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 :)

Helium questions

Samir Patel said:
Yeah I have zero interest myself jumping from Helium to Gemini. Agree with Dominik on most subjects lol and as long as you know how to light and learn the camera inside out no need to go any other route.
Click to expand...


This. Pretty much.
 
Sergio Perez said:
Former Weapon Helium owner, who stepped up from Epic Dragon. Now on Monstro.


I shoot lots of motorsport so Helium's bigger crop (but no loss in resolution) for high speed was actually beneficial for certain tele lenses requirements. The Monstro creates me lenses headaches!

In terms of image quality, I've never been disappointed with Helium. It has a bit of a green character to it, but you can easily give it the look you want in grading, like any other Red camera.

8K 2:1 in Helium is absolutely stunning and is most compatible with any cinema lens and fine still glass out there. And at 60fps max you are future proofed beyond the Olympics 8K craze. Something to bear in mind.
Click to expand...

I don’t mind the green it actually helps distinguish people of darker melanin, a little tweak of magenta on the grading wheels does help but I actually like it, this is all depending upon the color scheme we are going for though.

As far as the crop goes, the fix is easy: just shoot with wider lenses or learn to frame with what you have to get the result you want. Yes, I would love 8K at 60 FPS, but maybe just maybe the crop gives us a shot or angle of view we would not traditionally thought to shoot. Now we have a new idea or at least we become more strategic in our framing and lens choices, which can make shooting more fun.

Sergio have you used the Otus glass with you Monstro? How do they hold up?
 
Brandon Obey said:
I don’t mind the green it actually helps distinguish people of darker melanin, a little tweak of magenta on the grading wheels does help but I actually like it, this is all depending upon the color scheme we are going for though.

As far as the crop goes, the fix is easy: just shoot with wider lenses or learn to frame with what you have to get the result you want. Yes, I would love 8K at 60 FPS, but maybe just maybe the crop gives us a shot or angle of view we would not traditionally thought to shoot. Now we have a new idea or at least we become more strategic in our framing and lens choices, which can make shooting more fun.

Sergio have you used the Otus glass with you Monstro? How do they hold up?
Click to expand...

All of them a match made in heaven. My favourite is without a doubt the 28mm. Cannot recommend the set enough.

My next purchase will be the Tokina Vistas. love everything i’ve seen from them.
 
Dominik Muench said:
oh cool yeah even if you want to come down to the coast for a day and check it out, I use the EWA pack for pool and shallow water shots yes. anything more serious I hire a hardcase housing.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dominik, with a new born I'm not getting out much but will be getting back to work next month so I'll try to get in touch.
 
I have been in the Helium wagon since the very beginning. It has been a fantastic camera. When the Gemini came out, it gave me pause. The Gemini is a fantastic camera, I rented it a few times and shot low light stuff (doesn't mean no light) with it. It works wonders, but it's a different camera, with different advantages and disadvantages.
I was seriously considering switching over. Then I shot a music video in Iceland with my Helium, with tough bright skies with a thin layer of clouds, but after a little color work, the pictures just shone through, showing so much detail when I thought it wasn't there. That convinced me to stay. I'm happy I did.
 
For what it's worth my 1st AC on a feature right now just came off a different feature with two Panavized Geminis. He told me after using them for a few weeks he still greatly prefers the image characteristics of Helium. I've never really needed or wanted more low light performance, I think the main compelling feature for Gemini is the higher frame rates with less crop and the taller sensor for anamorphic shooters. If you're shooting concerts or things you can't control the lighting the Gemini is amazing, but for everything else there's Helium.
 
Daniel Pearson said:
Thanks Brandon. It is funny, when Helium came out everyone raved about its low light capability compared to Dragon, now Gemini has been released people seem to think Helium is a low sensitivity sensor. The one time I have shot Helium it was available light in a dance studio, but the colourist pushed it to 4000 ISO and with some NR it came up beautifully in both 4K and HD, so I think it is ample for my needs.
Click to expand...

