Shooting for first time with Redrock Encore this weekend

Reviews

I received it about 10 days ago but not had a moment to catch my breath since then. I have a bit of free time this weekend so going to do some filming with it mounted on my EX1 or 3. Probably nothing too ambitious as this commercial I shot this week has sapped most of my creative juices and tomorrow am filming zombies rampant in London!

P1000074It’s a great looking piece of kit, love the rugged Peli case and the rods (my M2 is coming up to 3 years old, so this new gear looks great). Still got the old lunchbox look but I guess that gives it the upgradability from the M2.

P1000071P1000075P1000072I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a chance to review this as it has been out for a while and I had missed the boat with it a bit being so DSLR fixated right now with my new toys, but I had so many people ask me to review it that I got one and will report on what I think about it.

After this I still have LOADS to review. Still got the super affordable DOF adaptors from Jag35 to come (sorry for that delay, do check out Tom Guilmette’s review of it though), which start at a ludicrous $99!

Picture 1

After that got the glidetrack, glidecam 2000 and other things to sit down and test properly. Sorry for the delay on these. It’s just I have to do it in my free time and I have very little of that right now!

EDIT: Due to time pressures and work stuff getting in the way, I didn’t get a chance to do the test today. Apologies. As soon as I can I will.

Want to learn how to create the film look? Click below.

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18 comments

  1. WOW! What a great product! That Jag35Pro sure is something else. Super affordable and since it’s black, it matches with all my outfits! I can take it anywhere! That Tom Guilmette guy and Mr. Bloom sure know what they’re talking about.
    I think everyone should own one, or two, or….

  2. I’ve had my Redrock M2 Encore for a couple months now and I’ve really enjoyed it. After shooting several projects with the 5D MkII though, I’d rather not have to choose between the two.

    More often than not, I could really care less about the spinning plastic disk inside the ‘lunch box’ part of the kit. When I first got it, I had some problems with it not spinning correctly. The grain effect looks good, but more often than not I’d rather just shoot without it.

  4. Cool! I just wanted to order the DSLR cinema bundle at Redrock for my 5d mark ii and was also considering getting the M2 and the EOS lens adaptor for the EX3.. Now I am dying to watch your report about this piece and will wait for my order ☺

  6. Hi Philip.

    I heard that there are tremendous edge-to-edge sharpness problems with the latest Encore M2 version when used with the EX-1. I witnessed a shoot with the latest model and latest optics on an EX1 an they had to battle a sharpness falloff over the whole right part of the image by constantly back-focussing the EX1. I wonder if you experience that issue too.
    Regards – Karl Rasmussen

    1. The Encore is trash. I had it for my EX3, and yes it’s pretty much impossible to get edge to edge sharpness without sacrificing focus in the middle.Plus the bajillion different hex keys you have to use to adjust it.

        1. I returned it 3 weeks after I purchased it and didn’t keep any footage due to it was useless and could not be used for the projects. I ended up getting the Canon 5D Mark II instead which as far as I am concerned, is a much better investment and complements the EX3 quite nicely.=)

          Here’s a picture link from the private Redrock forum, one of many examples of the problem.

          http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/474/build01.jpg

          Good luck with your test’s sir. It’s no Letus that’s for sure.

        1. Yea I know all about the achromat, under contract from Redrock to actually not talk about it and my experiences with it, lol. (I live near their home base)

          Other issues consist of constant adjusting due to the unit is a bunch of pieces with thin pins holding it all together.Just too clumsy of a kit in my opinion, especially on a professional set.Just made more sense to me to get the 5D Mark II and skip all of the tweaking.

  8. Checking everyday for your Redrock Encore Review. You are a busy guy…please keep us posted about when to expect this review. Some of us are waiting to pull the trigger on the purchase of a Letus Elite vs. the Redrock Encore (same price range) based on your experience. No pressure there! On behalf of all of your followers, we appreciate your honesty and efforts in spite of your alliance with Letus in all things DOF.

    1. As soon as I can Chris I will. There is no “alliance”, it’s down to the best tool for the job. For some time now Letus has been the best tool for me. Same with cameras…everything.

  9. Hi all – some interesting comments.

    I think some of the confusion is around the transition to our newly formulated achromat for the EX. Both Alex and Martin/Karl’s experience was with the prototype achromat (Alex, incidentally that was under NDA with you). All current Encores are now shipping with a newly formulated achromat that is fantastic on the EX series cameras as well as others. a customer sent us this animated gif example of stock lens and EX with Redrock Micro Encore: http://www.redrockmicro.com/pmw-ex1_redrock.gif

    Karl – since you were involved in the shoot with Martin I assume you also knew that he was using a prototype achromat (hand built) and Martin’s eventual fix was to simply reseat the prototype achromat that had simply come loose. With the release version Martin has reported no problems at all.

    Alex, I know you tested the previous achromat, and we made the prototype version available to you. Based on your reporting back to us as “good” I assumed you used the new version, but listening to your results you report here, it sounds like you didn’t. I am happy to meet with you personally and let’s set up the Encore and show the results. We can even meet up at EVS and if they are willing I’d be happy to put it side by side with any Letus model as well.

    Phil – I also offered to come help you set up the adapter. Let me know, happy to assist if need be.

    Cheers

    Brian

  10. Hi Phil, still haven’t had time to test the redrock micro encore?

    I was glad to see brian from redrock reply to some negative experiences had by some people…QUOTE – “I am happy to meet with you personally and let’s set up the Encore and show the results. We can even meet up at EVS and if they are willing I’d be happy to put it side by side with any Letus model as well.

    Phil – I also offered to come help you set up the adapter. Let me know, happy to assist if need be.” -END QUOTE

    Sounds like someone who is very confident in their product.

    Just a question to Brian, the jpg of resolution chart looks excellent, although there appears to reveal some softening of image on the right hand side, especially the bottom right, Is this in the realms of acceptability across the board for dof adapters. Or may it be a set up issue?

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