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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 :)

SUPER noisy footage from Scarlet Dragon

Stephen Pruitt

Stephen Pruitt

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Hi all. . .

I just fired up my Scarlet Dragon for the first test shots, and I have to say, it's MUCH, MUCH, MUCH noisier (video noise) than my RED One MX that it replaced. I mean, it's literally like night and day.

The colors look great, but then I never thought the MX colors didn't look great.

I'm really disappointed.

I shot in 5K 2:1 8:1 compression and used the Skin Tone OLPF, but I can't believe that's the difference, or NO ONE would ever use the skin tone OLPF. . . EVER.

Any suggestions?

Stephen
 
What ISO? Black shade? Dragon chip is way better than MX. STOLPF kind of sucks for low light. Frame grab with histogram would be helpful.

NIck
 
Try Low Light OLPF, or the Standard OLFP.

The Skintone is for 320 iso and lower.

Trust me - we shoot on Dragon ALL the time, on Lowlight, and get MUCH cleaner results than MX. Much. And much better DR and color.

Much.
 
Also, to be fair, this is the first thing I shot with my dragon, STH olpf, rated all the interiors at 1600, and it looks pretty clean. As long as you aren't trying to shoot in the dark.

https://vimeo.com/139033948

Nick
 
I can post something on Vimeo and will do so in a few.

I'm exposing WAY to the right, at ISO 800, 5K 2:1, 8:1 REDCode.

Fortunately, I still have an MX here to test comparisons with.

So what you guys are saying is that I should not be seeing excessive noise, huh?

Well, okay. I'm glad to hear it. I bought this camera specifically to shoot our next feature with in six weeks. If I can't get this revolved, I'll be selling it and shooting with the Scarlet-X instead. I despise noise!

Stephen
 
And what's with all this purple fringing I'm seeing around black objects? I've never seen that with MX. Geez. What a mess.

BTW, how does one post an R3D?

Stephen
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
And what's with all this purple fringing I'm seeing around black objects? I've never seen that with MX. Geez. What a mess.

BTW, how does one post an R3D?

Stephen
Click to expand...

Stephen, just buy a LOW LIGHT OLPF. Its $195.

If you have the SKINTONE, then you will always be getting more noise than MX (320 vs 800).

Trust me, get the Lowlight OLPF, and you should be fine.

We shot this on 3 Dragons at 800 ISO (@ 2.8), all on Lowlight OLPF, at different resolutions - 6K, 5K and 4.5K (to accommodate a Standard Prime 16mm). And it came out great.



The interviews in this trailer were also 800 ISO (@f2 and 2.8) on Dragon LLO (starting at :30). Spotless clean. Aired in theaters across the country.

 
Stephen Pruitt said:
And what's with all this purple fringing I'm seeing around black objects? I've never seen that with MX. Geez. What a mess.

BTW, how does one post an R3D?

Stephen
Click to expand...

uploaded to dropbox 5 second movie in R3D, so we can have a look.
 
Having just done a night time shoot with ST . OLPF ( yes I know ) we had no problems with noise. In fact it was pick ups shots for a scene shot on MX which by far had more noise .

So not sure what's going ..but dragon is far cleaner than MX. State the bleeding obvious here , did you blackshade and run the camera to allow it to heat up before shooting ?
 
For a totally clean image I shoot the Scarlet Dragon Skintone Highlight OLPF at 400 ISO. I recently tried the Standard OLPF and found that it really changed things from 800 up being less noisy and less crunchy. I like the color much more on the Skintone but it's handy to have the option.
 
Did a fresh blackshade at temp. That made no difference compared to factory setting.

I just did a visual (looking at an external monitor screen) comparison, and the Dragon with the Skintone OLPF at ISO 250 was almost exactly as noisy as the Scarlet-X at 1000 ISO. Same exact lens and other settings (except for aperture, of course).

I'll load up a 5 second clip from the camera and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's crazy. The brain has three hours.

Stephen
 
Any R3D please?

Export using the R3D snapshot button in RCX and upload to wetranfer.

(or select an IN and OUT in your finder and export with the R3D trim mode)
 
I'm going to be posting an R3D as soon as I figure out how. Thanks.
 
Do you need to blackshade everytime before shooting? Is not only before a drastc temperature change or change of shutter?
 
Uploading an R3D to Dropbox now.
 
Difficult to say... I found it too noisy too for 800iso. But with the STO you surely have to put the DEB to kill the red dots, push denoise to 6 and probably aim for 320iso.
I do prefer LLO olpf.
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
Here is a link to a 5-second R3D. Camera at proper temperature. ISO 800. 4K 2:1. 5:1 REDCode. Canon 50mm f1.2 L lens. Skintone OLPF.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/655ybnibqn6bcrk/A002_C015_0320WU_001.R3D?dl=0

Thanks.

Stephen
Click to expand...

Took a look, looks relatively normal to me. It has a "little" bit of noise, but looks pretty organic to me. If you want spotless, again...go LOW LIGHT OLPF. This would have been SPOTLESS.

Also - why 4K vs 5K?

5K will use more of the sensor and print down a cleaner negative ultimately (esp for 1080 delivery).

Also - make sure to blackshade to your SHUTTER ANGLE. Not just to your temperature. Every SHUTTER ANGLE needs it's own blackshade. In DMSC2 the cameras switch blackshades automatically, but not in DSCM1.

best
 
I see what you're saying!
ok this is what I can tell you, since I often use STH OLPF.
- Make sure you've done well the blackshading at that temperature.
- 4k with Dragon and STH :( this noise is amplified by the crop factor and does not help you to have a clean image.
If you had shot 5k would be better, to 6k this would be much better.
- If you shoot with the Skin Tone would not go beyond 500 ISO, this is my personal opinion.
- Use one Sth OLPF or Low light and shoots 5k. and you will be happy;) better than MX, surely in all lighting conditions.
 
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