Red Epic 6K clarification and your thoughts

[H. Risu]

Hi all, I will touch on a few points here. I appreciate your comments. Feel free to reply to all the questions or reply to those that you want to answer for.

Is it correct to say that the Red Epic-M 6K Dragon and the Red Epic-X 6K Dragon have the same sensor and other internal components and were both launched around the 2012-2013 timeline? Is it also correct to say that the Red Epic-M 6K Dragon has a machined body (machined and hand assembled), and the Red Epic-X 6K Dragon’s body was made on a production line after the tooling was in place etc.?

For the Red-MX 5K, was there a Dragon 6K sensor upgrade in the past or was it a Dragon 5K? If it was a Dragon 6K, what was that camera model called? Was it called Red-MX Dragon 6K?

Looking at the Shot on What website, when I filter Red Epic Dragon 6K, I don’t see if a Red Epic-M 6K Dragon or a Red Epic-X 6K Dragon was used. They don’t state ‘Epic-M’ or ‘Epic-X’. Is it therefore correct to assume that either a 6K Epic-M or a 6K Epic-X was used for that particular film?

I note the Epic Dragon 6K sensor is slightly larger than Super 35. They say that most films were shot on Super 35 and that is what we have been accustomed to seeing over the years. What Super 35 sensor size are they referring to: 3-perf or 4-perf?

As Arri has full frame digital cinema cameras, do you believe that there will be fewer films shot in Super 35?

If one has access to a Red Epic-M 6K Dragon and good lenses etc. and lights and frames well enough, can the Red Epic-M 6K Dragon produce quality feature films that can compare to or be even better quality than a film shot on an Arri camera for example?

 

[Temp_Matt]

Looking at the Shot on What website, when I filter Red Epic Dragon 6K, I don’t see

You’d have to ask the website owners, I doubt anyone else could speak authoritatively to their process.

I note the Epic Dragon 6K sensor is slightly larger than Super 35. They say that most films were shot on Super 35 and that is what we have been accustomed to seeing over the years. What Super 35 sensor size are they referring to: 3-perf or 4-perf?

3-perf. (Just google if you’d like to see the actual measurements of the sensor and the film area.)

As Arri has full frame digital cinema cameras, do you believe that there will be fewer films shot in Super 35?

Yes. But I don’t think Super 35 will go away.
Red and Sony and Canon and others also make “full frame” sensors. And Arri just introduced a new camera with a Super 35-sized sensor.

If one has access to a Red Epic-M 6K Dragon and good lenses etc. and lights and frames well enough, can the Red Epic-M 6K Dragon produce quality feature films that can compare to or be even better quality than a film shot on an Arri camera for example?

Yes.

 

[Zack Birlew]

I know the M and X differences get a little confusing with the Epics but the only thing different is the materials used for the bodies, like carbon fibre to stay light, otherwise it's the same 6K camera.

As far as quality goes, you can still make top market images with a DSMC1 Dragon 6K as well as even a RED One MX, which I used for my first feature which is nearing the finishing line of post production now. The only thing that will make your images shine is your own talent and effort in lighting, composition, and production design to craft a great cinematic image. If you're just throwing the camera on a shoulder rig and expecting everything to look cinematic just because it's a RED or Arri or whatever then it's not going to work out so great and you can see that there are some shorts and camera tests online that show this but then you look at what the pros do with the same camera and it's a major wake-up call that so many test videos and comparison videos are meaningless once a camera gets used in a high end professional cinematography setting with a well trained cinematographer. I'm not saying I'm there yet myself but I know that level is there and it's going to take some time to get there too.

Lastly, as far as Super 35 goes, I don't mind it and my RED One MX is Super 35 and I used full frame Rokinon Cine DS lenses and several still photo lenses in the mix on my feature and didn't have any problems. I know that full frame can be very nice when used properly as I learned with my multi-award winning web series, "The Review - A Fatal Frame Fan Film" which was filmed primarily with a Canon 5D Mark II. However, at the time when I started filming my feature, pre-Covid, we didn't have a selection of full frame RAW video cameras that we could afford like everyone does now and it was right before that point as we could go with a Sony FS7 with RAW recorder, RED One MX, or an original Blackmagic URSA 4K and the RED One MX won out due to its mix of image quality and frame rates.