Epic REDCODE Compression Test with Pics to compare

[Alex Boeke]

Hi,
we made Compression Test with the Epic to give our Clients a tool to define their own best Compression setting for their Projects.
We shot the same Garden Back with different Compression with the Epic in 5K HD and posted 1:1 center crops to compare in Photoshop.
Also we made 3 jpgs downscaled to Full HD to show that there is even less difference. We pushed Saturation to a extreme there.

Here is a Blogpost in German about it:
http://fxgarden.de/red-epic-kompressions-test/

and for the non German Speakers, here is the zip with the pics to download:
http://fxgarden.de/content/epic-kompressions-test.zip

I hope this is helpfull for people who rent an Epic to determine which compression is the best compromise between Quality and Data Handling/Storage for their particular Job.

Of course when we have our Dragon we have to do it all again

Alex

 

[Dominik Muench]

ha da soll noch einer sagen bielefeld gibts nicht wirklich

well done guys.

 

[Eric Z]

Thanks for this test.
To me it looks like up to 5:1 compression is acceptable on EPIC M-X.
EPIC Dragon would take this up a notch or two.

 

[Alex Boeke]

Danke Dominik, wir müssen uns ja mal bemerkbar machen

@Eric
I think downscaled to HD even more than 5:1 is acceptable.
But everyone (and for every Project) has to decide for himself what ratio they choose.
Thats one of the many great things about the Epic: the power of Choice.
We shoot most of our stuff between 8:1 and 10:1.
On High End Stuff 5:1 0r 6:1.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Hm. I end up doing 3:1 on a lot of stuff, if I can.

But that is my own things.

Shooting for others, it is often in the 5:1/8:1 ballpark

 

[Robert Ruffo New]

Use lower compression if:

- You will be doing aggressive secondaries based on HSL qualification
- You are pushing the ISO high
- There is a lot of black/dark grey in the frame
- There are "codec breakers" present in the frame (lots of tiny details in focus, leaves moving in focus, lots of water).
- If two or more of the above are present, then even MORE reason...

I feel Red One was more efficient than Epic - the same data went further in terms of quality (of course doing the math and allowing for the size differences between 5 and 4K)

That said, we always shoot 3:1 Hard drives are cheap. Why not. But really, 5:1 has never given us any issues.