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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Still a Epic MX owner?

Still using Red One MX and Epic MX. R1 has actually cleaner blacks and great for dolly mounted work and no viewfinder lag. Will not give up either for Epic W, its a great combo. But to put it together took literally many years. In comparison I purchased a Ultra mini 4.6k and it showed up within a day with LCD, EVF, shoulder mount, rod support, V-lock battery plate and better DR but worse rolling shutter for less than the available credit of yet another upgrade path. My crux with all the post MX Reds are the bizarre chip sizes. Dragon 6K is useless for any professional zooms, and now in S35 8K to shoot 120 fps Your 5K frame covers 18 mm+ in chip real estate (Academy plus sound). I still think the MX Chip is not outdated by any newcomers, but the worry is that Reds policy of Obsolescence obsolete means to welcome You to a subscription system of infinite updates, not servicing your purchases, but rather define them as 'end of life' products. In other words, when You have a problem with any of the older stuff, just chuck it, it has no value because Red does not service it. Look at their lens program: Obsolete. RED One Media: Obsolete. Modules: Obsolete. Sounding critical, I am still a reserved fan of their products and customer service, but not of their hype, reliability and obvious lack to service their past product line.
 
Rolf Kestermann said:
My crux with all the post MX Reds are the bizarre chip sizes. Dragon 6K is useless for any professional zooms, and now in S35 8K to shoot 120 fps Your 5K frame covers 18 mm+ in chip real estate (Academy plus sound).
Click to expand...

I'd hardly call 6K Dragon useless. Just shoot 5K. Besides 6K Dragon isn't that much bigger than 5K MX.

I personally think the Dragon sensor is one of the best things RED has ever done.

The Scarlet-W in particular is AMAZING value.
 
The context was Pro Zooms: Not a single Angenieux, Fujinon, Canon or Red Zoom cover the Dragon 6K. Those are the tools used; agree the Scarlet-W is a good deal, but better than an Epic MX?(Maybe)
 
Rolf Kestermann said:
The context was Pro Zooms: Not a single Angenieux, Fujinon, Canon or Red Zoom cover the Dragon 6K. Those are the tools used; agree the Scarlet-W is a good deal, but better than an Epic MX?(Maybe)
Click to expand...

My point about coverage is if you're happy with Epic MX at 5K, then that's the same sensor size as Dragon at 5.5K.

Not really that much of a difference, certainly not enough to write off an entire sensor.

And I'd say yeah, a Scarlet-W is def better than an Epic MX.

Both are 5K. Both have similar frame rates. Except the Scarlet-W has better highlights, lowlight, and color. And it weights only 3.5lbs.

I think it's the best value RED has ever produced.

The only way Epic MX beats Scarlet-W is in sensor size, at 5K Epic MX is a "little" bigger. But not much.
 
I am not writing off the chip per se, just alluding to its usefulness if Your work resolves around pro zooms and You try to use the full 6K. Even the 5K in the MX are a stretch for a number of lenses. 120 FPS at 5K are not an option for the scarlet-W. I can't comment on the enhanced attributes of the dragon sensor without having had one fully tested, but on a recent shoot with both an MX and a dragon I found the dragons extended highlite ability was produced at the expense of noise, leading me to suspect that they stole from the bottom to give to the top. I can be called on that one though. The slightly smaller 5K of the dragon is actually an advantage.
 
I still have Epic MX's and I love them, after my Red One, i decided to be an every other cycle upgrader. So I went Red One M to Epic MX (skipped dragon) and now we just purchased an Epic-W. I had a Scarlet-W reservation in, and getting $10k off for that pushed me over the edge. I am pumped i get to keep my MX's. I am excited to test the new Epic-W vs. the Epic-MX. But I am not expecting to be completely blown away. I am expecting better low light performance, and hopefully better highlight handling, but with my MX's i really was able to capture whatever i wanted. I was never left needing more. I just treated it like 320iso film, and its been lovely. Even in run and gun documentary work, i found the MX sensor fast to shoot with, and with a little love in post, easy to achieve any look we were after.

We just paid for everything today and hopefully we will get the body next week.

If anyone has done some side by side tests, MX vs Helium, please post it up!
 
I'm sticking with my Epic Dragon. It's like a lovely film stock to me. I think it's more useful to know how to maximize the tools you have at your disposal than constantly chase the newest tech. If you can do both and push the envelope -- amazing, but focus on craft first.
 
IMG_0329.jpg


We have touchdown! This weekend I will have it down here in Colombia on set and can grab some frames vs the MX. Nicholas did an excellent comparison and honestly the MX didn't do bad at all in the comparison. So I am going to focus more on real world experiences. Will it allow us to flag less, shoot faster, etc.

More next week!
 
