Helium Color increase DR?

[Kenneth C Merrill]

We're all eager to see the new Helium color science. My question is, could it have any effect on the dynamic range? In RCX it seems that the color science is completely independent of the gamma; so can we expect what we're seeing in terms of DR on the Helium to remain the same?

 

[Kenneth C Merrill]

Phil or Graeme care to chime in?

 

[Andy Roberts]

It has been discussed in numerous threads. Short answer... won't REALLY know until final Helium color science and workflow is released later this month or early next.

It FEELS to me as good if not better than Dragon.

 

[Dominik Bauch]

Look I'll be unpopular and say it: How does it compare to an Alexa image? My greatest hope for this sensor is that it will finally smash the Alexa looks better argument. So far I haven't seen or heard anything definitive about the image aesthetic other than it has tons of resolution and is sharper.
Right now for me 8K will be tough to edit and the alleged higher iso could be tough at times as right now on an Epic Dragon (STH) at iso 400 and a motion mount I can run around shooting exteriors without a mattebox and that is huge.

Would love to upgrade but can't dump $34k without knowing for sure that this will be a massive jump in image aesthetic. Kind of concerning to hear that there are plans to allow people to switch back and forth between Helium and Dragon sensors. If Helium is the bomb, why would anyone want to do that except for VV?

Before I get skinned alive for complaining or being ungrateful, I'm not - just want some more info to be able to make an informed decision.

 

[Andy Roberts]

Wait until the end of the month... that's all I know to say.

 

[Kenneth C Merrill]

It FEELS to me as good if not better than Dragon.

This is good to hear. I'm really mostly just concerned about the highlight performance. It seems to clip very hard. I'm happy protecting the highlights, but I do hope that you can pull extra stops from the bottom since it's supposedly so clean.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Look I'll be unpopular and say it: How does it compare to an Alexa image? My greatest hope for this sensor is that it will finally smash the Alexa looks better argument.

I think there are other concerns like availability, rental cost, colorimetry, and workflow that are harder questions to answer. It's never going to be an apples-to-apples comparison. And there will always be producers whose minds are made up that they only want to shoot Alexa.

I know of 4 or 5 Alexa65 productions going on right now, so that's another factor, too. It's not only about resolution.

 

[Dan Kanes]

I could be wrong but I believe there are less than 15 Alexa65 in existence worldwide... which means they are probably running close to capacity as far as what can be shot with that system.

First impression with RedWidegamutRGB and log3g10 or 12 is that DR is definitely improved... like quite a bit.