Enter the DRAGON

To those who may be mildly interested or even hate what RED does there is no denying it. This new Dragon iteration of the Red digital cinema is simply astonishing. With this kind of DR underwater footage might get a leg up too.

See for yourself (best with Retina display in Mac or Ipad to do it justice) take note of the Highlights, ISO and extreme contrast situation. The bit that got me is ISO4000 at 100fps and compression ratio of 17:1 - simply wow:

Video from Red Dragon 6K to various test settings by Mark Toia -:

http://vimeo.com/71666317

Oh I forgot to add. Little to no correction was made. Read what Mark has to say in the shoot and he is not paid to do this and I value his opinion.

Well hopefully we will have a clip from the dragon and 5D3 raw for comparison.

Somehow I don't think we are going to compare apples with apples

Toia's stress test reel is downloadable from Vimeo but its not even coded in HD. The latest Redcinex Pro cannot ingest the new Dragon R3D files. It is not available yet from RED. Something to do with new colour science and other technical doo dahs.

I would love to see Epic Dragon UW footage. Do you know anyone doing that out there? Red is playing a tight game this time. They have their fair share of unnecessary mudslinging from haters. Without the new RedcineX-Dragon program no one could seriously prod the footage or grading of these 6K R3D files. I am sure its like Wembley stadium compared to an tennis court in terms of latitude.

Better comparison would be the Black Magic Cinema 2.5K with the 5D MIII ML raw.

Hey you deal with what you got. I'd throw in F65/55 .RAW if I could but having a test with the 5D3 would show how much latitude there is in the Dragon over a known quantity like the 5D3.

Can't wait

Same body same housing new sensor what more could we want.

More footage especially underwater footage.

Graham a Red tech supremo is discussing with UW pros to solve some of the colour issues with the Epic. The discussion was active for a while with email updates and then suddenly radio silence. May be they have found the OPLF as the culprit. I did not encounter that problems in my kit though.

I guess Graham was busy with the colour science of the Red Dragon. Various tests on the Dragon sensor topside suggests this is a completely new camera and not just an upgrade although it still fits inside the Epic camera form factor. Findings derived from a few lucky enough to try the Dragon is that it is brilliant for Skin tones. Smooth mid tones and roll offs. Great now we could have smooth roll of fish scales. The camera sensor behaves like film - remember those? Shoot directly to the sun- no problem. Shoot directly in the dark- no problem. Optimal ISO is not an issue up to a few 1000 ISO at least.

DR is off the charts for either end. So on and so on. Not a peek or anyone taken one for UW shoot. Oh one thing is for sure it will need lens that covers 6K. So DSLR type lens that has that size of image circle will work. At 5K some APSC lens is still okay.

These are just my opinions please take them with a pinch of salt.

Cheers

David

I know someone who used it uw... but he's busy selling the crap instead of giving us a teaser! Good for him!

Who? The bloke who is shooting a new trilogy involving big dwarfs and a cumberbatch Dragon ?

Or

Jim Cameron shooting UW of some blue people?

When he reads this, he can reply himself. Sorry, I'm not at liberty to disclose.

Well here is another piece of RED camera porn:

Enter the Carbon Dragon. Its a pound lighter. Good for the Octo-heli-hexo-maxo copter shooters. Also for the 3D rig crowd. Maybe not for the UW bunch. Only only one problem this rig cost 50K. Drool or red in the face in disgust you gotta hand it to Red for publicity.

cheers

David

I'm thinking the heat must be hard to dissipate with the carbon.

Looks like the Dragon sensor uses less power. I read that the Red Dragon even has a small heater inside to boost the start up temperature. There are two fans as an option so the unit will run quite and some software voodoo to control fan speed. Not everything is carbon fibre. Certainly not the heat sinks. I would be happy just to have the regular red dragon. Soon hopefully.