RED Dragon and Arri Amira Comparison (And Sony F3)

[Harrison Sanborn]

I recently did a test to examine both the differences and similarities between the RED Epic Dragon, Arri Amira and the old, but still great Sony PMW-F3. I was extremely impressed with how well the Dragon and Alexa/Amira could potentially be cut together on the same project. I felt that the Dragon was a huge step up in terms of color over MX, even with the LLO installed. (Which I actually prefer over the STH) The Dragon with LLO didn't quite match the Amira in over exposure latitude, but it definitely hangs with it in the shadows. The Dragon was unquestionably much sharper and I personally felt the skin tones were more accurate "out of the box" to what my eye was seeing. I would still like the opportunity to compare both using the STH OLPF on the Dragon.


Check it out here, and let me know your thoughts! https://vimeo.com/135498367

I was also curious how other people rate their Dragon's sensitivity. I typically rate the STH Dragon at around 500 ISO and the LLO around 800-1280 ISO.

 

[Zeb B]

Would love to see this exact test using RED MX, Dragon and Weapon. I remember my MX with tender feelings that I'm sure have been embellished with time. Seeing all 3 side by side would answer a bunch of value questions bouncing around my head since I'm sure Weapon would look real slick and clean but need to see before buying it. Imagine a 3 way split screen showing the 3 RED cameras from -5 to +5EV. Dang . . . gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

 

[Harrison Sanborn]

Yeah, I would be very curious to see Weapon Dragon tests as well. I wonder just how much difference the newer processing will make in terms of noise.

It would be great to throw the old RED One M in there as well, since I know a lot of people actually preferred the skin tones over MX.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Harrison, I watched your test last night, and loved it. Thanks so much doing this. I totally concur with your quick observations here.

Curious how Weapon may improve upon Epic Dragon. Early feedback suggests it could have less noise in shadows (a recent test showed clean at 3200, wheres Epic Dragon was noisy at 3200). Also Jarred posted some stills a while back that suggested the OLPFs had been improved and perhaps are even more accurate (esp LLO which on Weapon seems to match Skintone much better than on Epic Dragon).

Again - thanks so much.

This test was really great, a breath of fresh air.

Have a great weekend.

 

[Tony Mac]

Fun to see the the cameras deliberately over/underexposed. Nice to see the F3 still hold it's own against these two much newer cameras. Would be interesting to see the window/kitchen scene with the STH OLPF to compare how the highlights roll off. (Should probably test this myself, I have both!)

 

[David Litchfield]

Nice test. Shame you didn't go to +6 or +7 as it would've been great to see where the skin goes on the Amira.

If you're not bothered about resolution then its pretty remarkable what a 5 year old Arri sensor can do.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Harrison, hope you don't mind. But I shared your test on CML as well, as I'm sure they'd be interested in seeing this too.

Great job again. Really well done, and super helpful.

 

[Harrison Sanborn]

Hey Nick, thanks a lot! I don't mind at all. I've always learned a lot from CML.

I would have gone further with the over exposure, but I was actually pretty sure the Amira would be clipping sooner than it did. I do always find myself impressed with just how forgiving the Arri cameras are in terms of over exposure. You can get an idea of where the Amira stands relative to the other cameras based on the practical on the left which does actually clip.

The F3 is really such an underrated camera. Alexas and Dragons aside, I still think it has better skin tone and overall latitude than most other modern cameras. The low light on that camera is still astounding, too.

Thanks again for the kind words, everyone. I knew that this would be something which would be fairly scrutinized, so I tried to make things as consistent as possible in the short time I had.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

I like this.

And I totally agree on the F3.
It's such a beast compared to something like the C300
F3 and the R1 (preferably the original one) are the two most currently underrated cameras I know of.

 

[Harrison Sanborn]

I would absolutely agree about that comparison to the C300. Sony did unfortunately make it like some sort of giant plastic-y Handycam, so ergonomically I think everyone preferred the Canon cameras.

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

i just dont get how 5 year old sensor still beats newest technology of Red.Amazingly good.
from Alexa FAQ;

Are you working on a new sensor?
Of course we are working on a new sensor, we are a camera manufacturer. However, we're only going to release it in a product if we can achieve better overall image quality as ALEXA. And the image quality of the ALEXA is really hard to beat, even for us