Recent work with the camera involving panning shots on long lenses, drew my eye to faint artifacts lurking beneath the image. At first I wasn't even sure what I was looking at, or that I was even seeing anything at all, but ruling out debayering, scaling and playback issues during editing, all it took was an extreme curve to confirm my suspicion: there were indeed faint vertical lines in my material - and they were not a byproduct of improper black shade calibration. In fact, I black shaded my camera multiple times before taking it to the air show the below frame is from. And even material I shot many years back, exhibits the same identical pattern when pushed similarly in a side by side comparison.

For some perspective, the attached is a 320ASA shot with the STANDARD OLPF at high noon, so pretty much as clean an image as the notoriously noisy Dragon sensor can deliver.

Alas, drawing a curve reveals the sensor's fixed pattern noise, which algorithms like Neat Video can't remove. Granted, in the normal version of this particular shot, it's pretty much invisible to the viewer, however there are instances in similar material of dimmer, afternoon and dusk landscapes captured with panning movements on long lenses, where the more pronounced lines in the pattern are just visible enough to distract the viewer's eye and make it evident that something is there. It would however require seeing the actual shot in motion to truly grasp the problem, hence my choice to exaggerate a brighter still frame with a curve instead, if only to isolate and show the pattern off. I've applied a similar curve to a sample Dragon R3D from RED's website and the FPN emerges as expected, so this isn't my camera being faulty. I did also come across a 2015 article titled "3 Things I learned Shooting the Red Dragon" where the author identifies the same exact problem of faint FPN being all over the footage. I should have done more research back in the day...

I'll admit the fact it took me a decade of owning & shooting the camera to discover this issue, probably makes it inconsequential in the final imagery. It certainly wasn't a problem in the major productions shot on this system. I never spotted it in Terrence Malick's "A Hidden Life" (which was all landscapes!) when I saw it at a 4K theatre seated in the third row from the front.

RED Dragons are pretty much forgotten, near-worthless "e-waste" cameras, only suitable to hobbyists these days, so I'm not even sure there's any educational purpose to this post. The very section of this forum dedicated to RED cameras hardly sees any activity. I am however, at a point in my artistic journey, where I pour so much mental energy in passion projects that I truly can't tolerate such defects in my the footage, so based on the attached example, I'd love to know which (digital) cameras are free of this fatal sensor flaw - beyond Alexas, from which I've stretched sample clips and they are indeed free of imperfections, and the Venice 2, which again, based on some clips from it I played with, is free of FPN, but for the time being out of my price range. 

8K resolution is very excessive for what I do but I was curious if shooting in 15:1 8K and then bouncing out a 2K finish would still leave noticeable edge artifacting.

Is the equation as simple as 8k 10:1 = 4K 5:1?

Thanks for any input.

I remember seeing pretty bad performance in older reds under tungsten lighting. Specifically lots of noise, odd colours and IR pollution. 

Is the DSMC3 komodo/raptor generation any better ? Do I need any extra IR cut filters with bigger lights ? Anyone shot with them with good old tungsten ?

thanks

Just recently I watched a test of a V-Raptor sensor shooting out against an Alexa Mini LF and was impressed by how much better RED's color philosophy has gotten to where it felt like having either image was entirely 50/50 for me. Previously being 70/30 in favor of Arri.

My question of their image has been answered with flying colors, if anyone could please answer these other 3 questions I would be very thankful:

• Are the DSMC3/Ranger era cameras doing more than 40 minutes of recording on a single battery yet?
• Has RED been continuing the practice of proprietary extortion through their overpriced memory cards? Or do they allow for good recordings in more universal media (CFast, SSD)?
• Do these cameras still overheat after running for over 2 hours?

Interested in any and all insight, please don't sugarcoat any experience with these cameras.

Thanks

I recently stumbled upon this video on Youtube: 

Basically, he compares and "old" Red Scarlet X camera to a BMPCC 6K, and actually ends up prefering the former. Just based on how the sensor feels.

I currently have a BMPCC 4K and I'm fairly happy with it for now (I jumped from the 8-bit slog of the Sony A7 III), but sometimes I struggle with the highlights, trying to not blow them. Dark scenes are hard, as there is some noticeable noise. Playing with BRAW has been wonderful, so it would be hard for me to go back.

I'm wondering, would a camera such as the Red Scarlet X would be a good upgrade? I think with some patience it would not be difficult to find a good deal and probably more affordable than modern options: Komodo (which I've read mixed reviews about), Sony FX6, Ursa mini 12k....

To be honest, I'm not very familiar with the Red ecosystem or history of sensors. From what I've gathered, the Misteryum X sensor falls a bit behind the later Dragon sensor, so I'm trying to get a sense of how they perform and if at this point it's best to prefer a more recent one. If you have some reading or comparison videos, I'd appreciate it. ?

Cheers!

I have a project coming up that's looking to shoot on a RED Raven, but I'm hoping to use PL lenses with it (even though the Raven is exclusively EF mount). Does anyone have experience with using third party PL adapters with the Raven? I've looked at the c7adapters' mount (https://c7adapters.com/en/product/pl_lens_-_ef_mount/35) and one of FotodioX's options, but I'm curious if anyone has tested these or run into any issues.

