Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register 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 :)

Help Choosing which OLPF!

D

David Bourla

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
252
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
New York City
Just upgraded to Dragon and now I have the two OLPF to choose from. But switching filters isn't always possible in some scenarios so I'm asking those of you with plenty of experience these questions:

1. If a Dragon is stuck with the low light filter and suddenly needs to shoot outdoors in bright sunlight, what exactly am I risking here? Proper skin tones? Protected highlights? How bad will it be?

2. If a Dragon is stuck with the skin tone filter - and suddenly needs to shoot low light interiors - I get noisy blacks?

I guess I'm asking whether a user can use whatever filter they have - but what precautions and methods protect the image if the "wrong" filter is used? Can someone elaborate on what exactly to expect?

Many thanks!
 
Buy both and don't look back. Skintone OLPF - less orb smearing, better skintones, protected highlights. Low light - better performance in low light, still looks great, less protection in highlights.
 
Im also under impression...if you need to protect for cmos smear, lowlight could be easier...as its harder to under expose.

Maybe worthwhile to see what Probst did for Bad Blood. Interiors with slowmo? Lowlight. Exterior? Skintone.

Both are capable of amazing results. Best answer is test both...and find best ways each OLPF can serve your needs.
 
If you have enough light shoot skin tone... if you do not have enough light or are shooting in very low light available shoot the low light OLPF.

There is about a stop's worth of difference between them.... If you believe the goal posts which I am faithful to.
 
If you are shooting interiors or low-light situations with the Skin-Tone OLPF, try to set the ISO at 250-500 and open up the iris of the lens a bit more to compensate. I rate Skin-Tone at 800 ISO only when I really need to, and then use D.E.B. in post if needed.

If you use the low-light OLPF outdoors in full sunlight, you just need to be a bit more careful with the highlights, as you did with the MX sensor. In severe overexposure, what you'll miss is the nice highlight roll off that you can get with the Skin-Tone OLPF.
 
You will be suprised how little practical difference there is. I put the LLO OPLF on a few months ago and have yet to swap it back. When I have a cosmetics TVC or a day on the beach I will swap back to the STH and it will probably stay there untill I really need that extra stop again. Don't sweat it.
 
David Bourla said:
Just upgraded to Dragon and now I have the two OLPF to choose from. But switching filters isn't always possible in some scenarios so I'm asking those of you with plenty of experience these questions:

1. If a Dragon is stuck with the low light filter and suddenly needs to shoot outdoors in bright sunlight, what exactly am I risking here? Proper skin tones? Protected highlights? How bad will it be?

2. If a Dragon is stuck with the skin tone filter - and suddenly needs to shoot low light interiors - I get noisy blacks?

I guess I'm asking whether a user can use whatever filter they have - but what precautions and methods protect the image if the "wrong" filter is used? Can someone elaborate on what exactly to expect?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...

to me the lowlight is the best option if you have to pick one. As it lowers the noise floor and the colors are pretty darn good. Skintone might be a step better in terms of midtone colors but the difference is to me not worth the loss of details in the darks. But having both is nice, but far from a must have thing.

here is a bright right before magic hour frame with lowlight olpf with pretty wide DR... developed with all default settings. i.e 800iso, 5600k no tint no curves etc. To me that shows pretty good skinetones, and nice highlight roleoff and contrasty rich blacks with no noise.

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/108703124@N02/17946580052/
 
If you only get one get the lowlight
 
You actually don't need to run IR filters with your NDs regardless of which OLPF you get. Your OLPF selection does not impact IR contamination whatsoever.
 
I am pretty blown away by the STH. It looks great in low light.
 

Attachments

  • Smith.jpg
    Smith.jpg
    76.6 KB · Views: 0
I have the same question. I was just able to ship mine to get upgraded today, I requested the LLO as the low light performance is what I'm most interested in checking out. I will def get both but am really excited to see that nice highlight roll off. For me it's about which to test first however I do want to shoot a bit before swapping them out, reading these posts are making re-think and ask for the STH one to be installed at upgrade.
 
Without knowing what everybody out there is shooting I'd recommend getting both. I use both of them depending on certain conditions and light levels. Though I do use the STH more often than the LLO OLPF. But I did about a month of filming this year purely on the LLO, so without it that wouldn't have been ideal.
 
I wanted to go with the low light optimized and forgot to mentioned it when upgrading... I'm so happy I did because all the "horrors" of noise that people tend to speak about is way over the top. The STH performs really nice and is much closer to the look and feel of 35mm film. If you like that kind of look then the STH is a no-brainer. The noise you get is also much nicer, so even if the noise turns up at lower ISO:s it's a great looking noise that won't disturb and look digital like MX:s noise did. Get the STH and learn how it performs and how to work with it.

If you must have low light capabilities I don't know why you started the thread in the first place, because then it's obvious that you need the LLO, but if you're on the fence then the STH is the way to go.



In another thread, I heard that the OLPF can't be changed on an upgraded Dragon? Is this true? Haven't checked my camera as I don't have an extra OLPF.
 
Christoffer Glans said:
In another thread, I heard that the OLPF can't be changed on an upgraded Dragon? Is this true? Haven't checked my camera as I don't have an extra OLPF.
Click to expand...

This doesn't sound right. All Dragon's installed with swappable OLPF's...can change OLPF's as needed...regardless of whether Dragon is "new" or "upgraded".

I've personally seen upgraded Dragons that can swap mounts, let me put it that way!
 
Christoffer Glans said:
I wanted to go with the low light optimized and forgot to mentioned it when upgrading... I'm so happy I did because all the "horrors" of noise that people tend to speak about is way over the top. The STH performs really nice and is much closer to the look and feel of 35mm film.
Click to expand...

Amen.


Christoffer Glans said:
In another thread, I heard that the OLPF can't be changed on an upgraded Dragon? Is this true? Haven't checked my camera as I don't have an extra OLPF.
Click to expand...

100% NOT true.
 
Nick Morrison said:
This doesn't sound right. All Dragon's installed with swappable OLPF's...can change OLPF's as needed...regardless of whether Dragon is "new" or "upgraded".

I've personally seen upgraded Dragons that can swap mounts, let me put it that way!
Click to expand...

Early upgraded dragons has a olpf system that is fixed. Could be old lowlight olpf or skinetone. Those cameras could be sent in and get the swappable system, free of charge. So you can not just grab a dragon and expect that you can swap the olpf on the spot as some does not have that option installed.
 
Björn Benckert said:
Early upgraded dragons has a olpf system that is fixed. Could be old lowlight olpf or skinetone. Those cameras could be sent in and get the swappable system, free of charge. So you can not just grab a dragon and expect that you can swap the olpf on the spot as some does not have that option installed.
Click to expand...

Totally agree - but those original Dragon upgrades could be sent in to be updated. Thankfully it's not a permanent condition!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top