Considering going from Scarlet-W to Komodo. Good or bad idea?

[Fahnon Bennett]

So I have both a Scarlet-W and a BMPCC6k Pro. I love the image quality of my Red of course, but I do find myself reaching for the Blackmagic because of the longer battery life, ability to put it on a gimbal and just general speed of use. I suppose my question is more about image quality. Will I miss the absolutely superb image of the Dragon sensor if I move over to Komodo? What other gotchas or maybe unexpected differences can I expect?

I'm considering renting one to see first-hand, but I still value the opinions of the folks who have made the comparison themselves and for longer than a short rental period.

Thanks in advance

 

[Thomas Buchan]

You likely won't see much difference in the image quality. Komodo is def better for batt life, gimbal and general speed of use. I've had the scarlet, still own the dragon x and komodo. Use Komodo for most of hand held + gimbal use since it's so easy to use.

 

[Kevin D'Haeze]

As Thomas said, you likely won't be departing much from the look of the Scarlet-W. The Komodo also is more compact and has better battery life than the W. You will, however, need to rig out your gimbal more than you would with the BMPCC, since the Komodo screen faces up, making it near impossible to film without adding an external monitor on your gimbal (whereas the BMPCC has a rear facing screen that is big enough to serve as a monitor). In terms of speed of use, the Komodo will be marginally faster than the W. But the BMPCC will be far quicker for boot-up times, if you need to grab a quick shot. And having the built-in ND filters speeds things up even more.

I have found that the BMPCC on a gimbal, shooting BRAW, is fairly easy to get a decently similar look to the RED, for far less money.

 

[M Harvey]

Thomas Buchan and Kevin D’Haeze are correct on image quality—the same as near as I can tell.

Another difference is larger file sizes (unless you’re shooting prores). And Red Control is a pretty nice feature for gimbal and other use, though whether it’s reliable enough for you only you can say. (Swapping out antenna and things like that can help.)

Coming from Scarlet, I think it’s worth a rental to make sure you like the control interface and to test Red Control. Keep in mind though that if you decide to get one with gimbal use in mind, you’ll probably want to mess around with some accessories like counterweights and bottom battery mounts to give extra clearance if you’re on something like an RS3 Pro. (Don’t let a discouraging experience with a rental sway you too much on that account!)

 

[Björn Benckert]

The global shutter size and battery life is what really differenciate Komodo from the rest of the reds, and the somewhat working auto focus. But on most other accounts I like the DSMC2 line and you will likely have to pay quite a bit in between to get over to Komodo as all accessories etc pretty much needs to be swapped.

 

[Fahnon Bennett]

A bit late, but thanks everyone for answering. I finally did get a Komodo and while I haven’t done side-by-side tests against the Dragon, they do seem to be extremely similar in terms of quality.

Pretty amazing when you consider the size/price of the Komodo (and it has a global shutter)