The First Komodo Out in the Wild

[Phil Holland]

Answers to questions!

I believe it’s one or the other. Not at the same time.

Correct Helmet Master (inside joke)

speedbooster,

I've had about 80 lenses on Komod so far, and yep a fair amount of that was Speedboosting. You'll get some sample footage from me with and without that. Painfully I'm awaiting a revised RF>PL Speedbooster, so here I am juggling lenses I can't use that way yet. *tears*

How are most of you planning to use Komodo? I will primarily use it on travel gigs as a b-cam to my Helium as well as a gimbal cam for those jobs. I’m sooo ready to stop building out on MōVI Pro then breaking down for long interviews only to go back to MōVI Pro at the end of the day.

Phil, have you seen any potential pain points in matching Komodo and Helium, specifically for well lit on location interviews? Also potential for needing to match in camera when recording 4K prores. Speaking of, does Komodo record 4K prores with IPP2(or any other LUT applied) or log like DSMC2?

All of the above for me. Komodo passed my "is it good tests" over the course of two days. I 100% think it's fine for B-Cam and specifically B-Cam in a hurry situations. Like hey, can we stash camera behind the toaster to get Marilyn coming into the living room? I'm not totally Jarred here. A lot of people will use it as an A-Cam as well, particularly those who don't own the bigger brother cameras. Where this thing lands price-wise makes it ideal for bigger productions as a POV, Crash, and Blast Cam. For most of us humans, travel work, gimbal, ABCD-cam, whatever.

I'll be tinkering with IPP2 and ProRes to see if it's a RWG/Log3G10 output or using an output transform with or without LUT. Yes. LUT support is in camera. Hard tease there.

Phil, Does KOMODO have a SSD external option like Pocket6k to have Dual recording Cfast and External SSD when and if needed... ???

Good lord no. I don't think many have experience as to why professionals don't like that concept of a cabled media drive. It's cool and all, but like literally the most crucial thing is your freaking media. That cable is not a production standard even with clamps.

I'm certain I'll test to do some sort of external SSD via the drive bay, but I'm telling you one of the big pros about this camera is you don't need to do "not exactly ideal" stuff like that.

I would imagine you could use SDI out to record to an external monitor like shogun or odyssey while recording internally. Maybe you can trigger recording on Komodo through SDI as well?

Yeppers. And there's a decent dual record solution. Komodo has a protected media bay, that's hinged door with some impressive padding cut out even. I'm not throwing this thing off a car anytime soon, but that card should survive if even your hood rig busts.

Any .r3ds yet?

Love this. Today's lovely curfew was 5pm where I live. Doesn't matter. I know you're eager. I got stuff coming either way. Just not what I wanted to pull off sadly.

Hey Phil congrats on getting the camera, would love to know if you had a chance to test any M mount lenses? I'm curious how the new OLPF plays with M mount glass, Especially wider lenses like the 28mm Summilux.

Good question! My buddy who has all the Leica glass is elsewhere, but I'll dig deep. I kept all the stuff that works well on all the previous RED sensors. But I'm curious as well. M-Mount = small little shooting package.

What specific issues are you facing with the speedbooster. Back focus is off? Getting more than normal optical issues with the image? (ie. chromatic aberration, corner softness, barrel distortion)

Actual physical issues. Some vintage lenses have flocking shields, particularly on wides, to wrangle internal flare. It's literally hitting the Speedbooster. I've had some lenses modified before by sawing that off very carefully. But I'm a bit touching about a few of my Leica primes. Tough one here.

Phil, do you find you like having a smaller body than DSMC 2?

Would you recommend this to be used as an A cam from your testing so far?

Small bod. You'll like my incoming post because I rig it sort of A-Cam style. I would have no problem using Komodo this as A-Cam really. Image quality and DR is there, lacks hot rod frame rates though. Monstro is obviously still my A-Cam because well it's still Monstro. As for the smaller body. Woof. Pros and cons for sure! Like right now I'm super missing cablelessness and how easy and clean my DSMC2 rigs can be. Missing shortcut keys as well, but there's just no actual space on the body. Komodo is clearly designed to be as small, compact, and lightweight as possible and that's it's biggest strength beyond the global shutter and magic sensor/CSF tech. I see the strengths in that.

As I mentioned above, based on the many questions I'm answering right now, where I think this will be used A-Cam the most is for people who don't own either RED DSMC2 bodies or have older other cameras they are looking to move up from. Professionals with RED brains. I still see pros to them obviously. Especially when we talk about production rigging. Like Komodo is sort of the opposite of Ranger really, but they are clearly made for two very different worlds.

