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Redcode 28 vs 36


Jayson Crothers

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I'm about to start shooting a new feature film and we're shooting on the RED; the decision came very last minute to go from HD to the RED and I'm in a bit of a race to learn as much as I can about the system.

 

One thing I can't seem to find a clear answer to is the difference between Redcode 28 and Redcode 36 - the only hard information I can find is that shooting with Redcode 36 limits some frame rate options for me, but what do I gain with 36 over the default 28?

 

Thanks everyone!

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Guest Josh Gannon

Redcode 36 is simply a higher bitrate 36MB/s rather then 28MS/s.

 

I would recommend shooting all your sync stuff at 36 for a little extra quality and latitude when it comes to grading (NOT EXPOSURE LATITUDE! it is 6 stops no matter what. I have extensively wedge tested these cameras. +2 1/2 stops. - 3 1/2 stops)

 

Obviously Redcode 36 will take up more hdd / cf card space.

 

But as a rule of thumb always chose the 36MB/s codec where possible.

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Redcode 36 is simply a higher bitrate 36MB/s rather then 28MS/s.

 

I would recommend shooting all your sync stuff at 36 for a little extra quality and latitude when it comes to grading (NOT EXPOSURE LATITUDE! it is 6 stops no matter what. I have extensively wedge tested these cameras. +2 1/2 stops. - 3 1/2 stops)

 

What do you mean by "6 stops" and how exactly are you measuring it?

What have you been shooting so successfully?

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Looking forwards to hearing your results and thoughts, Jayson. What kind of post workflow are you taking it through? Any chance you're doing a filmout?

 

 

I would be interested in hearing about this, too. Good luck with your tests.

 

BTW, I thought the RED has 11+ stops? :blink:

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Never trust a manufacturer's specs ;)

 

There's stops and then there's useable stops. No camera has as high a latitude as its manufacturer claims.

 

Are we talking latitude or dynamic range? They're two completely different things.

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What is the difference?

 

Latitude is the amount an image can be over- or under-exposed and still yield an acceptably "normal" looking image after color correction (and/or processing, in the case of film).

 

Dynamic range is the range of brightness a system can capture, between solid black and solid white.

 

People often use the term latitude when they're talking about dynamic range, which leads to all kinds of confusion. A camera that claims to have "11 stops of dynamic range" can capture some detail in a gray card between roughly 5+ stops under- and 5+ stops over-exposed (give or take, since the over- and under-range rarely match). That doesn't mean that the camera has 11 stops of latitude though, because you can't recover any highlight detail in an image that's 5 stops over, or shadow detail in an image that's 5 stops under. In that hypothetical system it's more likely that you've got about + or - 2 stops of latitude.

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Latitude is the amount an image can be over- or under-exposed and still yield an acceptably "normal" looking image after color correction (and/or processing, in the case of film).

 

Dynamic range is the range of brightness a system can capture, between solid black and solid white.

 

Thanks for the explanation. So basically what you are saying is that latitude decides your "wiggle room" -- the amount by which you can shift your captured range up and down, just like a slider, along the full range of signal values available to you.

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Yes. Maybe a better definition would have been:

 

Latitude: margin of error for exposure. Usually expressed in + and - values.

 

Dynamic range: total range of light values the system can capture. Usually expressed in total values.

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Redcode 36 is simply a higher bitrate 36MB/s rather then 28MS/s.

 

it is 6 stops no matter what. I have extensively wedge tested these cameras. +2 1/2 stops. - 3 1/2 stops)

 

How does one do a 'wedge test'? i'm unsure of the process involved to find the latitude of a camera, could anyone please elaborate?

 

Thanks

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