Is it possible to shoot Dragon at 2K HD?

[Anton Shavlik]

If anyone wants I can post a .r3d

I upscaled this so you can check the details that 2k HD is capable of.

 

[charles lim yi yong]

If anyone wants I can post a .r3d

I upscaled this so you can check the details that 2k HD is capable of.

thanks ! Love to see your 2KHD landscape shots.

 

[Brice Ansel]

Here are a couple of R3ds with less than ideal light conditions, but should give you a bit of an idea. I wish I had some R3ds from the actual shoot I did with these lenses, but it is still in post limbo.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55606081/A003_C023_0108PZ.0000995F.R3D
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55606081/A003_C022_0108HB.0001647F.R3D
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55606081/A003_C023_0108PZ.0000334F.R3D

Thanks for sharing Kyle.
It looks promising in term of texture, but the larger composition seems a bit soft, did you nail the focus on that shot?
Wich 16mm zoom lens did you use for those 3 frames?
Is it an Angenieux?
B.

 

[David Battistella]

I think that looks pretty darned good.

3K super 16 on Dragons cleaner sensor might just be a very viable option for some look specific stuff. There is so much good super 16 glass out there.

Battistella

 

[Brice Ansel]

I think that looks pretty darned good.

3K super 16 on Dragons cleaner sensor might just be a very viable option for some look specific stuff. There is so much good super 16 glass out there.

Battistella

The perspective of 3K dragon mixed with some Angenieux gems is tempting indeed.
B.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

S16 is a lot more tempting on Dragon than MX with the higher pixel density.

 

[Brice Ansel]

S16 is a lot more tempting on Dragon than MX with the higher pixel density.

One of the reason I never looked at S16 lenses.
I'm surprise you haven't try on the dragon some old S16 lenses yet.
Or maybe you did?
B.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

I don't really have a lot to try...

'cept for an 8mm, and that's not really the biggest reason to shoot 3k. (I think)

 

[Kyle Stryker]

I know which shot you are referring to and it was "sharp", but I was shooting in a warehouse with available light so I was wide open at a T 2.2 on a 11-110 zeiss zoom. I think a stopping down a little probably would have helped the lenses sharpness a bit but there is a more noticeable jump in sharpness going to 3k or 2.5k though.

Thanks for sharing Kyle.
It looks promising in term of texture, but the larger composition seems a bit soft, did you nail the focus on that shot?
Wich 16mm zoom lens did you use for those 3 frames?
Is it an Angenieux?
B.

 

[Anton Shavlik]

Shooting at 2kHD is a 4x crop factor, so you need to avoid lenses with chromatic aberration because it will be extremely apparent at that level of digital zoom, as in Kyle's r3ds. I cannot use my new Schneider lenses with 2kHD for that reason.

 

[charles lim yi yong]

One issue I have been encountering is that I get sharper more detailed images in my pixel 1:1 than my recorded data , when I reference the 2 together. this is at compression level 2:1
So it doesn't seem to be an issue with the lens.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Charles, have you read the comments in this thread?

 

[charles lim yi yong]

Charles, have you read the comments in this thread?

The part about 16mm lens? when I shoot 2KHD?
That's enlightening, but I love to see that setup shoot a landscape shot.
I have trying to upload my RAW files it seems to not work.
thanks guys for input.

 

[Nawaf Alsabhan]

The part about 16mm lens? when I shoot 2KHD?
That's enlightening, but I love to see that setup shoot a landscape shot.
I have trying to upload my RAW files it seems to not work.
thanks guys for input.

Here's the comments Bob was referring to:

Personally for a 2K finish I would favor 2.5K or 3K recording, but if you are "maxing it out" you can certainly shoot at 2K. Is it the best way to get the highest quality material out of your Dragon? no. Shooting 6K is.

The problem with shooting in 2k is that your image will not be sharp. It will not have very good detail in it. What you want to do is shoot in higher resolution and then you downsample in post production to a 2k finish. I would at least use 4k but if you need slow motion 3k would work quite good too. This will create a much sharper image in the end with better detail and less noise.

Even when exposing to the right, 2K is noisy and doesn't cut that well with bigger resolution

I came across these Scarlet Dragon slow-mo tests on YouTube:
It shows the quality loss at lower resolutions and made me appreciate Epic's ability to do HFR at 6K

Shooting at 2kHD is a 4x crop factor, so you need to avoid lenses with chromatic aberration because it will be extremely apparent at that level of digital zoom.

To make things simple for you, here's what everyone is saying:
Shoot in 4K or 3K, then in post scale it down to 2K (putting it on a 2K timeline, or 3K timeline then exporting 1080P)
Scaling down in post from 4k or 3K (and even 6K & 5K) will add some sharpness to the image.
Also, try filming with lower compression rate, Redcode 8:1 will look better than 12:1, the lower the compression the better (but the file will be bigger).

The only reason to film 2K with Red Epic is if you want high frame rate (240 fps), but you'll lose the sharpness.

For High frame rates, anything above 120 frames per second, use Daylight lights (5600 Kelvin), with tungsten you'll face flickering problems most of the time, and you'll have to try a lot of different shutter speeds to be able to "sync" with the lights, but if you have different lights it's almost impossible to "sync" with them, one will end up flickering.

For uploading RAW R3D files:

In Redcine-x, you can choose one frame snapshot for R3D file.
Go to the frame you like to send, and then choose R3D Snapshot

After a few seconds, you'll find a one frame R3D file in your Desktop, upload that to an upload site (wetransfer, or dropbox)

Good luck!