 

[Phil Holland]

Oh. Almost forgot my sexy diary post from today. Here's your A-Cam setup:





RED Komodo Diary: Day 03

Whelp time for quarantine and curfew with RED Komodo. This camera is small, but there will likely be a time when you'll want to rig it towards more of a traditional cinema application. Today's big surprise is previewing the upcoming accessories from Wooden Camera for Komodo. The benefit of announcing a camera way back when is accessory manufacturers have time to develop their solutions so you aren't flying naked when a camera drops. Today I am fully dressed in aluminum.

WC has some nice stuff coming out including a quick release system that can support a traditional Arri dovetail as well as an Arca plate when you need to be nimble and go to gimbal. The top handle doesn't prevent you from seeing or touching the top LCD. There's several ways to mount an external display, cold shoe shown here, SmallHD 502 Bright. They've also made a compact PL mount with a little foot that goes into that baseplate, which provides stability for heavier lenses as well as base plate rigidity for you adventurous peeps.

Got it all rigged in an unholy matrimony of WC and Bright Tangerine Gear (I wuv both of them). BT Revolvr Follow Focus, 19mm Titanium rods, and my favorite dovetail. In this case the WC Zip Box Pro. Also in frame is indeed a Canon BP to V-Mount Plate, very cool to power the rig from one battery pack. You'll note it's low profile too, nice for tiny batteries like the GDU metal shelled batts and can be adjusted outward and upward if needed for balance. Two rosettes for arms and handles and I can still rig my GDU ribs left and right for other goodies.

My rigging quote is it's very difficult to make a big camera small, but it's always possible to make a small camera bigger. Here is exactly that and why you'd want to. This can also translate well into a shoulder rig. And for you backpack fishing pole operators, yep, you can grip to that top handle and dangle your Komodo and see what bites in frame while singing "orange kisses for all the fishes". I'll be showing off more rigging soon. And yes. footage as well. Sexy fluid head is my OConnor Ultimate 1040, but you can get away with much smaller.

 

[Andrew R Lewis]

I'll be tinkering with IPP2 and ProRes to see if it's a RWG/Log3G10 output or using an output transform with or without LUT. Yes. LUT support is in camera. Hard tease there.

Very promising. Very excited. But really though, be small, be R3D, just work. That’s all I really want.

Thanks, Phil!

 

[Nick Vera]

Actual physical issues. Some vintage lenses have flocking shields, particularly on wides, to wrangle internal flare. It's literally hitting the Speedbooster. I've had some lenses modified before by sawing that off very carefully. But I'm a bit touching about a few of my Leica primes. Tough one here.

Thanks for the update! You think Sigma EF primes should be fine with the speedbooster from 20mm, onwards? How is that Mitakon 50mm EF treating you? Been wanting to check that out. Mostly cause I can use it on my Canon 1V. Thank you once again .

 

[Alain M]

Answers to questions!



Correct Helmet Master (inside joke)




I've had about 80 lenses on Komod so far, and yep a fair amount of that was Speedboosting. You'll get some sample footage from me with and without that. Painfully I'm awaiting a revised RF>PL Speedbooster, so here I am juggling lenses I can't use that way yet. *tears*




All of the above for me. Komodo passed my "is it good tests" over the course of two days. I 100% think it's fine for B-Cam and specifically B-Cam in a hurry situations. Like hey, can we stash camera behind the toaster to get Marilyn coming into the living room? I'm not totally Jarred here. A lot of people will use it as an A-Cam as well, particularly those who don't own the bigger brother cameras. Where this thing lands price-wise makes it ideal for bigger productions as a POV, Crash, and Blast Cam. For most of us humans, travel work, gimbal, ABCD-cam, whatever.

I'll be tinkering with IPP2 and ProRes to see if it's a RWG/Log3G10 output or using an output transform with or without LUT. Yes. LUT support is in camera. Hard tease there.

Good lord no. I don't think many have experience as to why professionals don't like that concept of a cabled media drive. It's cool and all, but like literally the most crucial thing is your freaking media. That cable is not a production standard even with clamps.

I'm certain I'll test to do some sort of external SSD via the drive bay, but I'm telling you one of the big pros about this camera is you don't need to do "not exactly ideal" stuff like that.




Yeppers. And there's a decent dual record solution. Komodo has a protected media bay, that's hinged door with some impressive padding cut out even. I'm not throwing this thing off a car anytime soon, but that card should survive if even your hood rig busts.




