Back in the Fall of 2011, fellow Orange County Red User Justin Nguyen initiated the idea of a Red User get together. The goal was simple – just to get as many of the OC Red owners of Red Ones, Epics, and Scarlets together to share experiences and tips. Well it finally happened last night and we were happy to host it at our Santa Ana facility.
About 20 folks showed up (see picture below of most of them) – most were Red Owners, but several were working DP’s and crew that just wanted to learn more about Red. We spent about 3 hours socializing, and then held a round table discussion about all thing from prep, to rigging, to workflow, to post. Everyone loved sharing all of our unique and common experiences with each other. It was especially helpful to see the various rigs, lenses and accessories that everyone has discovered and are using in the field.
POLLING: We even tossed in a few informal polls on favorite workflow tools. To my surprise, the majority were now using Adobe Premiere. At VR, we certainly own Premier, but are enjoying our upgraded Avid Media Composer Systems running 6.0 and still working with FCP 3 everyday. For backup in the field, most everyone is using finder drag and drop, and back at their facilities, it was 80/20 finder copy over R3D Manager. Everyone was making dual copies when possible for backup and safety, Red owners, were happy with the performance or the cameras in the various shooting conditions. For most projects, Epic shooters are shooting 10:1, but for web deliverables, a few were using 12 or 13:1. We generally shoot between 8:1 (green screen) and 10:1.
Contribute your own experience by completing the poll on the right —->
We will collect the results and share them on our site.
My favorite “hands on” were with the Wooden Camera bits and the 3rd party Canon mount still lenses. Also super cool to see half a dozen OC based Epics and a Scarlet in our studio.We plan to do it on a semi-regular basis, and Justin and I talked about scheduling another around NAB time. If anyone wants to join us, drop me a note here or on reduser.net
BTW: I received our Canon mount for one of our Epics today. It is way cool. I ordered a second one already and I expect to get a lot of use from them
Both Canon and our Red Digital neighbors are holding press events tonight promising big announcements. What will they be? Both companies have been tight lipped and their is lots of industry speculation.
Will Red introduce Pro Res as a recording option? Will they deliver Scarlet? Will Jim buy Canon? Canon buy Red? Will Canon introduce the long awaited dedicated video camera based on the Canon 5D mark II large sensor? What is your guess? The clock is ticking.
Here is an article published in the Orange County Business Journal discussing a little Red innovations and the pending annoucements.
We have been happy RED users since 2007 and it is our camera of choice for many things, especially interviews. In fact, we have gotten so spoiled by the 4K image that we seldom change framing during the shoot – instead relying on re-framing in post. Even when we are finishing in 1080P we have can go from cowboy (waist to top of head) to a medium close-up with no (ZERO) image loss. It is super cool.
Now enters the DLSR and AF100 and other large sensor cameras. Sure you can get great depth of field, but so far everything in this arena brings compromise. In the case of the DSLR’s you have moire, poor audio recording and zero audio monitoring, and inferior h264 codec. The AF100 fares better on the audio front – working like a conventional video camera but still lacking on the recording format with AVCHD compression. NOTE: We are expecting our Atomos Ninja recorders in a few days so we will see how that enhances the recording capability.
Here is a frame grab from a recent interview we did for a corporate client. I lit it using a Litepanel 1×1 flood as a key, a Litepanel 1×1 spot as a hair/edge light, a window (cloudy day) as a fill, and a dedo projector for the background pattern. The shoot was for a one-time use as a meeting and no potential for repurposing into future programs and the result met our needs.
Able Cine has built a great rep as a go to source for modern day videographers and cinematographers. They stock not only the cameras and major hardware that we all need, but many of essential bits and pieces to fill out a package. Sometimes even developing their own hardware to fill a void such as their lens collimator. My most favorite tool is their field of view calculator which allows you t o compare the field of view (FOV) of particular lens of one sensor to another. For instance, if you want to see how much a 50mm lens covers on a RED One Camera compared to a Arri Alexa this is the tool for you. It’s mobile friendly and works great on iPhones and iPads –iIt even warrants a weblink on my iphone home screen.It’s free, check it out here.
To read more about it, Abe Cine has this overview.
