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Stelios Kokotos
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I think alot of the complaining about noise in the Scarlet-X comes from people who are not familiar with how to expose digital sensors correctly. And the whole native ISO thing is confusing people. It's really easy actually, and has been pointed out before. Red recommend using 800 ISO as a "standard" so that when you are out shooting you will automatcally protect your highlights, because the image on the monitor then seems a little over exposed compared to what the sensor is actually recording. If you set the ISO to 320 on your scarlet-x and then go to Settings-Display-Tools and turn on RAW you will see a very similarly exposed image, this means the monitor shows you an image that is very close to what the camera is actually recording.
So the conclusion I have made is this: If you find youself shooting outside in the sunlight or in a high contrast situation with a lot of light, then set your ISO to 800. If you are shooting in a low light situation with low contrast, then set your ISO to 320, and light the scene to get an image that is as noise free as possible. This is the exact opposiite of what you would do if you were shooting film, and I think this is what is confusing to most people.
So in other words ISO 800 protects you from getting blown out highlights, ISO 320 protects you from noise in the low light areas. I guess the reason RED tells us to stick with ISO 800 is that blown highlights is generally a much bigger problem than a little noise in the shadows, which can be fixed with noise reduction software. There is no blown out higlight fixing software (as far as I know).
A very good tool to make shure you don't get noise is the RAW noise indicator, the little bar on the left side of your histogram if this fills up with red, you will get noise. same thing the the highlight clipping indicator bar on the right side of the histogram, if the bar goes red you are overexposing. Keep the indicator bars free from red and you are golden, it's as easy as that really.
Another thing that most people dont understand is that RAW images generally seem more noisy than compressed footage because the detail has not been lost in compression and there has not performed any noise reduction. So if you want to see the same low light performance out of your Scarlet-X as the other cameras out there like the FS100, AF100 etc, you will have to apply noise reduction like they do. Only difference is when you shoot RAW, you do it in post.
Another thing; the thread starter keeps saying the RED one has different, and better performing "sensors". This is wrong. The Scarlet-X and the upraded RED Ones have the exact same Mysterium-X sensor inside, but they do have different kinds of processors. The Red One has a processor much like a CPU ( Central Processing Unit) in your computer, while the Scalet-X and the Epic have application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC's). Diffrence is that the ASIC's are customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, like the CPU. Using ASIC's is much more effective in terms of heat, space and cost. Hence the smaller lighter less expensive Scarlet-X. The main difference between Scalet and Epic is that the Epic has higher quality/better performing ASIC's inside, plus the circuit boards that go along with these. As a result the analog to digital conversion process is probably a bit different between the RED One and Scarlet/Epic but the compression is probably very similar (both use redcode raw).
If anything the compression in the Scarlet-X and EPIC is more efficient than in the RED One and and you will get more detailed information out of the R3D. More information = more noise. (this is pure speculation on my part as I have not done any scientific testing, nor have I ever shot with a Red One camera)
I would like to state that I am not one of the people who are complaining or unhappy with the Scarlet-X camera. It is a great camera for the price and I am over the moon to co-own one.
However I have been using a RED ONE and more recently a RED MX for over two years on quite a few projects and can say that the RED MX creates incredibly clean pictures, even in ISO 800. I am very familiar with the RED camera setup and understand the significance of the metadata, especially the ISO. In my professional life I've worked both as a DIT and DOP on RED projects, and am familiar with the setup of the camera. Also from a technology standpoint I am a qualified electronics engineer, so can appreciate how the boards ‘and sensors’ within the cameras can make a difference.
Steiner, you are absolutely right that the cameras have the same sensor, but my query is more specific to whether the ‘grade’ of the sensor is the same. That is, do they all have equivalent signal to noise performance and hence dynamic range, or are there differences? This is a valid question and may explain the difference in the performance of the cameras, beyond the characteristics of the electronics. If they are identical in every way, great! If however, there is a variance then it is not wrong to propose that differences in the sensors may be causing the perceived noise. And again, I don’t know the answer either way.
To be honest I was a little reluctant to start this thread as I was voicing a personal observation and felt that people would question my intent. Hence, why I asked for people's 'impressions' of their cameras.
I am little busy with work at the moment but when I get a chance I will run some controlled test with the two cameras and post the results.
I would like to state again that the differences I have 'observed' in the noise behaviour of the cameras is at ISO 800. Switching the camera to a lower ISO will make the noise less obvious.
BTW, the noise is also present on the touchscreen monitor when you use the magnify mode.
