WARNING: RED has -3 stops less latitude than the D-21&F35

[Sanjin Jukic]

Geoff Boyle FBKS, cinematographer and leader of

CML - Cinematography Information & Discussion

did extensive digital camera testings at the

Hands on HD - the annual high definition-event in Hannover.

"The RED has just under 3 stops less latitude than the D-21 or the F35 and
about 1 stop less than the SI-2K. However, it can look gorgeous if you bear
this in mind, it definitely favours overexposure and protecting the
highlights rather than exposing for the low end."

LINK>>>



I write now and would consider this suggestion as a sort of Warning Message to the RED Team:



"Please RED do not start ship EPIC, EPIC-X or RED ONE upgrade to Mysterium-X

before you don't FIX EXPOSURE LATITUDE of the new sensor (aka Mysteruim-X)."

This would help us not to go again throughout the same circle of discussions, confusion and testing

about Mysterium-X comparison with the other digital cameras like Arri D-21, Sony F35, SI-2k, Phantom HD Gold, etc,....

And the most important thing is to make RED1 M-X, EPIC-X, EPIC, etc,...

a real competitive camera system with the other digital acquisition systems.

Simply just make it better than any other sensor at the competition."

[Irri]

-3 less = 3 more

[Will Keir]

-3 less = 3 more

???

[Stuart English]

Given that each camera manufacturer has a different post and monitoring workflow, and acceptable noise is a matter of personal taste...

I'd suggest that "hands on" camera tests generating inconsistent results - and follow on debate and additional testing - are here to stay.

[Irri]

It was a joke about double negatives.

[Hans von Sonntag]

I once had the chance to compare the Sony F23 and the RedOne side by side. Yes, the F23 has more latitude and was considerably faster. But any day I would prefer shooting with my RedOne. The RedOne has a lot of virtues but surely neither latitude, nor speed.

I never parted Red's opinion that the RedOne has 320 ASA. I find that the camera is a 160 - 250 ASA camera. If you rate the sensor 500 ASA you tend to drift skin tones into the noise floor. This can be compensated by appropriate lighting of course.

Saying that the Arri 21 and the F 35 have 3 stops of latitude more means that either the redOne has only 6-7 stops which I cannot confirm or they have 11-12 effective stops which I doubt. I find that the RedOne has 8-9 stops of usable latitude, depending how much noise you bare. But one is sure: The RedOne reacts with heavy noise when underexposed.

I sincerely hope that EpicX will be a real 500 ASA camera, better 800 ASA and one more effective stop latitude would be great too. But speed is more important for me.

Hans

[Stephen Strangways]

Let me get this straight, Sanjin... you're concerned that your $17,500 camera isn't considered, by Geoff Boyle, to be just as good as a $300,000 camera?

You really need to stop worrying that not everyone in the world thinks your RED ONE is the greatest camera ever made (the same applies to the lenses you use) and just go out and shoot with it!

[Eki Halkka]

"The RED has just under 3 stops less latitude than the D-21 or the F35 and
about 1 stop less than the SI-2K. However, it can look gorgeous if you bear
this in mind, it definitely favours overexposure and protecting the
highlights rather than exposing for the low end."

LINK>>>

First of all, the link requires an username and password so it's useless, second, i'll take the conclusion with a huge grain of salt until i see the procedure they used + some example shots... 3 stops is a LOT, and it sounds like they did something wrong with R1.

Also, "overexposure and protecting the highlights" is an oxymoron. If your highlights do not clip, you are not overexposing - if they do clip, you are not protecting highlights.

[Steve G]

i'll take the conclusion with a huge grain of salt until i see the procedure they used + some example shots... 3 stops is a LOT, and it sounds like they did something wrong with R1.

If Geoff Boyle was in charge of the tests, then it would have been an exceptionally well run test. He has a huge amount of experience, and has recently shot a 3 d feature and 2 episodes of Wallander on the Red.

http://www.gboyle.co.uk/

From my experiences with the red, I would agree that the asa is really around 160.

[Felix K.]

Let me get this straight, Sanjin... you're concerned that your $17,500 camera isn't considered, by Geoff Boyle, to be just as good as a $300,000 camera?

You really need to stop worrying that not everyone in the world thinks your RED ONE is the greatest camera ever made (the same applies to the lenses you use) and just go out and shoot with it!

Halleluja!