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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Dragon Flare

OK . . . now I'm comfortable that the appropriate testing has been done to support 2012 marketing claims. Now let's ship the beast!!!

Again, very thoughtful work Phil. You are a real asset to RED.
 
I imagine your results are accurate, however that JPEG seems to have at least one mistake in it (maybe from photoshoping the wedges on to the image): stop 15 is brighter than stop 14. 14 seems to be just stop 16.

Stop 14/16 are also almost the exact same exposure. This would be an interesting test to look at R3D stills for if you have them available. There are some other 'oddball' stops in there too that would be nice to confirm are just JPEG oddities not test results. E.g. it would be my guess from the JPEG that Wedge 1 is about 2/3rds of a stop over white. 7/8 are almost the same.

If you take out a stop on top and the 14,15,16 1/3rd stop gaps. 7/8 are also not really a gap in the JPEG (I know I know jpegs) so that's a combined 5 stop difference... 21 - 5 = 16 stops. Which is about what most other tests are showing.

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Edit: Looking at the Sekonic chart... I guess I would have a test procedure question. Did you use the same square (center) for all measurements or different squares? You might have had your results corrupted by the fact that the chart isn't entirely flatly lit. Especially the middle row. You could have 4 squares which essentially have a grad filter on them from light uniformity and mild vignetting.
 
Gavin Greenwalt said:
I imagine your results are accurate, however that JPEG seems to have at least one mistake in it (maybe from photoshoping the wedges on to the image): stop 15 is brighter than stop 14. 14 seems to be just stop 16.

Stop 14/16 are also almost the exact same exposure. This would be an interesting test to look at R3D stills for if you have them available. There are some other 'oddball' stops in there too that would be nice to confirm are just JPEG oddities not test results. E.g. it would be my guess from the JPEG that Wedge 1 is about 2/3rds of a stop over white. 7/8 are almost the same.

If you take out a stop on top and the 14,15,16 1/3rd stop gaps. 7/8 are also not really a gap in the JPEG (I know I know jpegs) so that's a combined 5 stop difference... 21 - 5 = 16 stops. Which is about what most other tests are showing.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Weirdness. I'll investigate.

I'll run this test again on my camera when the OLPF gets updated. The test camera goes back to Red today.

Can't post .R3Ds yet because this is all alpha RCX.

**edit - fixed. A battle between optimized web exporting/sRGB conversion and my own stupidity.
 
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Figured it was something like that. Because looking at the plotted stops... it wasn't very linear. ;)

EDIT: Updated Chart. It should be noted that the stops are somewhat meaningless for 7 -> 21 since there is some sort of gamma curve on the source signal.

 
Yep. Give that a try again. Damn ghost in the machine.

I will be doing this in a prettier way with my camera down the line after OLPF/Calibration upgrade.
 
That looks better. (Updated chart) 7/8 I still think are the same wedge.

It's still a little odd too though that it starts off nearly perfectly linear for the first 6 stops and then peeters out progressively from there. I suspect this will be part of the sensor calibration or maybe just a function of ISO. Lots to learn on the new sensor.

If we exclude 1-> 2 (clipped beyond white) and 7/8 (same stop) that would still be 19 stops theoretical if your test is accurate.
 
Impressive improvement... And any other company would have sold us that as sensor-upgrade or new brain/camera. ;) Great job RED.
And thanks Phil for your work!
 
I get:

With Curve
patch 7 - averaged 114
patch 8 - averaged 120

Without Curve
patch 7 - averaged 122
patch 8 - averaged 124
 
I'll look into it and eventually shoot this again with my body. Testing camera goes back to Red in like one hour, so not enough time to shoot this again.

So, stay tuned for a prettier one, also it won't have the image noise seen in the patches shown. I did this rather quickly to get as much testing in before I had to send the brain back. Which was tricky. I had two shooting days this week too!
 
Look forward to it! And honestly, thanks again. It's nice to have raw data flowing out from cameras.

BTW I linearized the bottom of the curve and I count 18.3 stops in the chart assuming the chart was evenly lit etc.
 
Awhile back, RED rented my Alexa and asked me to hold off on the memory cards. When they picked it up (good friends of mine) they explained that it was for developing the new OLPF sensor, and they needed an Alexa to study for the initial R&D. The primary goal of the development was to fix the skin tones that came out using the current sensor.

Up until that point, even when the Dragon was first announced, they knew they had the whole OLPF thing backwards, which is why the Epic always looked "the way it did". RED had never had an Alexa in their hands, so they didnt have anything to go off of. This development is a big leap for the dragon in terms of color, skin tones, etc, etc. Looking forward to when we can finally see it in the real world.
 
Arthur To said:
Awhile back, RED rented my Alexa and asked me to hold off on the memory cards. When they picked it up (good friends of mine) they explained that it was for developing the new OLPF sensor, and they needed an Alexa to study for the initial R&D. The primary goal of the development was to fix the skin tones that came out using the current sensor.

Up until that point, even when the Dragon was first announced, they knew they had the whole OLPF thing backwards, which is why the Epic always looked "the way it did". RED had never had an Alexa in their hands, so they didnt have anything to go off of. This development is a big leap for the dragon in terms of color, skin tones, etc, etc. Looking forward to when we can finally see it in the real world.
Click to expand...

This is meant as a joke, right? The story doesn't seem plausible in light if the legal dispute with arri/Michael bravin, avid reds ongoing insistence that their flesh tones are fine. And if they did do reverse engineering or at least keeping up with the competition, they could afford a couple alexas to disassemble. And I really doubt they would do business with a rental company with the lack of discretion you suggest.
 
Arthur To said:
Awhile back, RED rented my Alexa and asked me to hold off on the memory cards. When they picked it up (good friends of mine) they explained that it was for developing the new OLPF sensor, and they needed an Alexa to study for the initial R&D. The primary goal of the development was to fix the skin tones that came out using the current sensor.

Up until that point, even when the Dragon was first announced, they knew they had the whole OLPF thing backwards, which is why the Epic always looked "the way it did". RED had never had an Alexa in their hands, so they didnt have anything to go off of. This development is a big leap for the dragon in terms of color, skin tones, etc, etc. Looking forward to when we can finally see it in the real world.
Click to expand...

Oooo . . . I love a good mystery novel. Please continue!
 
Hey Phil, has RED mentioned if the Dragon OLPF wizardry is coming to MX? I seem to recall Jim saying they'd offer different OLPFs (like a low con) just to appease the crowd, but I couldn't tell if he was joking.
 
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