Rolling shutter distortion?

[Trev]

I couldn't help but notice that these cameras use CMOS sensors, and I'm a bit worried about the presence of any rolling shutter distortion.

I use Syntheyes for matchmoving, and one of the users there on the forums mentioned something about the latest firmware of the Red One eliminating the rolling shutter problem. I don't even know if that's true or not, not to mention if so, does that mean the Scarlet won't have rolling shutter?

I just don't want to buy a camera I can't use to shoot footage for vfx work, so I've always stuck with a CCD or 3CCD sensor... but if what that user said was true, I'll definitely be buying a Scarlet when it comes out.

Also, EXPLOSION! :emote_head_explode:

 

[Oliver Moereels]

Every CMOS sensor has rolling shutter issues.
If you want to shoot something Blair Witch-style, that could be a problem.
But if you look at the vast amount of movies and commercials a RED was used instead of film, I'd say these issues are marginally on a RED. If the skew or wobble was really awfull, a lot of people wouldn't have chosen RED over film.
Also, since the RED cameras can do very high speed shooting I suspect the readout speed from the sensors is high enough to make the skew barely noticable. Perhaps with some software magic in the mix. After all, they do have algorithm magician Greame Nattress in their team.

So I guess my point is: if you shoot footage that moves so fast the rolling shutter f*cks it up, then good luck move matching that. ;-)

 

[Tom.Wong]

you should check out the rolling shutter plugin the foundry has, they came up with it just for the points you were talking about Trev.

 

[Oliver Moereels]

you should check out the rolling shutter plugin the foundry has, they came up with it just for the points you were talking about Trev.

That should work nicely, since it comes from The Foundry.
But, since it comes from The Foundry, you''l have to sell your children to afford it.

Better to check out fast paced R1 footage. That should give you an idea of how noticable the skew is.
Anybody got some footage that could be useful? Or a link to footage allready posted?

 

[Zhibo Lai]

The read/reset times on Epic and Scarlet are way improved over Red One. Major VFX films, such as District 9 have been shot and tracked on Red One with no problems. Thus rolling shutter on the new cameras should not be an issue.

I also use syntheyes for tacking, and tracked the sample MX footage they put out earlier this year with no bumps or slips at all.

 

[Trevor Harris]

Apparently "Trev" isn't a real name, so I got banned.

Thanks for the pointers guys!

Yea I shoot a lot of stuff hand-held and just stabilize in post... I know that's really awful, but meh... I don't want to have to rent a steady cam, and I can hold a camera pretty steady anyways (helps to have a nice heavy tripod on it too, whether you're using it or not). Most of the stuff I've shot is supposed to look handheld anyways, like a fake internet video.

Well even if a human can't see the rolling shutter, it'll still mess up the match mover. I used to have a Canon hf100 and the rolling shutter on that thing... WOW... so awful, but it only showed up when I tried to match move. At the time I didn't know about rolling shutter, and... well that was a lot of fun trying to figure out why the software wasn't working...

But if you guys say it works fine with RED, I'll trust that. Can't wait for the Scarlet to come out!