Thank you!

Its been a while since I last posted on the cinematography.com website - its great to be back on here!

I've bought an original Red One and would like to make use of the CF slot, I wanted to ask if third party CF cards work on this camera or would I need to use the red certified CF cards.

Any suggestions welcome!

Many Thanks

Steve

I did have my eye set on the Wooden Camera Battery Slide plate, as it'd allow me to have one Canon BP battery slotted directly on the camera and allow me to hot swap my main batteries, but it's currently out of stock, and I don't know if I'm patient enough to wait for it to come back in stock.

Is there another battery plate for the Komodo like this that is designed and works in the same way?  Or are there other battery plates I should look into?  Would love to hear your recommendations. 

Thanks so much!

Best,
Adam

RED claims they "invented" the RED MINI-MAG device (here: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?147759-Cheap-third-party-Red-MiniMag-replacement-JinniMag&p=1649970&viewfull=1#post1649970)

And they developed their own IP and SSD firmware for it, and that RED MINI-MAG has significantly less card errors than other companies using even reputable generic media, (and so theirs is superior to a generic one) and RED spends millions of dollars testing, certifying and QCing every media they ship. (here: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?147759-Cheap-third-party-Red-MiniMag-replacement-JinniMag&p=1649669&viewfull=1#post1649669)

Red claims the RED MINI-MAG device is made in USA. 

(footnotThis) is a link to Micron's response regarding RED claims for having a customised firmware on the RED MINI-MAG device.

type=3&theatere 

1) Build quality is first class, well above expectations-

2) The PL mount is the best made mount I have ever seen, quite a work of art.

3) The camera boot’s up quickly in aeound 7-8 seconds.

4) The camera camera does not get very hot, therefore the Red Brick batteries last several hours.

5) Touch screen menu’s are very easy to navigate.

6) Redmote again very quick & easy to use.

7) The HD video out is high quality

8) The 2k images at 300fps are far better than I expected.

9) The camera ISO matches my light meter, so setting the stop is very quick

10) Small & light

11) HDRx

12) Being able to View footage (in proxies) from Redcine-X or Premiere Pro with no transcoding on a cheap laptop.

I must add that all the people at Red HQ have been really helpful, camera shipped the day the money arrived. Really most impressive.

I have a shoot by the end of the month on a Red Ranger with the Monstro sensor. I’ve never worked on that camera and and am wondering if there are any tips on this camera, the kind you only learn from (painful?) experience. 
 

What are your preferences regarding which OLPF to use? Standard, skin tone? We’re not shooting low light. 

Thank you team forum

The one thing I really like about RED is they give you a nice little calculator to see how much storage you need, though the redcode part of it leaves me in a guessing game:
https://www.red.com/recording-time

I see the compression can go all the way down to 20:1 but is that just a garbage unusable image? At least better than H264? What redcode could compare to 4444XQ ProRes for example? I see people saying 6:1 is ideal but that really chews through the cards.

Thanks for any input from REDveterans!

Since this is my first post (long-time lurker) I feel compelled to thank you all, especially David Mullen and similar posters for all the valuable information I've gleaned over the years. It's much appreciated.

Here are some examples of the effect:

Hopefully someone on here "knows a guy".

Thanks,

Alan Gwiz

Just for clarity, for the bulk of the filming I will be using the RED Gemini 5K DSMC2 however, I am filming test footage using my DSMC1 Epic Dragon (due to the timeliness of a specific event and won't have access to the DSMC2).

Now, with a 50fps timebase setting in camera even at 4K2:1 I am physically limited by the camera to 60fps when theoretically I should be able to capture at a frame rate of up to 100 (2x the project time base). 

This is probably operator error. I've shot in Europe before but my project timebase was 23.98 for North American distribution. I have never ushered a project through using a 50fps timebase setting so I'm a bit stumped as to how it is limiting my ability for creative frame rates in the field by this much.

Anyone have some insight? Anyone?

Or so it would appear. It was certainly listed as that on eBay.

I have just tried to adjust the ISO and find the upper limit is 2000, which I would only expect on the original Mysterium sensor. Photo attached.

I can't think why another setting would impose this limit.

Can anyone help me by either confirming that the 2000 ISO limit means the sensor must be the earlier Mysterium sensor or explain how and why the system would impose this limit?

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

I'd like to buy some, or pay to have some assembled....

Did this B4 version of the RED actually exist? Does anyone know where I could find it?
Would be very fun with my Digiprimes.

Can anyone tell me definitively the crop factor when using 2x anamorphic lenses on the Red Epic W 8k Helium in 8k 6:5 mode?

I've seen lots of answers for similar questions on this forum but mostly for the 6k Red Epic prior to the new sensor or talking about the VV Red Weapon 8k so I'm getting a bit confused!

Thanks!

Please give me your average experience + horror stories. Hold nothing back, please drag this camera if you can.

Thanks to all.