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Better Call Saul - amazing low key Dragon images

Bruce Schultz

Bruce Schultz

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I just watched the latest (Feb 23, 2015) edition of this show from the Breaking Bad producers and wow - many of these scenes were shot in unbelievable low light sets like the interior of the nail salon and the alleyway scene. I was very impressed with the lack of noise/grain/texture in these shots on my Panasonic 60" plasma HDTV which usually shows underexposed or low light grain pretty accurately.

I would love to hear if anyone knows or can chime in if these scenes were shot with the LLO or the STH OLPF filters.

I don't think Alexa could have done any better.
 
Interesting, I'm seeing conflicting information in a few places. The one I typically trust the most is the IMDB tech specs page, which lists Dragon. Also found a Facebook post by Keslow Camera who said "DP Arthur Albert shot on our RED Cameras Dragons with ARRI Carl Zeiss Lenses Cooke Optics Limited & Angénieux lenses supported by Keslow Camera New Mexico."

However, on Red's official news page, it states MX.

What to believe.
 
You Better call Saul to find out.
 
I try to remain camera agnostic. we have the Dragon, the F5, and I recently used the Alexa.... but I have to admit I was impressed yesterday - I was in our studio looking at a low light set up with the Dragon... I was amazed at how fine the noise was even when the bar was half red. I WAS TRUELY AMAZED. I would post some of the stills here but I just don't know how to get them on the thread without having you click another button.
 
NOSA OBAYIUWANA said:
I try to remain camera agnostic. we have the Dragon, the F5, and I recently used the Alexa.... but I have to admit I was impressed yesterday - I was in our studio looking at a low light set up with the Dragon... I was amazed at how fine the noise was even when the bar was half red. I WAS TRUELY AMAZED. I would post some of the stills here but I just don't know how to get them on the thread without having you click another button.
Click to expand...
Would love to see them :D
 
NOSA OBAYIUWANA said:
Do you know how to post pics so they show live on the threads
Click to expand...

If by that you mean just typical image embedding inside a post, you just upload the image on tinypic or similar image hositng sites, copy the forum embedd link and paste it in the post. That's it.
 
Any one knows if the intros on Better call Sal is shot on monocrome?
Those looks almost too clean to me. They would be better off ND:ed down like mad until a bit underexposed and shoot them more open.

The dragon with lowlight OLPF is the best lowlight camera I seen... There is probably cameras that shoots in less light and sees further into the dark. But lowlight olpf and iso 6500 looks like super quality good old celluloid to me. Where as other cameras at such light levels can possibly provide a brigher image but then they also deteriate into something that looks very digital to me.

Dragon is a beast for low light, it´s just the skintone olpf that cause all this confusion and threads of poor lowlight performance. And if Better call Sall is shot on dragon I´m sure they have all the olpfs they need. :)
 
Thanks for the help Hrvoje. Here is the still image from the Red Dragon without the low light filter





24go8w7.png
 
And since I have finally learned how to post pics, here is another one from the same rough test. I'm really impresses with a lot of things with the Dragon... skintones, lowlight performance, almost invisible noise.... say what you like about Red... but they did an excellent job.... I can't wait to see what the Dragon sensor will do when Weaponised.

ivclue.png
 
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Yup. Based on your posted grab I see that it goes further also.


xcmxso.jpg



2zqhg6u.jpg
 
One mans "noise" is another mans "texture". The dragon images have a nice smooth quality about them.

Thanks for posting.

Battistella
 
:shocked:
Björn Benckert said:
Any one knows if the intros on Better call Sal is shot on monocrome?
Those looks almost too clean to me. They would be better off ND:ed down like mad until a bit underexposed and shoot them more open.

The dragon with lowlight OLPF is the best lowlight camera I seen... There is probably cameras that shoots in less light and sees further into the dark. But lowlight olpf and iso 6500 looks like super quality good old celluloid to me. Where as other cameras at such light levels can possibly provide a brigher image but then they also deteriate into something that looks very digital to me.

Dragon is a beast for low light, it´s just the skintone olpf that cause all this confusion and threads of poor lowlight performance. And if Better call Sall is shot on dragon I´m sure they have all the olpfs they need. :)
Click to expand...

But Björn again: Wasn`t that the Epic MX? Even the color scenes look incredible clean. When I see this I don`t want to upgrade to dragon anymore. That`s good enough for my eyes...

Thomas.
 
Thomas Pohl said:
:shocked:

But Björn again: Wasn`t that the Epic MX? Even the color scenes look incredible clean. When I see this I don`t want to upgrade to dragon anymore. That`s good enough for my eyes...

Thomas.
Click to expand...

I dont know what camera has been used. But from my testings Dragon is more accurate and better than the MX. However I had some issues with long exposure and low light with the skintone olpf. the Skin tone olpf is fantasitic for what it is but I would say that compared to the lowlight olpf it´s causing about the same noise as closing down a stop and a half. In lowlight that difference can be quite an issue and thats is whats causing the DEB stuff and heavy noise. With the lowlight olpf that is not happening at all.

I think if you shoot the two side by side you would very much want to upgrade your MX no matter what olpf.
 
Just another extreme lowlight frame. The Dragon is really suprising me. And I don't even have a lowlight OLPF. I AM WONDER-ASTONISHED

a122h5.png
 
Björn Benckert said:
I dont know what camera has been used. But from my testings Dragon is more accurate and better than the MX. However I had some issues with long exposure and low light with the skintone olpf. the Skin tone olpf is fantasitic for what it is but I would say that compared to the lowlight olpf it´s causing about the same noise as closing down a stop and a half. In lowlight that difference can be quite an issue and thats is whats causing the DEB stuff and heavy noise. With the lowlight olpf that is not happening at all.

I think if you shoot the two side by side you would very much want to upgrade your MX no matter what olpf.
Click to expand...

Thanks Björn - good to hear. Of course we also don`t know what the guys of "Better call Saul" fixed in the post. But however: It´s RED itself who wrote that it was the MX. I`m sure they would mention it if it was the Dragon. Nevertheless the filmic result of "Better Call Saul" is extremly impressiv in my eyes and...well I´m still in the process of making up my mind...of upgrading...
 
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