using this touch-screen as my on-board monitor I don't know if I really want fingerprints all over it. I don't know if many of you play Nintendo DS, but after a while it gets annoying having to clean the touch screen portion just so you can see it without distracting marks all over it.

Voice commands a la the Enterprise computer on the other hand...!
 
Jarred Land said:
the controls and layout are completely in development... so they are expected to change. Your suggestions probally would be valuable if you wanted to share, Jim is listening.
Click to expand...

In that case.... :D


Unless you're going for something menu driven, it would be nice to see a retractable knob for the gain like the Canon XL series has. But put it in terms of ISO instead of decibles; "50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600"

That's my only suggestion for now. hope it was valuable. :)
 
In addition to the on camera buttons and touch screen add a wireless connection so the camera can be programmed from a PDA, laptop or cellphone. Ok, maybe not a cellphone but you get the idea.
 
evexon said:
In addition to the on camera buttons and touch screen add a wireless connection so the camera can be programmed from a PDA, laptop or cellphone. Ok, maybe not a cellphone but you get the idea.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just me, but I can't see touch screen, voice control, or wireless control as being a valuable asset on set for a camera. I just don't really see how that could improve the workflow or experience. :/
I'm probably wrong though.


But the wireless has definite possibilities. Maybe you could sync timecodes wirelessly between cameras.

Seems like kind of a waste though for just that one feature(maybe not).
Maybe there are other ways the cameras could communicate wirelessly, like sending scene information and settings.
Does wireless-G have the bandwidth to send 2 channels of uncompressed audio? You could keep microphones from being tethered to the camera yet at the same time not have to sync up sound later in post!

Ohh, the possibilities. :D
 
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FatBird19 said:

Maybe it's just me, but I can't see touch screen, voice control, or wireless control as being a valuable asset on set for a camera. I just don't really see how that could improve the workflow or experience. :/
I'm probably wrong though.


But the wireless has definite possibilities. Maybe you could sync timecodes wirelessly between cameras.

Seems like kind of a waste though for just that one feature(maybe not).
Maybe there are other ways the cameras could communicate wirelessly, like sending scene information and settings.
Does wireless-G have the bandwidth to send 2 channels of uncompressed audio? You could keep microphones from being tethered to the camera yet at the same time not have to sync up sound later in post!

Ohh, the possibilities. :D
Click to expand...
wireless has its issues.. so as a full runtime live feed for critical data i dont think its the best bet.. for settings or timecode sync sure.. but for actually carrying important data constantly its not the best bet.

I do like the crosstalk idea though.. you could share GPS relationships for camera positions and motion control on multiple cameras, sync things like a digital camera slate (one of my requests high on the list) and even analyze the exposure relationships across multiple cameras.
 
Jarred Land said:
wireless has its issues.. so as a full runtime live feed for critical data i dont think its the best bet.. for settings or timecode sync sure.. but for actually carrying important data constantly its not the best bet.

I do like the crosstalk idea though.. you could share GPS relationships for camera positions and motion control on multiple cameras, sync things like a digital camera slate (one of my requests high on the list) and even analyze the exposure relationships across multiple cameras.
Click to expand...

haha. Yeah after posting that I was remembering how fickle wireless can be. I was blinded by excitement. :D

But as far as other crosstalk features go, the possibilities are endless. Someone could think on that for a while and come up with multitude of features for wireless communication.

You mentioned sharing camera positions. Can you get a 3d vector position calculation from wireless?

Another thing that might be cool is the ability to send a list of clips from multiple cameras to be used later in editing. That might be to cumbersome though.
 
FatBird19 said:
You mentioned sharing camera positions. Can you get a 3d vector position calculation from wireless?

Another thing that might be cool is the ability to send a list of clips from multiple cameras to be used later in editing. That might be to cumbersome though.
Click to expand...

You can with a sensitive integrated GPS and of course with wireless triangulation. Could all be external of course if the format had a wrapper containing some data.
 
Jarred Land said:
You can with a sensitive integrated GPS and of course with wireless triangulation. Could all be external of course if the format had a wrapper containing some data.
Click to expand...

As long as the programming for RED is open for expansion and its design and technology are able, there are many many ideas that could be implemented even after the RED is already out.
 
I realise already that there is an underwater housing manufacturer in the frame with a potential plan for an enclosure for this camera. This would be an awesome solution to us 'wet filmers' if this unit offers evrything mentioned so far. Nothing really constructive to say at the moment except I really am hoping this thing becomes a reality. I understand its almost a personal project for Jim to develop RED so let's all hope this determination pulls through.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
The LCD doubling as touchscreen does have potential cleanliness issues. I think it's going to depend a lot on what this amazing new plan for Focus Assist is. Personally, I know for a fact I'll be using an external monitor every time I shoot with this thing, so the LCD would just be a very rudimentary backup for the operator.
But here's a thought - maybe a 2-sided LCD - you can flip out, see picture from both sides of the camera (instead of always having to crane the neck if you're on the wrong end) and use one as a hi-rez focus screen and one as a one-look stat readout/menu system. Of course you could snap back in to the case at any time, since the LCD is DETACHABLE!! Leaving either side facing out.
Before you poo-poo cost, plenty of $100 celphones are coming with two full-color LCD displays these days. So it's do-able.
 
NO touch screen for the love of god! In the sony cameras I had with touch screen LCDs, that was always the first thing to brake. Besides, fiddling with menus on the touch screens was always clumsy and a pain in the ass. Not the kind of experience I want when doing important settting up on set. Really I can't stand Touch screens. I really can't.
 
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