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I'll be honest - Dragon disappoints me

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Rob Ruffo

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What we really wanted was very good performance at extreme high ISOs. It's not every shoot that needs this, but it does open up possibilities that would have been expensive or impossible to do without it. (I'm NOT advocating doing away with lights, just using lower amp heads in tough locations where power and the ability to disturb local residents are at a premium.)

We also wanted a bigger field of view. Give us full frame. That's cool, and useful.

Give us even more precise color fidelity. There is no end to how good color rendition can be. More of that is always better.

Instead the main touted feature is even higher pixel density, and "6K".

6K is a problem. Its' not a good thing. 5K already nearly chokes most fo our workstations here, and we never, EVER say "Gee I wish this was higher resolution" Computer tech is advancing slowly these days. It's not just our computers, but the computers of all the people we hand in footage to that would have to be upgraded. My head hurst just thinking about it. If anything we would prefer slightly FEWER pixels per square inch of field of view, not more. Or just keep it the same.

Most camera makers have understood that the "megapixel race" has become silly. In my personal opinion, at the current 5K, Red should too.

I think proof is that there is very little excitement over Dragon. Epic solved a real problems ("Gee, I love my Red, but I wish it were lighter and started up faster, and that 3K and 2K slomo is cool, I wish it were more and full-frame)") and got/gets everybody excited. Mx upgrade also solved many very real problems with the old M sensor, as every Red one D.P. had a time when they wished they had more useable high ISOs with nicer-looking and less noise.

Dragon seems to mainly aim to solve an imaginary problem of lack of resolution that no one is really having, not even if you use an Epic for high-end stills work.

WIth MX and Epic all in the community were clamoring with excitement and anticipation. Dragon? Let's face it, not really.

I say this with the best of intentions. It's not too late for Dragon to be "subject to change".
 
What about 2 more stops dynamic range? That's pretty useful, eh?
 
I'd have to disagree. Dragon is hardly solving the "lack of resolution problem", thats what Epic has already accomplished by surpassing S35 film resolution. However it does bring a lot of us one step closer to that of an IMAX resolution, and that for me just can't come soon enough. Dynamic range is another, 15+ stops is hard to argue against. and I'd speculate better low light performance as well. and who knows what color science can do with the amount of data provided by the dragon sensor.

And even tho clock speed of computing has more or less level out at 3-4GHz excluding over clocking, the sppeed performances and benchmarks still continue to shoot up very fast with new multi threading processing and ever more powerfull video cards. Many processes are also being integrated into the CPU reducing the time needed for seperate devices to communicate. New materials being developed will bring faster and more efficiency to our processors. There is tons more advancments to be made in computing technology.

Granted it's definitely not for everyone, not yet anyways. But for those of us who always wants to push the boundaries and be above and beyond, we are extremely excited:-)
 
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is it not about the debayer quality with increased resolution? render to delivery format if needed. REDCINE X is nice and quick when you go down to an 1/4 or 8th. for me RED is great for VFX it would be awful if a shot needed extensive projection and clean up with only HD sized footage.

i agree with the points about wanting advances in other features as they are very important too.
 
To be clear: Dragon brings wider dynamic range, a lower noise floor, higher frame rates, and higher resolution. These are some exciting improvements to me. I'd wager that the low-light handling is better as well. We'll know in a few months.
 
A lot of the system choke could be solved with a GPU based debayering solution. Personally, shooting clean at 100 ISO is at least as important as shooting at 1600. I think Rob's heart is in the right place, though. The Epic is so good that it's going to take something pretty spectacular to impress him. I have no doubt that we're all going to be absolutely floored. Considering how closely the other manufacturers are probably hanging on every sliver of information about upcoming releases from Red, I'd be pretty surprised if Jim was spilling the actual specs of the Dragon.
 
I must agree that 6K feels a bit like an overkill. I'm looking forward to better noise performance and even better dynamic range, that are really important upgrades! I shoot mostly 5K to get the maximum field of view, with Dragon that will have to be 6K, generating even more data, which i don't really need and like rob says will cost more processing power, that would my main concern... Probably we will have to shoot 6K to get the same field of view we have now on 5K, that would something to think about.
 
dragon would be priceless if it was 4x3 and matching filmgate in height.

+1 my largest disappointment was the aspect ratio not the resolution. We're already wide enough for fish eye lenses and anamorphic. We just aren't tall enough with MX. Also unlike increasing the width, it doesn't take much more room to increase height. It's the same size sensor just taller. Don't get me wrong I would love a FF scarlet but 4:3 is a larger priority to me.
 
+1

I would also like to get a general idea of the Scarlet-X upgrade price tag.

$6k - $9k. It's been stated it's more than Epic and less than a new body.
 
So presumably, for any particular field of view, maximum frame rates will go down with Dragon, unless it's a sensor that can somehow be read faster.

That and much more data... The amount of (sometimes overkill) data generated is my biggest concern. A prores module would give me choice or a way to not crop into the sensor for lower resolution would also solve this problem
 
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