Love this. Today's lovely curfew was 5pm where I live. Doesn't matter. I know you're eager. I got stuff coming either way. Just not what I wanted to pull off sadly.




Good question! My buddy who has all the Leica glass is elsewhere, but I'll dig deep. I kept all the stuff that works well on all the previous RED sensors. But I'm curious as well. M-Mount = small little shooting package.




Actual physical issues. Some vintage lenses have flocking shields, particularly on wides, to wrangle internal flare. It's literally hitting the Speedbooster. I've had some lenses modified before by sawing that off very carefully. But I'm a bit touching about a few of my Leica primes. Tough one here.




Small bod. You'll like my incoming post because I rig it sort of A-Cam style. I would have no problem using Komodo this as A-Cam really. Image quality and DR is there, lacks hot rod frame rates though. Monstro is obviously still my A-Cam because well it's still Monstro. As for the smaller body. Woof. Pros and cons for sure! Like right now I'm super missing cablelessness and how easy and clean my DSMC2 rigs can be. Missing shortcut keys as well, but there's just no actual space on the body. Komodo is clearly designed to be as small, compact, and lightweight as possible and that's it's biggest strength beyond the global shutter and magic sensor/CSF tech. I see the strengths in that.

As I mentioned above, based on the many questions I'm answering right now, where I think this will be used A-Cam the most is for people who don't own either RED DSMC2 bodies or have older other cameras they are looking to move up from. Professionals with RED brains. I still see pros to them obviously. Especially when we talk about production rigging. Like Komodo is sort of the opposite of Ranger really, but they are clearly made for two very different worlds.

Thanks for sharing Phil... Lots of insight great info..

 

[Alex Lubensky]

Curious how it handles bigger lenses. Something like Cooke 2x Ana or Atlas Orions. I'm speaking about rigging and physical handling - front heavy is not a really good situation in terms of using a camera on an EasyRig, or for gimbals. Raising it high also makes it top-heavy, not a good situation for gimbals again. As far as I've guessed the most universal solution everone is going to make is to raise the camera bottom plate to a place where your dsmc1/dsmc2 bottom plates where. I'd say beware of lower plates if you're going to use PL-mount lenses, is it correct?

 

[David Rasberry]

Is there a single frame shooting mode?

 

[Michael Tiemann]

One nice thing about Tokina Vista Primes and larger come zooms: they all have lens support threads. It should not be difficult to create a gimbal-friendly (i.e. light weight) bracket that bridges between lens and camera and puts connection to base right under c.o.g.

 

[Connor Thomas]

Answers to questions!


Small bod. You'll like my incoming post because I rig it sort of A-Cam style. I would have no problem using Komodo this as A-Cam really. Image quality and DR is there, lacks hot rod frame rates though. Monstro is obviously still my A-Cam because well it's still Monstro. As for the smaller body. Woof. Pros and cons for sure! Like right now I'm super missing cablelessness and how easy and clean my DSMC2 rigs can be. Missing shortcut keys as well, but there's just no actual space on the body. Komodo is clearly designed to be as small, compact, and lightweight as possible and that's it's biggest strength beyond the global shutter and magic sensor/CSF tech. I see the strengths in that.

As I mentioned above, based on the many questions I'm answering right now, where I think this will be used A-Cam the most is for people who don't own either RED DSMC2 bodies or have older other cameras they are looking to move up from. Professionals with RED brains. I still see pros to them obviously. Especially when we talk about production rigging. Like Komodo is sort of the opposite of Ranger really, but they are clearly made for two very different worlds.

Thank you Phil!

I think this camera will be perfect for what I do, I just have to wait to get one now!

 

[Audy Erel]

Is the Black Shading ritual still required with the lizard?

 

[Ash Worth]

Eight pages and no footage?

 

[Alex Lubensky]

One nice thing about Tokina Vista Primes and larger come zooms: they all have lens support threads. It should not be difficult to create a gimbal-friendly (i.e. light weight) bracket that bridges between lens and camera and puts connection to base right under c.o.g.

I'm pretty certain that a camera hanging on a lens is not a very robust rigging option. On sticks maybe, for fooling around maybe - but normal handheld with handles on your shoulder - na-ah. While there are standards in rod placing - i.e. LWS, 19mm Studio, 15mm Studio etc. They are built around pretty-much any lens out there (with an exception of really old stuff maybe), and there are a lot of lenses wich don't have threads built-in. Komodo is tiny, which makes use of different raisers a common situation if you rig it as an A cam, just curious about normal plate solution. Like how to use it with an ARRI Dovetail style plates etc. Lots of questions - how robust the rig is etc.

