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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 :)

KOMODO....

Phil Holland said:
Absolutely. I want to open with a moderate statement first.

It's so hard for me to give specific lens purchase advice. I'm not exactly a "this is the best and everything else sucks" sort of DPs. I own too many lenses and have a broader perspective on lenses as tools than that likely biased based mentality. At the same time I can listen to your specific wants and needs, then tackle those questions from there.

For instance, Alain mentions he's looking at the Zeiss Milvus and Xeen CF Primes. That tells me he's focused on something small and lightweight as well as not the super hardcore motion picture workhorse-class of glass. Also this tells me the general price point he's exploring.

What's nice about the Milvus set is they inherited some of the Otus designed mentality on the body design with generally better mechanics than the previous iteration of this series. Additionally there are newer focal lengths, optical revisions, and better coatings than the older stuff too. I actually like the look from the Milvus. They aren't Otus level, but not far off. The maintain more of a modern-classic look. Clean-ish, but not too clean really.

The Xeen CFs are not new in terms of glass. Same glass found in the OG Xeens and Rockinon Cine DS stuff. However, with the somewhat recent absence of the Hanse Innotech Celeres, which were mostly based around this glass and focused on compact lightweight rigs, I feel this is where the Xeen CFs now land. Today they announced the 35mm T1.5 and the 16mm T2.6. And I think they are currently the most affordable/cheapest PL glass out made by a manufacturer and not a cheaper rehouse. That cost comes with some concessions however, but for the price they are not too shabby in terms of value.

Lenses for me start with the look and I think that's something you need to sort of go with. T-Stops and/or F-Stops are a consideration here too as some of these are faster or slower than others.

Don't know if rental is a consideration here, and you would likely go with CP.3s versus the Milvus in that case anyways, but Zeiss is still a very well known and favored brand by many. Xeens are very much an extremely entry level cinema set in my mind.
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Thanks Phil for your detailed feedback... Yes I am looking for light weight , more daily and less hardcore more motion pictures... Seems you keen towards Milvus over Xeen CF Primes in my scenario. I understand the it is a personal thing the taste of looks etc...

But I wanted to hear about your taste if you were in my shoes which of the 2 you would pick in my case.

The housing of the Xeen got my attention (modern) and all manual rings with same diameter & weight. Yet, since at the end of the day it is all about what's inside and the looks, to my understanding you would go towards the MILVUS...

Correct?


Thanks again Phil! :)
 
Sareesh Sudhakaran said:
Sometimes it's so hard to appreciate how feature-packed the Red Komodo is at this price point. I had to compare it to the Canon 1D X Mark III but there's no comparison, really: Can the Canon 1DX Mark III go toe to toe with the Red Komodo as a serious filmmaking camera?
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Pretty certain the Komodo will not be weather sealed, and I would be amazed if the AF can come anywhere close to the 1DX Mk3’s performance. I feel if these features are important perhaps Komodo is not an ideal choice. Personally, it’s more about size/weight, image quality, Redcode, and that global shutter.
 
The only downside for me is the need for a battery powered monitor that needs a cable as well. I'm hoping there will be a better solution when the camera is released. Otherwise the Komodo ticks a lot of boxes
 
Han Vogen said:
Pretty certain the Komodo will not be weather sealed, and I would be amazed if the AF can come anywhere close to the 1DX Mk3’s performance. I feel if these features are important perhaps Komodo is not an ideal choice. Personally, it’s more about size/weight, image quality, Redcode, and that global shutter.
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Canon did an awesome job with the 1DX MK3. Lots of good stuff in there. Great comparison on two different cameras designed for different applications but as we all know there will be a ton of crossover. Han you kinda nailed it.. it depends on what boxes you need checked. And yes... there isn't a chance that Komodo's continuous autofocus will be anywhere near Canons at launch. Single "momentary" AF is the first thing we are jumping on because that's how most of Komodo's targeted customers will likely use it.
 
