Enter the Dragon

[Axel Mertes]

What is the dynamic range of the human eye?

The dynamic range of the human eye is commonly understood to be around 7 without changing the iris (because otherwise its not the dynamic range of the eye, but the lense plus iris plus the receptors).

A good projection is typically designed to deliver about 7 stops on output, so your iris does not need to accomodate when viewing around and you can see all details "at once".

However, in todays projections you can get really hefty dynamic range, which means you may be able to show more dynamic range than your eye can see "at once". Typically this is not a good idea for a movie projection, because your movie will contain such bright image areas that you can't see the highlight details without loosing all low light details at the same time (due to your eye changing iris size) and vice versa. Who's filmmakers intention would that be to loose parts of the images by a wide dynamic range projection? Its like risking to giving up a piece of story telling.

For scientific use such high dynamic range projection may be useful, but rarely for movies (IMHO).

High dynamic range on the ingest is ALWAYS welcome, though...

 

[Elsie N]

Every nerve in my body is tingling like random blinking Christmas lights. My mind is racing, trying to visualize ways to use this. It is scary knowing the price is going up but I'm sure I can cut out buying anything else in order to own this. Owning this may be more important than owning food (that isn't past its use-by date.) I just wish the Epic could somehow be made to record my imminent dreams about the Dragon.

 

[Peter Moretti]

I'm sure the folks at Sony and Arri are saying "WTF" right about now (or at least they will in the morning as they nurse their collective hang-overs). Congratulations to Jim, Jarred and all the talented folks at Red! Happy New Year.

It looks like Drangon is going to make the Alexa the new HVX.

 

[dennys bisogno]

Scarlet users should be doing backflips It has been one of the biggest requests from Scarlet owners to be able to trade up to an Epic.. and that was before we knew just how significant Dragon has become

Jarred, this is great - thank you for looking for ways to have a win-win with your loyal Scarlet customers.

 

[Chris Gurtlinger]

It looks like Drangon is going to make the Alexa the new HVX.

+1 i was thinking the same thing after I got over the initial shock and awe of it all:-D Can't wait to get my hands on the Epic with Dragon in it now!

 

[Elijah Kelley]

Dragon Monochrome...

Dragon clearly 20+ stops

WooooooW....so technically what leap is that in Moore's law?

 

[Casey Green]

Astounding.

 

[Casey Green]

Oh, but please leave HDRx mode in the firmware as it is very handy for other aspects of photography, such as simultaneous motion/still shooting, etc.

 

[dennys bisogno]

Hmm, I know it would not be anything spectacular all along. So now I will sell our Epic M and follow Josh and the others to over to get inline for a BMC cinema camera, or maybe not.... :drool:.

LMAO!!!!

 

[Marden Blake]

My only hope is that my Scarlet trade-in will actually make a noticeable dent in the upgrade price to the Epic Dragon.

 

[Lauri Kettunen]

This will open completely new possibilities in imaging. We will be able to shoot things which have not been possible ever before. Fantastic ... and wonderful that your models failed to predict the outcome.

 

[dennys bisogno]

What is the dynamic range of the human eye?

I found this from photo.stackexchange.com

t's important to note that the eye acts as a contrast detector rather than an absolute level detector (such as a digital camera sensor uses) so comparisons need care.With irising, chemical adaptation and every other trick it can pull it seems that the absolute dynamic range of the whole eye system is well over 20 stops. As each stop is a factor of 2, that's 2^20 or about "well over 1,000,000:1". At the top end, the sun is too bright!!!. At the bottom end the dark adapted eye can detect a single photon. A D3S (better performance than a D4) may have trouble with that. (Note that that is not EVERY photon - when you get down to the few photons per second level a lot of then will hit non sensor areas and not be detected. BUT when one does strike a sensitive retina area it will produce asignal that can be recorded.)​

 

[Bob Gundu]

I just wanted to get my name on this legendary thread! Congrats RED!

 

[Pascal Payant]

I'm wondering if there will be an firmware upgrade to get at least more FPS in 4k like 60fps to creates slom motion. that would be the best

 

[Zack McTee]

This is incredible. Wondering what the cost will be, and the wait time for scarlet upgrades. Awesome opportunity, thanks for remembering the folks who waited for Scarlet. Hoping the transition to Epic-Dragon won't be too unattainable.

 

[tonydavis]

great.....waiting to see the first mainstream feature shot with dragon...:yesnod:

 

[Bob Gundu]

You guys totally kept your promise on showing a sneak peak of Dragon before the new year!

 

[Tonaci Tran]

Get your wallets full... the increase in ASIC spending means the upgrade will cost a bit more. But well worth it.

Jim

Deal of the of a lifetime. Just the fact that an upgrade program exists is mind blowing. To date, I don't think any other company does this.
Thanks for the amazing news Jim and Jarred!! I can't wait to shoot with Dragon sensor. =)

 

[Lliam Worthington]

That's amazing. Congratulations RED team.

 

[Phil Holland]

One additional thought before the champagne.

With this level or latitude and what we are referring to as native ISO 2000 we'll be able handle some of the stranger low light conditions that sometimes can produce "super saturation" within the image on modern cameras. That's my theory until its tested. Really interesting potential there as well.