Scarlet Dragon Softness vs Ump G2

[Jae Solina]

Comparing the Red Scarlet dragon and the UMP g2. I bought the dragon off of ebay and man the attached is the sharpest i can get it at 1.8. I dont remember red cameras being this soft. I am using sigma 18-35mm on both cameras. I know red cameras don't have sharpening by default but does this image look right to you guys? I use a 1200 nits monitor with zoom function to pull focus. I shot 3 clips carefully focusing each time and this is the sharpest i can get it without adding anything in post. I have Skin tone olpf installed. Thank you in advance.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VLZVaPsplHFGaPOqEyhHDFqk9hp00gGz

 

[Jeffery Anderson]

alright, so ISO are you shooting the Scarlet-D at?

 

[Tommaso Alvisi]

Joe, check the backfocus setting on the camera...you can tune it.

Do the marks match on the lens vs actual distance? EF Mount lenses are not too precise tho...

BTW Ursa Minis are WAY sharper than basically ANY RED...(only exception is Monstro and not always even)...
keep this in mind...so if absolute extreme sharpness (at the cost of Aliasing and Moiré of course unless you add an OLPF)
then Ursa Mini 4.6K (OG/G1/G2) is your camera...

 

[Aaron Green]

Tommaso is right. It seems odd at first, but when you compare sharpness of other cameras to RED and Arri it’s relatively stark. UMP is sharper, but if you compared something like a GH5 it would be SO much sharper than your RED. Resolution is another thing, and that’s where RED is going to beat those other cams.
The OLPF is helping to subdue that crunchy sharpness for a smooth image.

 

[Mike P.]

As others have said, BMD's don't have OLPF so they're (way) sharper than REDs. Their raw compression is also usually much less (unless you're going to a baked codec, but even that would look sharper, just have less colour info), especially compared to a Scarlet-D, which if memory serves maxes out at 8:1/24fps/5k.

To be honest, your shot looks about as sharp as I'd expect straight from a DSMC1 5k Dragon compressed down to a jpeg. You could always take it to a rental house and ask them to put it on the bench to check backfocus.

 

[Ryan Sims]

Not the best test image to compare, but something does look a little off to me. Not sure what, but back-focus is worth a check. The text on the shirt bothers me the most, but the collar as well. Kind of like a tilt-shift effect going on. Lens or back-focus issues??? Mount not square???

 

[Misha Engel]

The OLPF does a lot to prefent aliasing and moire but it comes at a cost.

Without OLPF

With OLPF

Real-world view of this by removing the OLPF from a sensor and photographing a 5 micron pinhole without and with an OLPF.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/10/the-8k-conundrum-when-bad-lenses-mount-good-sensors/

 

[Jae Solina]

Thank you all so much for the response i will look into it. Im thinking maybe the sigma 18-35 is not the best lens for the scarlet d hahahha

 

[Aaron Lochert]

Thank you all so much for the response i will look into it. Im thinking maybe the sigma 18-35 is not the best lens for the scarlet d hahahha

Test again at f4. That's where that lens is the sharpest.

 

[Misha Engel]

Thank you all so much for the response i will look into it. Im thinking maybe the sigma 18-35 is not the best lens for the scarlet d hahahha

It's a very good zoom lens for camera's like the scarlet and the UMP.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/sigma/18-35mm-f1.8-dc-hsm-a/review/