I've already mentioned it around the boards several times but for being on REDUser for as long as I have, I finally got a RED One MX a few months ago! I haven't used it for much as of yet but I've been testing it and I'll be using it on our upcoming feature film. I got away from cameras for a few years out of school to focus on learning 3D animation and I took a break to make "The Review - A Fatal Frame Fan Film". I used my Canon 5D Mark II, no Magic Lantern, and a cheap SJ4000 action camera because I couldn't wait any longer for the GoPro 4 to come out during the Summer last year, and filmed the whole thing in compressed 1080P. So far, as of today, I'm adding a tenth award laurel to our banner and one of those was an award for cinematography. After all of that, I decided to get a Sony A7S and Shogun for low light 4K but for the movie, my brother said we had to go big or go home, and after getting a RED One MX, I feel like I'm way ahead of the camera competition as it is! There still isn't a camera that can match the RED One MX, some like the A7S can do one or two things better but you miss out on so much as a tradeoff. Getting to an Epic MX, in my eyes, is already a major upgrade and one I would be happy to do sometime in the future but looking at footage from the Weapon 8K, aside from the massive doubling of resolution and possibilities that brings for VFX and compositing alone, I don't feel like I'm missing out at all. The leap to 4K is already big and reminds me of when I switched from my Canon GL1 to a Canon HV20 and, in that same sense, from the HV20 to a Nikon D90. It's new possibilities opening up and with 4K RAW, I can film anything I want and it will look like what I saw in that moment, no compression, no dumbed down colors, and crystal clear. So if you're worried about missing out with the Weapon series, just remember that ultimately the only thing different is added resolution, codecs, and general workflow refinements, the basic image is about the same as it was with the MX, which is fantastic. I can't imagine a client would be able to tell whether something was filmed in 8K, 6K, 5K, or 4K, just as long as it looks better than HD and, even then, some HD can look really great and fool them too. So, enjoy your Epic MX if you still have one, it's an amazing camera, it's called an "Epic" after all! :)

Also, if you want to check out "The Review", here's a link: https://youtu.be/27cn7QTmc7Y
 
Still shooting my Epic MX.. Never saw the need to upgrade. Dont plan on doing so either.
if anything I might buy another Epic MX for dirt cheap and have a second camera.. if the camera was good enough to shoot hollywood features in this decade, its going to be good enough in the next decade
 
Randall Brown said:
IMG_0329.jpg


We have touchdown! This weekend I will have it down here in Colombia on set and can grab some frames vs the MX. Nicholas did an excellent comparison and honestly the MX didn't do bad at all in the comparison. So I am going to focus more on real world experiences. Will it allow us to flag less, shoot faster, etc.

More next week!
Click to expand...

Great! Will be waiting for the shots, thanks alot! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
A famous music producer by the name of Shek Spear ( he has over 20 grammys, produced #1 hits for TLC,Destiny Child, Mariah Carey, the list never stops). Anyway he has a 6 million studio and , and although his A room in state of the art, he still has a laptop where he uses old plugins and programs to produce. I asked him why uses it and not the A room and he said these plug ins are what sold 60 million records. No one using the new stuff is coming anywhere near that. So basically the moral of the story is, all your favorite movies and classics from the last 10 years were probably shot on RED epics, they were good enough then so they are good enough now. So don't feel bad about having a mx, I have a scarlet mx. When the opportunity arises upgrade, but don't feel pressured.

Also the benefit of waiting is they can fix all the kinks out, and the preowned market for MX is amazing right now. Ive been literally getting great stuff in great condition for 50-70% off because these people are in such a hurry to sell their shit.
 
:thumbup1: Really great points! Thanks for your imput! :)
 
Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you everyone for this thread. I was in line for a RED ONE when they were still vaporware. I got mine and it was fantastic. (although a bit too heavy for my style)

I went in for the replacement deal for early adopters and got my EPIC-X package. Lovely camera.

Thought I was in on the full update track until the time came when I would have had to spend 10K to upgrade to Dragon sensor to even be in the lineup.

Biggest issue is that other business ventures have overshadowed using my camera. It has been sitting in the safe way too much. Too much to justify the Dragon sensor upgrade at the time.

I had recently gotten a bit sad about two things: Not using my camera enough and missing out on the upgrade path.

I had even recently thought about selling. The proceeds would pay for my Wife's new completely accessorized outdoor patio kitchen with wood fired pizza oven....... :) (I still have to build it and will now have to find other ways to pay for it)

After this thread, I have my camera out and am not considering parting with it any longer!

So, thanks all for this thread. I am now building the start/stop circuit for my Gunner setup that I bought the parts for a long time ago.

Now planning to finish a sci-fi short that we wrote 5 years ago!

Merry Christmas!

Alan
 
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