MONSTRO news

[George A.]

Hi Jim and the RED Team!

Congrats on the beautiful news as of late. The DSMC seems to be heading in a great direction!

Any news/updates on the MONSTRO program? And I am just curious, now with the wonderful HDR mode for Epic-X - how would the 2-stop extra dynamic range of Monstro will play into the DSMC line-up? Will there still be an advantage in that regard by going with Monstro?

Thanks! Keep up the good work!
Warmest regards,
George

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

Don't speak for RED, but know its been said that Monstro is running concurrently with EPIC development, with a trailing release cycle. One could easily deduce that benefits deemed keepable from the M-X sensor program are certainly going to carry over to monstro. The monstro program is mostly larger sensor sizes for more resolution for varying applications

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Jim commented a month or two back that he has seen a "slice" of the Monstro sensor. The Monstro-based cameras are derived from the same hardware and are a natural progression of Epic that is being developed now, same with Scarlet. Once Epic-X is out the door, the rest of the cameras should follow. We can only guess as to when we'll see Monstro..

 

[George A.]

My second main question was, with the amazing HDR system already in place for the Epic-X, does the 2-stop dynamic range advantage of Monstro matter anymore?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Dynamics allways matters...

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

My second main question was, with the amazing HDR system already in place for the Epic-X, does the 2-stop dynamic range advantage of Monstro matter anymore?

it is a good question - if the EPIC HDR system is already generating more DR than the eye can see - that's what Michael Cioni said - then are we on the verge of hitting a limit of what is actually visible?

 

[Paul Nordin]

it is a good question - if the EPIC HDR system is already generating more DR than the eye can see - that's what Michael Cioni said - then are we on the verge of hitting a limit of what is actually visible?

Totally agree with Gunliek. Dynamics always matter, and more is better. Comparisons with human eyes are really not relevent. Our eyes are constantly moving both iris and focus, while our brains stitch together the patchwork images into a cohesive whole. So our 'percieved' dynamic range is much higher than our spec dynamic range. Sort of metaphorically the same thing that HDRx™ does (or any HDR).

If Monstro has 2 more stops of awesome useable DR, then there is just that much more info and fewer dual path processes that need to be navigated. Which frees up the brain's processor for other cool things like ff 360fps (one can dream).

Also Monstro will be "monstrous" so we'll get to use great anamorphics and shallower depth of field and all the other groovy things that come as sensor size increases.

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

Totally agree with Gunliek. Dynamics always matter, and more is better. Comparisons with human eyes are really not relevent. Our eyes are constantly moving both iris and focus, while our brains stitch together the patchwork images into a cohesive whole. So our 'percieved' dynamic range is much higher than our spec dynamic range. Sort of metaphorically the same thing that HDRx™™™ does (or any HDR).

all quite interesting and I wasn't disagreeing in any way with Gunleik (I rarely do...), but more curious about how that might translate into actual purchasing considerations. i'm all for technology for technology's sake ("because we can"), but will the benefits be tangible to a delivered product. I'm guessing that the HDR dynamic range is even a surprise to the RED team, and that they were planning Monstro as a next-gen to Mysterium-X (with an anticipated 13 stops or so...)...with the implementation of the HDR mode, does this push the camera into the intended Monstro territory already?

 

[George A.]

The HDR footage does seem amazing, I think RED is opening new avenues with this feature. All in all, I am genuinely amazed with the entire program.

I opted out of the Epic-X program mainly because of Monstro's announced advantage in dynamic range (at 2+ stops, it was huge and decisive, as far as I was concerned), not because of the resolution. Now I wonder whether or not I made the right choice...

 

[scott william]

Hey George, how do you know you will get a trade in for your red one by the time monstro ships?

 

[Terry VerHaar]

And just how soon do you imagine Monstro will be available?

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I would say the HDRx footage today demonstrates both why Monstro will be amazing and how much more amazing HDRx + Monstro could be.

HDRx will never be perfect. It'll damn near perfectly solve a lot of situations but native DR is always better. And in all likelihood the extra stops of sensitivity will be in the noise floor, not the highlights so don't even necessarily think of it as DR so much as extra sensitivity. If you want to really dig into the shadows you're going to need some HDRx to keep the highlights under control. HDRx might even be more important for Monstro which will probably be at least 1 stop more sensitive. (Imagine shooting daylight with ISO ~1600). But with 2 more stops of sensitivity you'll be able to expose for the dark alleyways.

 

[George A.]

Hey George, how do you know you will get a trade in for your red one by the time monstro ships?

Because RED confirmed numerous times this is the case