komodo or FX9?

[Matt Gerrand]

Hi there I’m a total beginner when it comes to RED, Never owned one. I’ve had an FS7 for the last 4 years and keen to upgrade to either the FX9 or Komodo.

1.when shooting in prores in 4K and HD on speed or off speed does it still crop in on the 6K sensor?
2.is there anywhere that I can see some prores files 6K 4K HD?
3.is there an audio hardware box that doesn’t go through the 3.5 mm jack to supply pantom powered XLR’s?
4.is there a RF to EF speed booster with variable ND and full electroelectronic control over canna on electronic iris and IS?
5.is there a RF to EF with variable ND and full electronic control over canon electronic iris and IS?
6. Is the image detail and skin tones better than the FX9?
7. What a good value for money option for an EVF?
8. Does it support 4:3 4k anamorphic?

Sorry about all the questions, thank you.

[Christoffer Glans]

Hi there I’m a total beginner when it comes to RED, Never owned one. I’ve had an FS7 for the last 4 years and keen to upgrade to either the FX9 or Komodo.

1.when shooting in prores in 4K and HD on speed or off speed does it still crop in on the 6K sensor?
2.is there anywhere that I can see some prores files 6K 4K HD?
3.is there an audio hardware box that doesn’t go through the 3.5 mm jack to supply pantom powered XLR’s?
4.is there a RF to EF speed booster with variable ND and full electroelectronic control over canna on electronic iris and IS?
5.is there a RF to EF with variable ND and full electronic control over canon electronic iris and IS?
6. Is the image detail and skin tones better than the FX9?
7. What a good value for money option for an EVF?
8. Does it support 4:3 4k anamorphic?

Sorry about all the questions, thank you.

1. In 4K, normal speed up to 40 fps it is full sensor. If you want more framerates you need to crop in. I don't recommend shooting ProRes though, since it's a lossy codec at only HQ422.
2. Prores is not 6K, only 4K maximum. And again, if ProRes is primarily what you are after, I don't think Komodo is the right one.
3. Not sure, at this time at least I'm fairly certain there's no boxes going outside of the 3.5 mm jack. However, there might be some V-Lock modules with XLR outputs, since a V-Lock battery would be efficient enough to power everything. Or it will be released in the future.
4. That's a bit much too demand from one mount. There's the metabones speed booster and the upcoming Canon. The Canon one is rumored to have better optical quality and will work with electronics in some lenses reported, where the Metabones does not. However, you will not find any speed boosters anywhere for anything that also has ND filters. There's no physical room for it in such an adapter.
5. Yes, check the store at Red.com
6. This is a very subjective one, there's no "fact" answer. But generally, Red is considered top tier in color science. In terms of detail, that depends on how you post process your footage. Remember, this is RAW, not in-camera noise reduction, sharpness etc. You do the processing after, in post, not while shooting.
7. As of yet, I don't think there are any EVFs for Komodo.
8. Not yet, but it will most certainly. However, you can use an external monitor with desqueeze and just desqueeze in post.


Based on your questions, I think it's important to mention that Komodo is a Cinema camera, and some points sounds more like you want a video camera. The FX9 is in my opinion a video camera, meaning, things like XLR inputs and stuff generally exist on video cameras focused on those Run n Gun scenarios. A cinema camera is a slower process, more focused on perfecting the image both while shooting and in post.

So, ask yourself first, what type of shooting will you be doing? Is it just you and you aim to do more documentary or situational, real world shooting? Or are you focusing on working slower, doing narrative films etc.?
If the later, the Komodo is perfect. Works on gimbals, handheld etc. without much need for expensive heavy film gear. If the former, then Komodo might be too slow to work with for you and sound with the Komodo is, as any cinema camera, more focused on dedicated sound equipment outside of the camera.

[M Harvey]

I own both an FS7 and a Komodo.

Christoffer's answers are all correct. (Re: question 7, though, I'd note that there are 3rd party EVFs from Zacuto, Portkeys, and Alphatron, among others. You just have to make sure it takes an SDI input and that your power system works with the EVF, e.g. you choose a v-mount/gold mount power adapter for the camera if you want to power the EVF from lemo.)

The main difference between the two cameras, aside from the pros and cons of full frame sensor, is in the style you use them. I'd really recommend you rent a Red camera-- any Red camera, back to an 8-year old Red Epic Dragon-- before purchasing a Komodo. The style of working with an FS7/FX9 is different in significant ways, from dealing with the data rate to the way you expose to the necessity of building the camera for different tasks. And post-production is even more different. I'm very glad that I had rented Red cameras for various shoots in the past, as the Komodo experience is very consistent with that.

Feel free to message me with specific questions about moving between the two, if you like. (I'm not a test chart guy, though, so can only offer general comparisons of dynamic range and sharpness and things like that. Plenty of that avail on the internet already, though.)

[Kyle Wright]

And to clarify answer #1, you can shoot full sensor 6K mode and have it downsampled to 4K ProRes recording, so you get the benefit of the full sensor size. Same with the 5K sensor setting, you get the windowed 5K portion of the sensor and it gets downsampled to a 4K ProRes file. The same frame rate limits apply to whichever sensor portion you are using (6K, 5K, etc.), whether you are recording r3d or downsampled ProRes.

[Matt Gerrand]

thank you very much to your response guys. I shoot a combination of doco and commercials so full crew and splinter crew, the new image on the FX 9/6 looks very impressive but I’ve never really seen RED and FX images side by side, has anyone seen a link for that?

8. When shooting prores can it do LT,HQ,4:4:4 prores?
9. can you place a lot on the SDI output?
10.When shooting prores can you choose between burning in a LUT or keeping it clean?
11. Can it shoot 1920x1080 or just 2K?
12. Sound for solo doco work is by my biggest concern, any recommendations?

Thanks 🙏