The reason I'm asking this question - while you're using it with light lenses there's no problem, but when you stick something that weights a mere 4+ KG - you're running into trouble with some plates even on DSMC cams, like 15mm rods are too soft for a decent lens support, smallrig plates are made of crap metal to use them with such weights etc.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

One nice thing about Tokina Vista Primes and larger come zooms: they all have lens support threads. It should not be difficult to create a gimbal-friendly (i.e. light weight) bracket that bridges between lens and camera and puts connection to base right under c.o.g.

Love the Komodo form factor, but it can make traditional mounting problematic. Would love to see something like Michael is suggesting. I typically roll on an ARRI slide plate/dovetail to facilitate fast rebalancing with my Monstro kit. Would love something similar but lighter/smaller to achieve the same utility for rigging gimbals, etc. Balance and center of gravity FTW.

Cheers - #19

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Good lord no. I don't think many have experience as to why professionals don't like that concept of a cabled media drive. It's cool and all, but like literally the most crucial thing is your freaking media.

Going back to Red One days ;-)

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

(snip) while you're using it with light lenses there's no problem, but when you stick something that weights a mere 4+ KG - you're running into trouble with some plates even on DSMC cams, like 15mm rods are too soft for a decent lens support, smallrig plates are made of crap metal to use them with such weights etc.

Good points Alex. FWIW, I think most of the support gear made for smaller cameras has been more about keeping costs down for that market segment rather than performance. Would love to see WC come out with a Titanium line that offers plenty of strength without adding much weight to the rig...

Cheers - #19

 

[Michael Tiemann]

I'm pretty certain that a camera hanging on a lens is not a very robust rigging option. On sticks maybe, for fooling around maybe - but normal handheld with handles on your shoulder - na-ah. While there are standards in rod placing - i.e. LWS, 19mm Studio, 15mm Studio etc. They are built around pretty-much any lens out there (with an exception of really old stuff maybe), and there are a lot of lenses wich don't have threads built-in. Komodo is tiny, which makes use of different raisers a common situation if you rig it as an A cam, just curious about normal plate solution. Like how to use it with an ARRI Dovetail style plates etc. Lots of questions - how robust the rig is etc.

The reason I'm asking this question - while you're using it with light lenses there's no problem, but when you stick something that weights a mere 4+ KG - you're running into trouble with some plates even on DSMC cams, like 15mm rods are too soft for a decent lens support, smallrig plates are made of crap metal to use them with such weights etc.

I get it that ergonomically, humans want the camera to be the locus of control for the hands. But that goes away when talking about gimbals or drones.

I don't understand your point about flimsy 15mm rods, because in this case you are not talking about the rods supporting the lens as much as supporting the < 1kg camera. When you connect to a bridge that's at the C.O.G. of such a system, the connection point is going to be so close to the termination point of the rods that there's basically nothing to flex. Unless you have a diagram that shows otherwise.

 

[Christian Jadot]

How's the auto focus?
Is there sensor stabilization?
Can you weigh the lightest set up possible? (What does under 2lbs mean?)

 

[M Harvey]

Appreciate the testing, Phil-- already very exciting new information.

I'm also looking forward to footage, but family and safety first! We now have an 8 pm curfew here in NYC and, among other things, it definitely changes the way you think about your day...

 

[Alex Stolpakov]

I get it that ergonomically, humans want the camera to be the locus of control for the hands. But that goes away when talking about gimbals or drones.

I don't understand your point about flimsy 15mm rods, because in this case you are not talking about the rods supporting the lens as much as supporting the < 1kg camera. When you connect to a bridge that's at the C.O.G. of such a system, the connection point is going to be so close to the termination point of the rods that there's basically nothing to flex. Unless you have a diagram that shows otherwise.

Can you post one picture when lenses are connected to bridge plate, so COG is at some new point. And what to do with all the staff like Arri plates, bridgeplates, battery-mounts and so on, that people use at rental houses? Not all the lenses can be easily mounted to the rods. And anyway in usual configuration its a second point of contact and not the only one.

 

[Benjamin Jarvis]

Phil - you're probably already working on this but what kind of run time are you getting with the BP-955/975 batteries and the GDU 98WH mini v-lock battery? Jarred mentioned about 3-hours with two BP-955 batteries. Any significant drain from the batteries when the camera is powered off?

Also, how did you mount the v-lock plate to the camera? Couldn't see the mounting point in your photo.

Thanks for all the testing - can't wait to get my hands on it.