How does the Red Scarlet-w perform at low Iso values(50-100)?

[Jørgen Bull]

Hey! Does anyone know about any good research on how the scarlet-w performes at iso 50 or low iso values in general?

 

[Akin A]

Lowering ISO on a RED camera is just adding metadata that tells the software to bring down the midtones in the curve. So if you give the camera enough light to make the image look good a low ISO (such as 320 or lower), the image will be very clean.

High ISO are more of a concern, since you would be adding metadata to tell the software to lift the midtones, creating a brighter image, instead of giving the image more light while actually shooting.

 

[Kyle Stryker]

I don't really recommend rating the camera that low. I think 250 or 320 it typically where I would land, if need be. If your ISO is set to 50 you aren't really getting much of that pretty highlight retention that really makes the camera sing, thats why people typically rate the camera at 500 or 800 for outdoors and stack NDs. You can probably find some r3ds to play with and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

[Ben Richardson]

It's really important to understand that in spite of all the very clever FLUT and ISO algorithms downstream of it, the sensor in all Red cameras does have an absolute sensitivity (somewhat akin to an ISO film speed) and that falls somewhere between 320-800 ISO, depending on who you ask.

The software (either in-camera or after the fact) can shift the mid-tones up or down to give more balanced overall images at different ISO ratings, but the sensor itself doesn't magically get more or less sensitive. So by rating the camera at 50 ISO you are in effect overexposing by around 3-4 stops. And since digital sensors – even very high dynamic range ones like the Dragon – clip highlights harshly and forever at SOME point, you just increased the odds of doing so by many stops. Few things make an image look bad quicker than digital clipping of the highlights.

Test to find your own preferred rating, but generally you should rate the camera at between 320-1280 ISO (I personally go for slightly higher ISO in daylight shooting, since the highlights are usually what matter) and add enough ND to get to your desired aperture.