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  • 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 :)

Impressive black shade speed!

Marcus Friedlander

Marcus Friedlander

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Finally got some time to sit down and play around with my new DRAGON. So I fired up the camera, let it get warm, and then performed my first black shade and it took less then 5 minutes (4:43 for anyone who wants to know exactly). Got to say, as a 1st Ac who has been working with the MX for a while, I am beyond pleased. Doing the black shade dance (especially on music videos with varying FPS) was always a bit tricky but now it looks like it will be much easier! Can't wait to find out more about this camera!
 
Marcus,

You also have four slots to record blackshades into so you can include three more offspeeds for near instant recall. I have never needed to BS on location with these presets.
 
Yep. Between the speed increase for running the Black Shade Calibration and having those stored calibrations on Dragon, it's made life a heck of a lot easier.

For my way of shooting I typically run:

1/24
1/48
1/60
1/120

This has become rather standard on my gigs. All 3 of the Dragons I had on set this month rocked this, minus the Motion Mount equipped one which got it's own calibrations.

It's an underrated improvement, but it plays a major role. Nice that Red put the effort in to making this easier. I imagine in a camera or two this might even go away or change slightly to make it even better.
 
Plus.

You can add a shortcut, or map any key on the camera to take you the the sensor cal menu in one click.

I run four presets, one for each blackshading calibration.

If I switch presets, I hit one key to take me to the sensor cal menu and then load the coreesponding black shading calibration.

The whole switch takes about 15 seconds, once you set it all up to your liking.

So going from high speed to timelapse to standard 24 only takes literally seconds.

Battistella
 
I think is by far one of the single biggest improvements. I've been shooting a lot of stuff where we're recording sync sound one minute then goin high speed the next. I've got thse calibrations done as well as a 1fps at 360 to do some fun night long exposure stuff.

With the short cut key mapped out, like David was saying any of he four bs are seconds away.

It rocks.

What would be really cool is in the future the camera automatically stores black shades for like ten different exposures and automatically grabs which ever black shade is required for the given exposure.

Maybe it stores every exposure/bs combination you'd need from 1fps to 240fps. Then the camera chooses which bs it needs every time you switch fps/exposure.
 
Or to make it even more automated, the camera could record all different frame rates back shading profiles when you black shade, even if it takes an hour, and automatically recall them when you change the frame rates when shooting. No operator input needed. All automatic...
 
I get all the concerns and Dragon addresses a bunch of them.

blackshading calibration is there to give users the very best image the camera can offer at a very wide range of shutter angles, filming conditions and sensor temperatures.

If you do proper blackshading and use the frame averaging modes, the results kinda blow your mind as one example.

The real concern should only be if one parameter is in the RED.

I appreciate that its there because it's letting you know that your operating out of range, like a fuel gage for maximum picture quality.

its been reduced to a ten minute pain in the ass when you have to do and a ten second pain in the ass when you prep for your shooting situations.

At this moment my camera is set to capture between 1 and 360degree shutter speed at a sensor temp between 44-62 degrees with an adaptive fan mode that keeps it there.

That covers me for any situation in ten seconds and the camera warns me when I need to make a change.

In in order to store that on in camera memory, we would probably need to give up other key features.


Battistella
 
Jay Silver said:
I think is by far one of the single biggest improvements. I've been shooting a lot of stuff where we're recording sync sound one minute then goin high speed the next. I've got thse calibrations done as well as a 1fps at 360 to do some fun night long exposure stuff.

With the short cut key mapped out, like David was saying any of he four bs are seconds away.

It rocks.

What would be really cool is in the future the camera automatically stores black shades for like ten different exposures and automatically grabs which ever black shade is required for the given exposure.

Maybe it stores every exposure/bs combination you'd need from 1fps to 240fps. Then the camera chooses which bs it needs every time you switch fps/exposure.
Click to expand...

That would be so cool! And thanks for the advice everyone! I'm currently setting up my DRAGON blackshades the way you guys suggested!
 
I only set up my blackshading calibrations after a FW upgrade.

The only other time I do one is if temperature dictates it. The camera might show me a red temp warning.

Other than that I do them once for prep, anticipating the environment, because there is no point doing them indoors when you might be shooting in sub zero temperatures for example. Then I would take the camera outside the evening before or the morning of and do them in that cold weather as prep.

I'd probably store my normal ones on an SSD and then just reinstall them after. Same if going to hot environments. But seriously, I've been in the very hot summer months in Tuscany without changing them because the fans work so well at keeping temperature.

Battistella
 
Patrick Tresch said:
Recalling the BS memory is less than 10"wich is great!

Pat
Click to expand...

10 seconds (generous estimate by the time you flick through the menus) is an eternity when you are shooting a documentary. A yellow E+ is what you will see most of the time if you care about the story.
 
Milan S. said:
10 seconds (generous estimate by the time you flick through the menus) is an eternity when you are shooting a documentary. A yellow E+ is what you will see most of the time if you care about the story.
Click to expand...

You don't have to freek out seeing the yellow E+ but there was a time loading custom presets took 5 minutes. I do prefer 10''.
10'' could also be the time you sneeze and whipe your noise, if people aren't ready to shoot they aren't even with a 1'' BS. ;-)

Pat
 
raistlin22384 said:
phil and david,

are you guys still black shading every day, or at ever new location, or do you use the same calibrations day to day?
Click to expand...

I don't Black Shade everyday. I do Black Shade if the weather conditions are fairly different, if I adjust the Fan Control, need a different shutter speed, or just feel like doing it.

For instance this job I've been on for about 2 months has dealt with cold and rainy conditions as well as fairly good weather. Most of the time I'm running it maybe once or twice a week at the most. If the weather and temperature outside was less erratic I'd have no problem keeping a BS for a month even.

What I will say though, if you are super concerned adding it to camera prep in the morning "reminds" you to do it and protects from forgetting to do it. I see a lot of people in Washington doing that.
 
Just got my Dragon and amazed by the speed and internal storage as well... Before I used to have to blackshade, save cals to the mag, upload to my laptop desktop, copy to each card shoot, format, recopy etc. I would get out to shoot some days and then realize i didn't upload the calibrations, take out the laptop again, copy, then shoot. Such a pain that has now gone away!!!

I keep a cal for 1/48 for 23.98 shooting, 1/250th for 120 fps shooting, 1/1250th for 240fps shooting and 1sec for 1fps shooting. LIFE IS GRAND! :)
 
But it would be cool if something was implemented so that when changing exposure time / framerate the camera gave us a little popup "10 second change to better blackshade? yes/no" if there was one in any of the buffers. It must be quite easy to implement.... far more easy than for rental clients to get their head around blackshading.

Also I think there shoulf be a short cut / finger click on the touch screen on the temp thing next to the histogram, and viola we are sent into the calibrate sensor menu, no?


Just as I think the menu that comes up when clicking the histogram should have a button that goes to where we load looks files. its not too intuitive to find those menus as they are now.

temp goes red... click it. That I think rental clients would find more simple than digging all trough the menu tree.
 
for some strange reason It seems the noise is much cleaner and more hidden when running slower shutter. For example. Black shading for 1/96 and then shooting 1/48 the E+ shows for exposure but the noise is drastically reduced. Is it just me or is this a normal thing to happen?
 
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