Red Scarlet in 2022?

[Miguel Angel Calderon]

Hello friends,

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!

Edited March 23, 2022 by Miguel Angel Calderon
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[Matej Pok]

RED Scarlet-X is a fantastic camera, if you know how to use it. I haven't shot with BMPCC 6K, so I can't do direct comparison, but I think Blackmagic is good too, because they are used a lot.

Scarlet-X has:

- very nice skin tone reproduction, if you use IR CUT filter all the time. 

- base EI is 800 ASA, in low light you can really push it just to 1280 ASA

- DR is about 13.5 stops (just my rough guessing), not as good as Alexa, but  nice

- very good colours, true but organic at the same time

- excellent data with 16 bit depth, but compressed so you don't need that much hard drives

 

Scarlet is fantastic for people, who know how to shoot, who know how to light the scene, who use it as a proper film camera.