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Red Scarlet Buying Questions - Telephoto Crop etc

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Patrick Blades

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Hi, I have looked extensively on the forum for information, charts etc, but wanted some input from people with experience with the camera.
Just looking at the Red Scarlet lately as the crop factor seems quite appealing for telephoto work without having to buy and carry around more expensive lenses...
What I want to know is if the 2k and 3k crops are decent enough coming from 1080p Raw on a 5D mark 3?
My longest focal length is 400mm (canon 70-200 with 2x extender), but looking for more reach for wildlife/surf. So 2k and 3k would give me something equivalent to 868mm and 1300mm?

With the latest firmware am I right in thinking 60p possible at 3k?
Apart from that, is this a good time to buy a Scarlet or is it near to getting a price reduction?

cheers
 
Patrick, to answer the 3K question first:
Starting with firmware revision 5.x, 3k is possible @ 60fps with the widescreen (WS) setting 3072x1296 px

As for the price: nobody other than the heads from RED know, but my best guess is that it will be a while for another Scarlet offer.
The last one were battle tested Scarlets, and maybe another offer like that could come quite some time after the EPIC/DRAGON trade ins are done..
But I assume that the standard price will not become any lower.
Maybe check out a used one (there's a set for 10K for sale at the moment) if money is highly important.

For the crop factor, check out
http://www.red.com/tools/crop-factor
if you haven't already.

As for the 5D MIII comparison, I can't help you out because I don't have a 5D to compare it to. But basically, since it's a sensor crop, the quality of the image seems lower than it is with a higher resolution. A lot of people don't shoot below 3K or 4K because they don't care for the noise or whatever you would want to call it, which becomes a bit more apparent. So a personal opinion is exactly that: a personal opinion. And the best suggestion is: test it yourself. Because if you like it or not, is really your decision alone. Maybe someone can post a 2K image for you to fiddle with.
 
Cheers for the Reply Patrick,

I suppose what I am looking for is personal opinion on whether the crop modes on a scarlet are good enough to supplement having a longer telephoto lens and shooting on a 5d3 raw, as opposed to using 400mm on a scarlet.
I would give it ago but i dont have one near to test...

thanks
 
Cheers Paramon, i'd be interested to see that.
It's a budget option really, the cost of a decent super-telephoto is not that far off a scarlet, and also the weight of extra gear to carry in the field is another issue. In an ideal world of course 4k with the right lense would be great, but wondering how good the crop modes are as a compromise...

thanks
 
check my reel for 1k WS scarlet samples...its okay on the net. im ok with 1k even if i can black balance on the set and keep the iso 800 or lower... got an epic now tho so its not as much an issue

ps i traded my scarlet in for epic...my guess is one day red will sell out all the refurb scarlets for cheap...as for if its next week or 3 years from now, there lies the problem
 
Brian Merlen said:
check my reel for 1k WS scarlet samples...its okay on the net. im ok with 1k even if i can black balance on the set and keep the iso 800 or lower... got an epic now tho so its not as much an issue

ps i traded my scarlet in for epic...my guess is one day red will sell out all the refurb scarlets for cheap...as for if its next week or 3 years from now, there lies the problem
Click to expand...
Thanks, although I can't find you're reel.

I'm more interested in seeing 2k, and 3k samples, as these crops on a 400mm are long enough (868, 1300mm).

thanks
 
This was shot cropped in at 2k. I thought it looked fine, at least for broadcast. Obv a but softer than shooting 4k or 3K but compared to a lot of the crap that makes air I thought it was ok. Plus it was RAW so relatively easy to grade. You are more susceptible to noise however so you need to be more vigilant about that when you crop.

 
Nick please tell me that no Turtles were harmed during this shoot ;)

Good stuff!!
 
Patrick Blades said:
Cheers for the Reply Patrick,

I suppose what I am looking for is personal opinion on whether the crop modes on a scarlet are good enough to supplement having a longer telephoto lens and shooting on a 5d3 raw, as opposed to using 400mm on a scarlet.
I would give it ago but i dont have one near to test...

thanks
Click to expand...

The crop modes are exactly that...crop modes. A 200mm lens is still a 200mm lens, just cropped in tighter. No more reach at all, just less image.
It's the same with any camera you may use with a cropped sensor. It simply doesn't see all the lens can see and in no way makes a lens longer.

Quality wise, I've used 3K 48fps on a Scarlet a few times in broadcast and (light permitting) it worked fine. 2K 60fps starts to get dicey. 1K is kind of just a novelty.
 
The focal lengths of lenses don't change, but the field of view does as one crops in. In my example how many of you can tell thats a 8mm fish eye? Its relative field of view and lack of distortion looks nothing like an 8mm wide angle lens, but yet I assure you it was
 
Paul Schneider said:
The crop modes are exactly that...crop modes. A 200mm lens is still a 200mm lens, just cropped in tighter. No more reach at all, just less image.
It's the same with any camera you may use with a cropped sensor. It simply doesn't see all the lens can see and in no way makes a lens longer.

Quality wise, I've used 3K 48fps on a Scarlet a few times in broadcast and (light permitting) it worked fine. 2K 60fps starts to get dicey. 1K is kind of just a novelty.
Click to expand...

Hi Paul, yes I am aware of the nature of cropping a lens, but I wanted to know if the quality of cropping the MX sensor to 3k or 2k was reasonable enough to give a more telephoto field of view compared to having a longer - but more expensive and heavier telephoto lens on 1080 from 5D 3 raw....
thanks
 
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