Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • 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 uncaged...

Christopher Probst said:
This a pic that Phil shot of the 9" Red touch screen monitor on the camera while we were shooting... It's abstract enough that I think I can safely post it here...

desertDragonShoot_0050.jpg


What's funny is I always try to shoot for as little noise as possible... Often lnding at 500 or 640 ISO...

Here I was trying to make it dark but the Dragon is so sensitive you really need to rethink your ideas about lighting! The governing factor on this shot was the intensity of the flashlight... At ISO 1500 and 1600, I would have had to futz with NDing the flashlight... We wanted the environment to feel like there was a power outage... As a DP, I wanted enough on my neg to have detail and options without unwanted noise...

I have plenty of noiseless options to knock this down this weekend in the grade!
Click to expand...

Looks amazing! What lens are you shooting with?
 
Speaking of high contrast, I need to play with some of the daylight material to see how it expands the range compared to the same shots from an MX Epic... Busy, busy, but hopefully will get a break to come up for air soon...
 
This is every bit the game changer we've all been waiting for. And I HATE saying that phrase, but THIS -- this is LEGIT. Like someone mentioned earlier (Christopher?), it is time to rethink how we light. Holy crap. Good thing I know some awesome focus pullers. :-D

Thank you RED team...the engineers are absolutely incredible; they deserve a standing ovation.

WFO.

Where is everyone tonight? Wow.
 
Eryc Tramonn said:
This is every bit the game changer we've all been waiting for. And I HATE saying that phrase, but THIS -- this is LEGIT.
Click to expand...

"Game Changer" is getting tossed around like a hacky sack at Venice Beach.

For me Dragon is more of a "history maker" in my humble opinion.

Nothing out there does what Dragon can do. That's pretty much the simplified version of the whole story.
 
Christopher Probst said:
As long as highlight detail doesn't clip, my dark scenes are always exposed brighter than intended and with a suitably low ISO as the lighting conditions allow. The further you separate your image from any "noise floor" the cleaner the end result will be and the more range (and bits of actual data) for manipulation...

That MX and Dragon are extremely clean to begin with is just a bonus...
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing your approach, Christopher. Makes perfect sense. And it's what Jim has been saying all along, "Protect the highlights."

Now it's a matter of protect the highlights as far as comfortable to the right (sans clipping), and then you'll have more room in the floor -- plenty of detail, and avoid the noise. There's that much range -- oh, I get it. And I'm READY FOR IT.

And that knee is looking smooth as butter.

It's just a shame that so many people DO NOT get it. I have a buddy shooting a feature on a GH2 -- when I have an EPIC. Que sera sera.
 
Christopher Probst said:
This a pic that Phil shot of the 9" Red touch screen monitor on the camera while we were shooting... It's abstract enough that I think I can safely post it here...

desertDragonShoot_0050.jpg


What's funny is I always try to shoot for as little noise as possible... Often landing at 500 or 640 ISO...

Here I was trying to make it dark but the Dragon is so sensitive you really need to rethink your ideas about lighting! The governing factor on this shot was the intensity of the flashlight... At ISO 1500 and 1600, I would have had to futz with NDing the flashlight... We wanted the environment to feel like there was a power outage... As a DP, I wanted enough on my neg to have detail and options without unwanted noise...

I have plenty of noiseless options to knock this down this weekend in the grade!
Click to expand...

That was shot @ ISO 1250 or so!!!? Anyway it looks pretty good!!!
 
That shot with the Kowa Looks awesome :)
Maybe old lenses will be rediscovered with the abilities of the digital workflow
 
Phil Holland said:
"Game Changer" is getting tossed around like a hacky sack at Venice Beach.

For me Dragon is more of a "history maker" in my humble opinion.

Nothing out there does what Dragon can do. That's pretty much the simplified version of the whole story.
Click to expand...

You're completely right, Phil. It's not a strong enough statement. I'm still up at 3:30 in the AM, running on fumes and staring at an image on a monitor -- yeah, I get it.
 
Since the Dragon took a while longer to tame than expected, have you had time to arrange so RED UK will be able to handle the upgrade aswell (not send cameras back and forth to US)?
 
Jannard said:
Every once in awhile the hard work and endless effort seems to pay off. This is one of those times.

You get to a place that satisfies all your effort. Then it is time to move on to the next milestone.

I'm happy to take a brief moment to celebrate here... the Dragon. It is everything we hoped it would be...

Jim
Click to expand...

Congratulations Jim! You are a true inspiration!
 
Jannard said:
One major league production was going to shoot EPIC MX for everything except the "wide vistas"... and use 6K Dragon on those. After viewing his tests... the project will go 100% Dragon. It is a 20 camera shoot.
Jim
Click to expand...

Would love to hear more about this. :)

Am I right to think that at first they were thinking in terms of just the resolution and that the 6K would give extra ooomph to the wide shots but once they got a hold of it they realised the dragon sensor was a quantum leap in other ways than resolution and decided they had to use it for everything?

Was there a lot of low light shooting?

Freya
 
Dragon has the potential to be cinemagraphic milestone. Will this be the camera that finally outperforms film acquisition? Epic MX and Alexa have created images that have been close enough to film that it has been hard to rationalise the extra cost of film production unless on A grade budget. Now there may be a camera that will outperform film acquisition on multiple levels. We need to see Dragon images in a whole range of situations before declaring a new King but I suspect the inevitable day may be arriving very soon.
 
No more teasers tonight? Okay, I'm out, so I can get up in an hour. Haha. Night...and many congratulations! It'll be tough to sleep tonight.

This is birth of cinema stuff...1895 to 2013. So cool. Glad I lived to see it (among other things, of course). :)
 
Congratulations! ... and to the team that will have the pleasure to shoot with 20 Dragons -- I send my best wishes. (Can't wait to see it on the screen).
 
Last edited:
Phil Holland said:
For me Dragon is more of a "history maker" in my humble opinion.

Nothing out there does what Dragon can do. That's pretty much the simplified version of the whole story.
Click to expand...

but the very best thing is that you have seen and we are about to see generation 1 of this. Given REds amazing track record at making things better, it's so great to know that they will just keep making it better!

thanks for your work here in recent weeks Phil, it's been a pleasure reading your posts.

jim et all.

Way to go. It's like revving the engine in garage when you've started it up for the first time after working on it all winter. Just want to get it on the open road.

David
 
Christopher Probst said:
Speaking of high contrast, I need to play with some of the daylight material to see how it expands the range compared to the same shots from an MX Epic... Busy, busy, but hopefully will get a break to come up for air soon...
Click to expand...

Phil Holland said:
"Game Changer" is getting tossed around like a hacky sack at Venice Beach.

For me Dragon is more of a "history maker" in my humble opinion.

Nothing out there does what Dragon can do. That's pretty much the simplified version of the whole story.
Click to expand...

Chris or Phil, in the shot of the touchscreen it appears the temp was running pretty low. Jarred said the Dragon loves heat. Do you get the sense that Dragon footage will look better when shot at a higher temp? And what about black shading?... any difference in requirements or how that is handled on the MX sensor and the Dragon?
 
Shane Betts said:
Does this mean the 6x4.5 is next? Huh? Huh?
Click to expand...

Hey, Bettsy! Haven't seen you around in a while. :)

And I second that question. I've been dreaming of that EPIC 645 ever since it was first mentioned/ announced....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top