I find the Helium 8K low light to be really good. Dare I say slightly better then Gemini? The down sampling really adding another level. Filmed a movie in 8K and then down sampled to 2K DPX for color grading. A few night scenes filmed at 3200 ISO. Very little noise. The down sampling does magic. I would have never used 3200 ISO on a Dragon or even on an Alexa! I recently decided to switch to Gemini for practical reasons that out weight the 8K resolution. I love my Gemini, but Helium also did really well. Not afraid to use either in extreme low light.
 
Daniel Pearson said:
I liked the results I got out of it - which says enough - but I have seen some great examples.

Thanks for taking the time to input, this thread has been encouraging if I do end up going in the Helium direction.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I shoot mainly with a Helium as well (Epic-W). If you plan on doing a lot of slow motion, Gemini is a better bet due to the smaller crop. It does require a bit of an adjustment going from full frame to a 25% crop to get a slow mo shot, but the results still look very good if the lighting's good.
 
Scot Yount said:
You answered your own question here. That "wave" of owners is a wave of people who bother to spend time on REDUSER. I love this forum, but I always try to remember the large number of people who buy and or use these cameras but don't necessarily spend much time posting about it.
Click to expand...

Seconded, I went the helium upgrade option over Gemini because it was better for some of my client's needs and I haven't been as active on the forums this year because I've just been shooting a lot lot more on these things. Fact is a lot of stuff is being shot on helium, currently watching glow season 2 and it's all helium on cooke anamorphics, then cropped to hit the 2:1 aspect ratio. 8K 6:5 is a great resolution to start for them especially with that crop coming later. I've done the same thing this year on a project with 2x anas and was surprised with the positive results due to having so much resolution on a usable sensor size that's quite a bit smaller than s35. All in all it's just a really flexible camera.
 
Thanks all for the great input. I'll aim for Helium but see what happens with some upcoming jobs. I'll post back over the next month or two with an update.
 
Has anyone who upgraded epic w to dsmc2 helium noticed less rolling shutter when over cranked?
 
Hmm, that was my biggest worry in going to dsmc2 helium as I need the fps without the rolling shutter I was getting at 6k on epic-w. With that fixed, it makes it much more appealing to me.
 
Sergio Perez said:
All of them a match made in heaven. My favourite is without a doubt the 28mm. Cannot recommend the set enough.

My next purchase will be the Tokina Vistas. love everything i’ve seen from them.
Click to expand...

I thought about getting the 28mm when I bought my Otus set, but Zeiss released had just released the 25mm Milvus
so switched out the 28 for the 25mm (just a smidge wider view to compensate for any cameras crop).
 
Brandon Obey said:
I thought about getting the 28mm when I bought my Otus set, but Zeiss released had just released the 25mm Milvus
so switched out the 28 for the 25mm (just a smidge wider view to compensate for any cameras crop).
Click to expand...

The thing is, I've recently shot a couple of projects and every single time my main lens became the 28mm. Its just the perfect "standard" lens for full frame. It does what the 24mm did for me in the old Dragon/Helium: wide, but giving a very 3 dimensional look to portraits and talent. I would say the 25 would be great for Helium and produce similar results. I used to use the Canon 24.. 1.4, my favourite canon Lens.
 
Drew Thomas said:
Hmm, that was my biggest worry in going to dsmc2 helium as I need the fps without the rolling shutter I was getting at 6k on epic-w. With that fixed, it makes it much more appealing to me.
Click to expand...

I do find the RS on Epic W at times a little intrusive. It's a feeling, not so much pans but general jitter. However i don't see that the DSMC2 upgrade would affect the sensor read out times at all? The sensor read out is pretty much fixed, based on how many rows it's reading. So lower res would have less RS as it's able to read a smaller frame faster, no?

AFAIK the DSMC2 upgrade is all about the processing being faster, meaning that R3Ds can be created at faster rates.

Could be wrong. Would be nice to be wrong.

cheers
Paul
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top