While not everyone agrees on the details, most will agree that the RED ONE revolutionized digital cinema, either directly or indirectly. Nearly two and half years after it’s introduction RED turned the industry on it’s head again by offering a cost effective major upgrade to their cameras. This upgrade to the Mysterium X sensor has the potential to radically improve the camera already in the hands of it’s owners — some owners, like us, had their RED cameras since 2007. This is a big deal, something never done by Sony, Panasonic, Ikegami, Arri in the history of the industry. Sure you could repair a camera or replace a part – put I have never been able to essentially upgrade a camera I already own without buying an entire new model!
Well? Did RED do it? Does the Mysterium X outshine the Mysterium, and is it worth the investment?
We decided to put it to the test and results are posted below. Here are some stills that represent the tests:
Low Light Compare - Tungsten
Mysterium on left, MX on right, both cameras at ISO 2000. You can immediately see the noise floor and additional image information.
This vehicle headlights and dusk shot is dramatic. Notice the low noise in the MX image, the better sensitivity and contrast range (ability to handle brights and darks). ISO 2000.
We exposed this scene at proper exposure and then opened up 3 stops to make the recording. Using REDcine FLUT controls in POST we wanted to see if scene could be recovered. As you can easily see, the MX was easily recovered (look at the blown out leaves in the sky if the before and after) and would have been completely useable with some additional color correction, but the Mysterium was missing so much information that it would have been impossible to correct. Both cameras were at ISO 800.
The video clips speak for themselves. Enjoy. Both clips are the same, We are testing out the both YouTube and Exposure Room – let me know which player works best for you.
On Exposure Room (download link available – file is 250mb)
On YouTube. Make sure you choose the 720P version and zoom to full screen for best view.
We believe the MX is worth the investment and have upgraded both of our cameras to the new MX sensor. Looking towards the future, our upgraded RED ONES will be a nice compliment to the Scarlet and the EPIC cameras.
Details for the Camera Test and the processing:
We upgraded our camera #15 to Mysterium X and held back our second camera, #16 to Mysterium. The test was conducted with gathering of some industry friends at our OC facilities on Feb. 26, 2010. The tests were informal, yet provide valuable insight into the major differences between the Mysterium and Mysterium X sensor upgrade. The firmware is a beta release, as is the RED Cine program used to convert the R3D files to PRORES and to export snapshot TIFF images.
The process for the test was simple – the same set-up was used for each cameras series of shots. We used the same lighting, tripod, subjects and lenses. Between each test, as few minutes of time lapse and the subject movements and poses were similar, though not exact.
Our goal was to demonstrate any differences between the two sensors. We were expecting a difference in the noise floor and the contrast range. Both were evident and significant to us, see if you agree by reviewing the representative samples we provided. A log of the complete test is available here.
Both cameras set to factory defaults and black shaded before test. Shooting 4K 2:1, RED Code 42 Camera B is Serial No. 16 “Connor”, Mysterium Build 21.4.1 Camera A is Serial No. 15 “RIpley”, Mysterium X upgrade, Build 30.2.4 White balance was matched in Red Cine and all clips were set to REDcolor and REDgamma. No other corrections were made.
The R3D files were exported from REDcine as Apple Pro Res HQ, then brought into FCP. The video files were edited in Final Cut Pro using Apple Pro Res HQ and then exported as a reference file. The reference file was exported to H264 1080P using Telestream Episode. The H264 file was uploaded to web video server where they did their own conversions.
For the split screen comparisons, I exported TIFF still frames from REDcine and, using Photoshop created the split screen and text overlays. The files were exported from Photoshop as TIFF files and then converted to 80% quality JPEG files. As a reminder to all, TIFF single frame exports from the Red 4K 2:1 RAW file are 48MB each frame. The JPEG exports seen her are only 2.5MB so some details are missing as a result. If you are interested in seeing the TIFF files I can make links available on request, however, I feel the additional artifacts don’t distract from the comparative results, but always always happy to hear your thoughts on this.
Thanks to all of our colleagues that participated in the test at our Orange County facilities and share our enthusiasm for RED technology.
PS: We are happy to say that our both of our cameras are now equipped with the MX sensors and are available for rent.
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