Even if Komodo didn't have autofocus at launch, I (at least) would be okay with that. If the PDAF pixels are on the sensor, and Red commits to continue to work on AF with firmware updates, it's a compelling camera for the listed benefits of size/weight, image quality, Redcode, and global shutter. If the camera can grow with me over time, amazing.

Still would love an answer on weather sealing or your general approach there, Jarred?
 
Tim Erickson said:
If the PDAF pixels are on the sensor, and Red commits to continue to work on AF with firmware updates, it's a compelling camera
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As far as I know, it's sensor-based. But everything hangs on the software and how well it works. The biggest problem is that the cameras ability to hold focus and not lose it during a take will be a dealbreaker to ever using the feature. This is the problem with AF on cinema cameras, because they need to be spot on. There are people buying Sony's instead of Canon just to have slightly better autofocus for shooting, all why both of them have the best AF for shooting so far.

Reliability is the professional's most important feature on cameras. Cheap unreliable gear can give people enough confidence to do small paid gigs, but if someone faces something big, reliability comes first. The AF needs to be reliable, or at least have the hardware capacity that through software updates become reliable. Canon didn't have eye-tracking at the release of Canon R, but got it later through software updates. I hope such things can happen with the Komodo.
 
The next camera I purchase must have excellent auto focus. Right now I have the Canon 1DX Mark II and the Dual Pixel Auto Focus is like magic. It simply works. Sit-down interviews shot at f/2.8 are flawless, with the person's face completely in focus the whole time.

If the 1DX Mark II didn't have a 30 minute video recording limit, it would be perfect. I'm hoping that the Komodo eventually has auto focus as good as Canon's DPAF. If it gets there, I'll buy two of them immediately.
 
Jaime Vallés said:
The next camera I purchase must have excellent auto focus. Right now I have the Canon 1DX Mark II and the Dual Pixel Auto Focus is like magic. It simply works. Sit-down interviews shot at f/2.8 are flawless, with the person's face completely in focus the whole time.

If the 1DX Mark II didn't have a 30 minute video recording limit, it would be perfect. I'm hoping that the Komodo eventually has auto focus as good as Canon's DPAF. If it gets there, I'll buy two of them immediately.
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Yep. Did exactly that yesterday but with a C300MKII and not even sit down : everyone standing up, I was handheld and it worked perfectly. And that's awesome.
BUT, at launch, as it has been said by Jarred, Komodo's auto-focus will not work as perfectly as that. It won't be continuous either.
 
I must say that I really appreciate the transparency Jarred has kept in regard to AF. His statements are very coherent. As others, I do hope too that over time and firmware upgrades the AFc will get it spot on, as otherwise if it works 95% it's like not having it. AFc is something that really has to work 100% reliably.
 
Jaime Vallés said:
The next camera I purchase must have excellent auto focus. Right now I have the Canon 1DX Mark II and the Dual Pixel Auto Focus is like magic. It simply works. Sit-down interviews shot at f/2.8 are flawless, with the person's face completely in focus the whole time.

If the 1DX Mark II didn't have a 30 minute video recording limit, it would be perfect. I'm hoping that the Komodo eventually has auto focus as good as Canon's DPAF. If it gets there, I'll buy two of them immediately.
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same.
it's great that Jarred is being transparent about this, i remember when i bought a raven as my first red i owned, AF was advertised, which i quickly learned it really didnt have it. so being open that it wont be functional as a "continuous" or tracking operation will actually tame the number of preorders because i know since canon and sony killed it, especially for one man band and b cameras, interviews, doc style etc...then a lot of people are looking for the komodo to replace that. now they wont have the major expectation of having it, well the ones that have been paying attention wont anyway. also puts my mind at ease that i most likely wont jump on one immediately. but you never know!
 
I understand that DPAF won't quite be functioning at release time but are you saying that once it works it still won't have face tracking or work as well as the Sony or Canon? I mean if it doesn't come close to that quality then I'm not sure why they would even have DPAF on Komodo. Any clarification on this please?
 
