Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

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 :)

Epic STREAK FLARING

Status
Not open for further replies.
Yep, I have the same issue. I also kind of liked it. sometimes I don't want it, but yeah its is something I'm aware when I'm shooting with my epic-m.
Any solutions other than mattebox or flags? anyway, I do like it. just wondering what's been talked about possible solutions.
 
Nope. It really needs to be velvet with adhesive backing, if there is such a thing - like the lining on the inside of a Canon lens hood.
I'll be off to a craft store.

This is all crazy stuff, though... be careful around that OLPF!
 
Peter Moretti said:
I'm sorry Mark, but what the two top pictures show are specular highlights flaring. In one case, it's the roof of the car. In the other, it's the sun. What the heck is causing the flare on his hand? Those first two pictures are not analogous to the third.
Click to expand...

agree
 
Mark Toia said:
Question is.. should we be dickin around inside there...

Anyone from RED care to clarify... hate to void warranties, for the sake of a bit of black tape. ?
Click to expand...

We've got our optical engineering guys looking at it.
We can recreate it on epic and red one (and some other unnamed cameras) but it's different on each.
Don't know yet what an final recommendation will be.

If you want to mask the frame yourself, then by all means...
However, please be careful around the OLPF.
 
Last edited:
Interesting thread. One of my hobbies is astrophotography. A few years ago I was one of the first users of a new chilled astrophoto camera with a 50mm square chip. Odd flares showed up immediately from my 16" RC scope. Telescope manufacturers are very careful about baffling various parts of the 'scope to block internal reflections, especially from bright stars that are just outside the filed of view being imaged. I adjusted the baffling on my scope, which helped. I also ended up flocking several parts of the tubing, which helped more. Ultimately, the problem was reflective elements on the very edge of the chip mount. I made a mask from very thin brass to block the reflective edges, which solved all problems. The manufacture ultimately changed their design to add the mask and provided upgrades for all purchases. Anyway, in the case of the Epic M, it looks like the flare (which I have experienced) is caused by the reflection off the flat area near the chip. The best material I have ever found for eliminating such reflections is sheet flocking designed for the purpose. One source for those interested is: http://www.protostar.biz/flock.htm. Hope this helps. I look forward to Red developing a final fix.

Mike
 
Just hope that if this is something that requires fixing it will be applied to the X before shipping. Thanks M owners for sniffing this out.
 
Although the flares can be seen as desirable or interesting, there is one related aspect I've run into which certainly is not. I have a few shots with bright daylit areas at edge of frame where there's no flare as such, but there is a washing out of contrast that must be attributable to the same phenomenon. Essentially just one big soft flare...

You can see the effect in the attached images - these shots were just comparing highlight handling for a client wanting to know what's so useful about HDRx on Epic... Unfortunately the Epic's lovely image is rather spoilt by the weird contrast drop on the subject's face, and I'm sure this is down to the 'gate flare' type reflection spilling light across the sensor from the bright background above her head.
 

Attachments

  • highcon_epic.jpg
    highcon_epic.jpg
    20.5 KB · Views: 0
  • highcon_sony.jpg
    highcon_sony.jpg
    20.8 KB · Views: 0
+1 on that.

I have seen a flare test done by a rental house where they compared flaring between the EPIC and Alexa by shooting directly into a single point source. Lenses included Leica Summilux primes, Master Primes, and Ultra Primes. The Leicas flared the least, the Master Primes flared the most (more elements I guess), and the Ultras were closer to the Leicas.

In the test, you could clearly see the linear flaring being discussed appeared when the camera was panned past the point source (just out of frame).

You could see a clear distinction between normal lens flare (where you see the curved lens elements) and what appears to be sensor flare (the harder, linear flaring that occurs when the camera is panned off of the source).

What was interesting is that the Alexa showed hardly any lens flaring at all, and no off-frame hard fares. The flares you did see were small and blue. The flares (all flares, from all lenses) on the EPIC were larger and red ;)

But I have to say I preferred the overall look of the Epic anyway. More neutral, less blue.

I hope this gets resolved before Epic X ships. Sounds like it could be a relatively simple one.

M
 
I think that I could design and make lovely self adhesive, polycarbonate, black flocked masks to solve this problem . . .

Might be able to devise a simple way for owners to self install.

If you have an Epic and need one, stop by?
 
Douglas Underdahl said:
I think that I could design and make lovely self adhesive, polycarbonate, black flocked masks to solve this problem . . .

Might be able to devise a simple way for owners to self install.

If you have an Epic and need one, stop by?
Click to expand...

I am interested!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top