Scarlet & Samurai FTW

[Bob Gundu]

Okay yes, this is true and I hope they fix it soon, but to coin the unit as "just a decent on location playback unit" is a bit rich don't you think? I mean, people come here for advice, looking for solutions and to gain perspective before making a purchase decision. Statements like the one you made make me cringe!

And just for the record, there isn't a border "around" the footage, only at the top and bottom. Big difference in terms of usability.

I was just talking about my experience. I'm sorry if you took the tone the wrong way. I have the unit and that's what I use it for - playback. I shoot 4KHD which leave a border on four sides. In 4K it's top and bottom. The functionality you and I want will eventually get there. I'm just saying it's not 100 percent now. I have nothing against the product. I had a Ninja too and changed it to the Samurai. For some, having playback "with sound" on set is very important - hence why the samurai makes a great playback device. I was stating that as a positive and not a negative. Personally, the Samurai will be a must have very soon.

[Matthew Scott]

I was just talking about my experience. I'm sorry if you took the tone the wrong way. I have the unit and that's what I use it for - playback. I shoot 4KHD which leave a border on four sides. In 4K it's top and bottom. The functionality you and I want will eventually get there. I'm just saying it's not 100 percent now. I have nothing against the product. I had a Ninja too and changed it to the Samurai. For some, having playback "with sound" on set is very important - hence why the samurai makes a great playback device. I was stating that as a positive and not a negative. Personally, the Samurai will be a must have very soon.

Cool, thanks Bob. Just don't want to discourage people who are exploring :)

[Matthew Scott]

Okay, so I've done some crappy tests....but at least they have skin tones and contrast. I have three different focal lengths too. Maybe some uncompressed tiffs from the ungraded footage would be enough for people to play with? Any suggestions? Hosting?

(RECORDING TO PRORESS 422 on SAMURAI) I found that RG3 is probably better than RLF because RLF is quite green. I also felt like I had enough information with RG3, and that RLF would be more work without gaining superior results....but I guess it's up to the grader.

[Mike P.]

It'd probably be too difficult to host a full-on ProRes file (unless it was ~3 second clips), but I don't know how realistic a .tiff is in comparison to prores (in terms of compression and how it reacts to correction/grading). Have you tried sites like WeTransfer or RapidShare (if it's still even around) or DropBox? They might require sign-ups though. If hosting is a no-go, maybe just a jpg or tiff with half of it being the ungraded prores direct from the Samurai and the other half being a a fairly rigourous grade exemplifying how far you could push it without it breaking down...

Also, on the graded side, if you can, please at ~20% post sharpening (in FCP or Premiere or what-have-you) as I think it would clean it up real nice.

Again, I think there are two very useful ways to use a Samurai: Bob's preferred method (as a preview player and to give people dailies) and Matt's way (for ultra-fast turnarounds on less than mission-critical jobs... I tend to fall into this category, which is why I'm so interested in seeing how far the prores files can go before breaking.) I mean, you're getting ~13.5stops of latitude in a scaled 4k-to-1080p prores file... that has the potential to be better than Alexa (which may have ~14stops, but only 2.8k-to-1080p...OH, and it costs about 4x the price.)

[Kalechi Noel]

Can someone confirm .... Is the scaling issue still existent on samurai?

[Bob Gundu]

Can someone confirm .... Is the scaling issue still existent on samurai?

It's not a samurai issue. Red will address this in a future update.

[Adrian Lopez]

I've been reading about the Sony F3 and the their slog upgrade that outputs to ProRes. I'm also hearing about Alexa users outputting to Prores and never using RAW. My question is, does the Samurai convert the RAW files to prores, or will it output the current colorspace config to Prores. My thinking is that if we set the Scarlet to say, RedLogFilm, the Samurai would essentially give us the same highlight protection the Slog upgrade provides on the F3..

Any of that making sense? I'll be testing this anyway next week when our Samurai arrives, but I'm just curious if anyone has looked into this..

Adrian

[Matthew Scott]

I've been reading about the Sony F3 and the their slog upgrade that outputs to ProRes. I'm also hearing about Alexa users outputting to Prores and never using RAW. My question is, does the Samurai convert the RAW files to prores, or will it output the current colorspace config to Prores. My thinking is that if we set the Scarlet to say, RedLogFilm, the Samurai would essentially give us the same highlight protection the Slog upgrade provides on the F3..

Any of that making sense? I'll be testing this anyway next week when our Samurai arrives, but I'm just curious if anyone has looked into this..

Adrian

That makes perfect sense, and yes, the Samurai will use whatever RED profile/colorspace you select. I honestly feel like I have an Alexa and a Scarlet now hehe ;)

[Adrian Lopez]

That makes perfect sense, and yes, the Samurai will use whatever RED profile/colorspace you select. I honestly feel like I have an Alexa and a Scarlet now hehe ;)

Certainly starting to feel like it. I'd love to see how a redlogfilm prores clip grades compared to the r3D original. Did you ever post those images, Matthew?

[Greg M]

Can someone confirm .... Is the scaling issue still existent on samurai?

Epics output controls this, not the recording device. The recorder only records what it receives.

Look at the Epics output on a monitor. If the monitor displays it, the recorder will record it.