AF and PDAF is certainly interesting though at the same time...

RF mount is so versatile, you could also buy some awesome vintage glass like speed panchro’s S2 /S3 and get an awesome super experienced guy like Les Bosher in the UK or Jacek Optitek in the US to rehouse them to PL and end up with some really pretty glass that knocks the “sometimes sterile digitalism out of the image” imagery to produce more celluloid looking images in-camera, bake to ProRes via IPP2 , send to the producer / easy to edit video production with lovely clean black levels and move on to the next gig. : )

And damn when you down sample full res to 2k, it gets so clean and beautiful. And rec709 down the sdi pipe for live broadcast etc... just looks so good in camera with these older lenses IMHO.

Though no doubt a new sigma 135 T2 / 85 T1.5 very often can be a good friend too ; )

Horses for courses. Though at the end of the day, Komodo is going to be a fab tool for all I feel going forward. And so tiny!

Craig Lees
UK
 
There is one thing that puzzles me ... For several weeks several privileged people have their exclusive Komodo ... but still no footage coming from the camera ... Why ?? when the camera should be available in May (even if today I no longer believe in it… now that world activity is going to freeze…).

What was done via Michael Bay remains quite confusing, (what exactly are the shots made with the Komodo?…) And what we see overall is not very exciting, with a very saturated, ultra-contrasted image… a festival images with a very video rendering…

It is likely that we are preparing a demo sequence to officially launch the Komodo (like what had been done for the Raven)…

Hey Jason! (Momoa), you seemed to be having fun with your Komodo!… We would like to see that, it would be cool, man!… :-)
 
Everybody testing Komodos at this point is likely under an NDA to not share footage. Jarred said it won't happen until Graeme is satisfied with the calibration and color science. Don't want to give people a premature impression that isn't as good as it can be.
 
Christophe Deshoux said:
There is one thing that puzzles me ... For several weeks several privileged people have their exclusive Komodo ... but still no footage coming from the camera ... Why ?? when the camera should be available in May (even if today I no longer believe in it… now that world activity is going to freeze…).

What was done via Michael Bay remains quite confusing, (what exactly are the shots made with the Komodo?…) And what we see overall is not very exciting, with a very saturated, ultra-contrasted image… a festival images with a very video rendering…

It is likely that we are preparing a demo sequence to officially launch the Komodo (like what had been done for the Raven)…

Hey Jason! (Momoa), you seemed to be having fun with your Komodo!… We would like to see that, it would be cool, man!… :-)
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Thats the way the normal world works... These are not our productions that the cameras are being used on. The testing I have been sending Komodo out on are not RED marketing exercises which we just get to throw around footage because you all ask for it, they are real productions using the cameras in real ways. And once shooting is finished, as you all know there is editing and VFX and post and then a completely separated release schedule, that has nothing to do with us. And lots of those productions are very sensitive in story lines which means they really don't wan't anything out there till release, or at least the trailer.

Even Soderbergh, who was one of the first to sling the Komodo last year, hasn't released his movie yet. You got lucky with the Bay stuff because that was a Superbowl commercial that had an insane deadline and they ended up dramatically changing the commercial because of the Kobe helicopter crash which gave them even less time.

Momoa was for a real commercial that has a product attached to it and they get to decide when that product comes out, not when we ask them to release footage to make all you reduser pixel peepers happy :) I know it sounds strange but I am not putting prototype Komodos in all these guys hands to make pretty pictures.. but I am putting prototype Komodo in their hands for them to try and break.

So yeah.. Soderbergh, Matrix, The Suicide Squad, Momoa, Red Notice, and the handful of other productions that have used the camera get to release footage when they want. And remember.. ALL the footage that has been shot is pre-released footage.. Soderbergh didn't have R3D recording when he shot his film , and if you look at the footage between the prototypes in Jan vs the ones now the IQ difference is night and day. It's why we do this testing.. to find problems, and fix them so when you do get the camera in your hands its the best it possibly can be. Everything before that shouldn't really matter.
 
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