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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 :)

Is Helium really better? A Dragon owner is asking

Bruce Schultz said:
Very interesting DxOMark ratings just released for Helium vs Dragon, not a full stop faster but more like .4 stop faster according to their measurements.
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I don't see any measurements from them for Alexa or Panasonic Varicam or the Canon cinema cameras.
 
DXOMark are a consultancy firm, not a reviews site and them pushing themselves as the source of all ratings is a bit of a strong-arm tactic to force other companies to use their services too. The flipside is if Arri or Canon or Sony want to submit Cinema cameras to it they can but now if they don't have a higher score than Red's for marketing purposes what was the point of the exercise?

Frankly I think the DXO scoring is a bit of pointless willy-waving
 
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Marc Wielage said:
I don't see any measurements from them for Alexa or Panasonic Varicam or the Canon cinema cameras.
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They seem to mostly test stills cameras. But as RED cameras produce such high quality stills, they seem to be comparing RED cameras as well in their tests.
 
Did an unofficial test using the W-Dragon and W-Helium side by side, same light, same ISO, same aperture, same exposure and OLPF. The Helium was indeed less noisy, not that the Dragon was bad, but helium was cleaner.
 
I've taken a rather different approach to all of this and have been shooting tests and analyzing results for a few days. Still a bit more to do, but should have some things to show and share next week. If you've been tracking me on Instagram you can see that shot a few charts and all that. Did a lot of things 3 times to make sure results were results and not accidents. It's been a pain really, though therapeutic.

I'm looking at both of RED's 8K offerings. The Dragon 8K VV and Helium 8K S35. They are indeed different beasts, but also have some unique qualities in terms of what they are and how they do what they do. The wiggle is I also should have tested Weapon Dragon 6K S35, but I no longer have that camera.

I'm also digging into IPP2 further during this. Finding some interesting things there. Been making some optimization and more aesthetic based LUTs while I've been at it.
 
Phil, I personally love your well conceived and accurately performed tests and occasional resultant LUT's, so I'm anxious to see your above mentioned test results.
 
Bruce Schultz said:
Phil, I personally love your well conceived and accurately performed tests and occasional resultant LUT's, so I'm anxious to see your above mentioned test results.
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Thank you Bruce. This is going to indeed be a test focused on what each 8K solution can do. I did some light testing before filming with the 8K VV last year that left me (and still leaves me) in awe. Helium is 8K S35 is a different flavor of ice cream. I see much of it's potential in it's cleanliness in low light, especially if shooting at 8K and down sampling from there.

Tommaso Alvisi said:
Thanks Phil for your tests!

You still have the Weapon Dragon 6K S35...inside your 8K VV! ;)
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You would think so Tommaso, but I can 100% that Dragon 8K VV "is different" than my Dragon 6K S35.
 
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