Dynamic Range Tests?

[Matthew Rogers]

So, I was thinking tonight, "I haven't seen any "tests" that were shot yet to nail down exactly how many stops of dynamic range the RED truly has." I know I have seen some grabs that show the DR to be close to film, but exactly how many stops are we talking here? 12-14?

I'm thinking my JVC 110U is going to be getting very lonely come January (Wait, what am I kidding, I will still have some cheap clients!)

Matthew

[Brook Willard]

DR tests are mostly lies... everybody tests differently, everybody defines DR differently, so everybody gets to claim their own number. I'm sure somebody'll put the RED next to all of the other leading cameras in a bake-off, but until then... nobody knows.

To the gear heads, it's like putting 5 different cars on 5 different dynamometers. Every dyno [model or individual unit or different run on the same unit] will give a slightly different read. The same car may put down 400whp on one dyno and 343whp on another. If you try and compare different cars on different dynos... you're not comparing anything.

So somebody could say 11.3 stops and somebody could say 6. Both may be accurate by their own personal definitions, but it means nothing in reality. It's just the same as those who claim film has 12 stops of latitude and those that claim it has 16-18. Both are right and both are wrong... in the end, it's the image that matters. And the image goes well beyond a DR number or resolution.

[/rant]

I'm half tempted to lock this one and direct it to the "Be patient..." thread, but I'll leave it open for the time being.

[Kevin Halverson]

The old saying is:

Q. Do you know what it takes to get great specs?

A. A typewriter.

There are certainly ways of devising a test that would quantify the dynamic range, but unless other camera's were subject to the same criteria, comparisons would be fairly meaningless.

[chuck colburn]

You could make a black and white print and take a densitometer reading of a gray scale off of it. lol