Magnesium Weapon Wish List

[Matt Bass]

One thing I would really love to see with the new Magnesium Weapon camera is higher frame rates for the Pro Res codec.

It seems unfair that the Raven and the Scarlet W have the same ProRes 2k cap at 60fps considering the Magnesium Weapon cost is considerably higher (19k difference for the Scarlet W & 23k for the Raven) I think it would make sense for the Magnesium body to have the ability to shoot at least 100fps in ProRes.

I don't even know if this is possible but since the Magnesium Weapon can shoot in 2k or HD ProRes instead of 4K,5k or 6k boosting the 2k / HD frame rates seems very attainable by the brilliant RED engineers.

I would imagine the Carbon Weapon bodies could also do considerably higher frame rates in HD & 2k ProRes codecs too since they are super charged for the future 8k sensor. Just my thoughts, I could easily be totally off with this frame rate fantasy but with so many other cameras on the market boosting frame rates beyond 120fps this seems like a logical thing for RED to incorporate into future firmware updates

 

[Gwen Bertaut]

Would be awesome yeah !

 

[Anthony Berenato Jr]

It's very possible that it's using the same conversion boards as Scarlet-W / Raven, and already maxed in its ability. (Which would explain why it's all the same.) Though, I'm sure we'd all love to see more out of it.

Have to remember that the Weapon / DSMC2 platform is just the start, and I'm sure many many new firmware updates are to come - unlocking more potential.

 

[Dave Summers]

Keep in mind that even though the Prores performance is the same, The Magnesium has higher resolution and framerate on the R3D side of things. This of course will tax the CPU much more which is why simultaneous 4K Prores isn't possible. Only the insane CPU's in the forged and woven weapons have enough juice to do all that :001_tt1:

 

[PatrickFaith]

I need 2048x1716 prores 444 (basically anamorphic prores) for the Magnesium to be a solid "B" camera for my Woven. Otherwise my woven A camera will be going 4k prores, yet my B camera will shoot raw and I'll have a shogun or something do the prores (is just a hassle having my B camera on a slighlty different DIT workflow). Often my B camera really doesn't even need raw, so if the magnesium could shoot 4k prores without raw running, would be so nice (even 422). I'm almost always at 24 fps (then convert that to whatever people need later).

 

[Matt Bass]

Well to keep this really simple - I think most people would be VERY VERY HAPPY to just shoot ProRes HD or 2K ONLY at 200FPS and call it a day.

As awesome as simultaneous recording of ProRes and R3Ds is I have heard that you sacrifice compression to achieve this and most professional productions do not favor compression, they would rather you shoot a lower compression and then transcode later.

Although every one of us who own a RED Camera love to shoot in 4k, 5k & 6k the reality is that most Professional Commercial Productions demands ProRes to simplify workflow and because 99% of all commercial broadcast is still in HD. Which is why ARRI has become so popular with commercials and TV

For example I was just awarded a 10 day job and they insisted I shoot on ARRI because the post schedule is so demanding and they want me to shoot a ton of high speed at 200fps. Of course this really pisses me off because I own a RED Dragon and now I cant use it. So essentially I just lost 10k in rentals...

Jarred - if there is any way to just make the Higher End Weapons deliver ProRes HD / 2K only at 200fps I know lots of people who would be VERY VERY HAPPY and ARRI very very scared.

 

[Louis Maddalena]

Man. Every time RED comes out with a camera that is not the top camera, threads pop up asking for software enhancements to make the camera better to more closely match the higher end camera.

 

[Matt Bass]

I need 2048x1716 prores 444 (basically anamorphic prores) for the Magnesium to be a solid "B" camera for my Woven. Otherwise my woven A camera will be going 4k prores, yet my B camera will shoot raw and I'll have a shogun or something do the prores (is just a hassle having my B camera on a slighlty different DIT workflow). Often my B camera really doesn't even need raw, so if the magnesium could shoot 4k prores without raw running, would be so nice (even 422). I'm almost always at 24 fps (then convert that to whatever people need later).

I couldn't agree more with you. The magnesium should also have the ability to shoot 4k ProRes at least in 24/25 fps. This would make it a much better B cam to the Carbon much like the Scarlet was to the Epic

 

[Phil Holland]

Man. Every time RED comes out with a camera that is not the top camera, threads pop up asking for software enhancements to make the camera better to more closely match the higher end camera.

This is true. But RED's also served up a double sided blade over the last few years by adding so much via firmware and what not.

However, in this case it's not purely software. It's a processing and board limitation from what I understand.

We're in the early days of DSMC[SUP]2[/SUP] though. There's certainly "more" on the horizon, but I don't know if will be related to increases to ProRes feature sets.

Weapon CF Woven and Forged do have those last two or three ticks of processing power that's required for some of the higher demanding features.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

So how does anamorphic prores work in the magnesium? I shoot 2x anamorphic fairly often.

 

[PatrickFaith]

So how does anamorphic prores work in the magnesium? I shoot 2x anamorphic fairly often.

Not sure, I will have a woven in the next couple of weeks and I will do a bunch of in camera anamorphic prores tests. I normally do my r3d to prores conversion in nuke now, and in 444 it supports rectangular pixels which makes for fairly small prores files (i.e. so I will be mainly testing in camera 2048x1716 prores ). Inside davinci I use square pixels prores, but that's at the end of my workflow so I like to keep everything rectangular pixels till the end - for speed and size savings.