Jason Goodman
08-31-2010, 12:21 AM
21st Century 3D has recently taken delivery of our MX sensor upgrades. As everybody already knows, the new sensor is nothing short of a breakthrough. In some ways I find it even more revolutionary than the original RED ONE.
The light loss inherent to a 3D beam splitter is one of the largest problems we have to contend with in stereoscopic cinematography. The MX sensor makes this problem go away like no other technology before it has been able.
Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHP_guc_i6k) is a clip shot at Willow Springs this past Saturday with the RED MX cameras set to 3200 ISO and shooting with a 21st Century 3D BX3 (http://www.21stcentury3d.com/3d-cameras/3d-digital-cinema/) beam splitter rig.
Diajiro Yoshihara drifting in the lead car. It may be hard to judge on YouTube, and there is noise obviously, but the footage is remarkable.
When we shot JuliaX (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1533058/) around this time last year, we did everything we could to make the f2.8 our Angenieux Optimo's needed and basically had few opportunities to choose a stop other than fully open.
Going beyond 500 ISO on RED ONE produced noise levels that seemed unusable to me for most feature work. I would call the MX ISO 3200 drift footage very usable.
When there is visible noise at high ISO with MX it is much more organic than noise on RED ONE. At 800 ISO I found the RED ONE showed clearly discernible vertical noise patterns. When noise does show up on MX it is much more like film grain and far less offensive.
Additionally, the added bonus for 3D is that our brains actually perform substantial noise cancellation. John Merritt (http://www.merritt.com) has done extensive research in this area. Since the noise from each of the left and right eye cameras is random and unique, and each image is only seen by one of your eyes, your brain ignores the noise, looking "through" it to see the stereoscopic image.
We also shot some 120fps material at 6400 ISO that looks a bit noisy and desaturated, but even so I am incredibly intrigued by the possibilities that MX offers and the choices it opens up for 3D. Now I can actually CHOOSE my stop!!!
Jason Goodman
CEO
21st Century 3D New York
505 8th Avenue #1006
New York, NY 10018
212-244-8585
21st Century 3D Hollywood
3450 Cahuenga Blvd W #509
Los Angeles, CA 90068
323-799-1046
http://www.21c3d.com
jason@21stcentury3d.com
The light loss inherent to a 3D beam splitter is one of the largest problems we have to contend with in stereoscopic cinematography. The MX sensor makes this problem go away like no other technology before it has been able.
Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHP_guc_i6k) is a clip shot at Willow Springs this past Saturday with the RED MX cameras set to 3200 ISO and shooting with a 21st Century 3D BX3 (http://www.21stcentury3d.com/3d-cameras/3d-digital-cinema/) beam splitter rig.
Diajiro Yoshihara drifting in the lead car. It may be hard to judge on YouTube, and there is noise obviously, but the footage is remarkable.
When we shot JuliaX (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1533058/) around this time last year, we did everything we could to make the f2.8 our Angenieux Optimo's needed and basically had few opportunities to choose a stop other than fully open.
Going beyond 500 ISO on RED ONE produced noise levels that seemed unusable to me for most feature work. I would call the MX ISO 3200 drift footage very usable.
When there is visible noise at high ISO with MX it is much more organic than noise on RED ONE. At 800 ISO I found the RED ONE showed clearly discernible vertical noise patterns. When noise does show up on MX it is much more like film grain and far less offensive.
Additionally, the added bonus for 3D is that our brains actually perform substantial noise cancellation. John Merritt (http://www.merritt.com) has done extensive research in this area. Since the noise from each of the left and right eye cameras is random and unique, and each image is only seen by one of your eyes, your brain ignores the noise, looking "through" it to see the stereoscopic image.
We also shot some 120fps material at 6400 ISO that looks a bit noisy and desaturated, but even so I am incredibly intrigued by the possibilities that MX offers and the choices it opens up for 3D. Now I can actually CHOOSE my stop!!!
Jason Goodman
CEO
21st Century 3D New York
505 8th Avenue #1006
New York, NY 10018
212-244-8585
21st Century 3D Hollywood
3450 Cahuenga Blvd W #509
Los Angeles, CA 90068
323-799-1046
http://www.21c3d.com
jason@21stcentury3d.com