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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 :)

WAITING 4 RAVEN? 5 things to think about!

David Battistella

David Battistella

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Hey all,

I realize a few RAVEN users are going to be first time RED owners as well. So, I thought I would start this thread and invite other experienced RED owners help you get up to speed quickly. These are the top five things I would be thinking about, now that you are entering the world of RED.

Having a camera is one thing, but investing in the right things to make great images and keep your clients happy is important to consider.


1. POWER
Give a lot of thought to the power solution you chose and make sure you have enough power to get you through a shooting day. Red cameras tend to consume a lot more power than the camera you might be moving up from, so don't skimp on your power choice and buy enough power to keep you up and running. AB, V-LOCK, REDCOLT, there are lots of choices, research them well.

2. MEDIA
I am a fan of more and smaller media cards and more frequent backups. At the very least have one large card and one small one but don't really try to get away with only one card, thinking you can backup over lunch. Buy as much media as you can afford and I would say, go for more pieces of media over total GB's.

3. SHORT AND LONG TERM BACKUP
Have a strategy for storing the media you will be gathering and figure out a solid and stable backup solution. There are many ways to go, I use single drives, raids and LTO-6 tape. Your RED is a personal archive box because it is grabbing very high resolution images that will be usable well into the future, so you wan to have a plan for all those great shots you are going to collect on your way to the oscars.

4. ONBOARD SOUND
You can attach a camera mic to your RAVEN and you are going to want to figure out a way to mount that MIC to your camera. Pick a decent mic and make sure it works with RED camera's Don't assume anything with a 1/4 mic plug will work.

5. ND FILTERS and MATTE BOX
You don't want to be shooting everything outdoors at F22 or F16 with a shutter angle other than 180 degrees. This will be the first thing that will take that "filmic" look away from your images because you will be destroying that lovely motion blur. Get a basic set of ND's and build up your filter set from there. You can opt for Screw in filters as well but be careful of cheap variable ND's that can mess up your images.


The next most important things you should invest in are:

-Good Glass
-High CRI lighting
-Reading the DSMC manual
-and LOTS OF TESTING. Keep testing until you are making the images you want.

Keep a great attitude and enjoy the ride.

David
 
Thanks for this thread David,
I would like to add a 6th paragraph.

6. Entry into the 4K+ raw (or not) world

My background is 5D Mk 2 and 3. Expose well and the editing is easy.
I have to change my entire approach to shooting because of 4k.
I bought (for our business) a DJI Inspire 1 X5R and a couple of Hero 4 GoPros. I am waiting for my Raven.
I am now learning about different workflow with Resolve and After Effects (I edit with FCPX)

So far using the drone, I am learning about panning speed and shutter speed. ND filters are paramount here. I also learned about only shoot what you need. The files are giganourmous.
And of course learning about raw files. I have a short docu film planned about a horse and his owner barrel racing. I will be using the drone, the GoPro and of course the Raven for it. I know I will learn so much.

To you points.
1- POWER. There is so much choices that it is very difficult to make a decision. Especially for someone like me who has used only Canon LP-6 batteries.

2-MEDIA. Man those are expensive. I will try to get a second one soonest. I agree with you about having more smaller cards.

3-SHORT AND LONG TERM BACKUP. Yep, more money. I am a G-tech raid and I am thinking about getting into their docking system, otherwise I archive on cheap 1TB USB 3 portable drives (X2)

4-ONBOARD SOUND. I am covered with 2 Zoom 5N a shotgun and a lav. So far it has worked well for me.

5-FILTERS AND MATTBOX. I have the filters, variable NDs, but I am not sure how they will perform on the Dragon sensor. I want a matte box, the orange one. I saw it at NAB and I love the lightness of it.

I am at the same time excited and concerned about getting into the 4k world.
 
It's hard to turn back from raw especially when you get used to how forgiving it is compared to an h264 file. You should feel excited about 4K, it will be a fun ride.
 
when i only have a basic set of ND filters, how bad or good is it to use 2 on top of each other on a bright sunny day?
 
Reto Scherrer said:
when i only have a basic set of ND filters, how bad or good is it to use 2 on top of each other on a bright sunny day?
Click to expand...

you can stack them and with the Dragon sensor there is far less risk from IR contamination that previous sensors. I often stack a full ND and a Grad for example. Matched sets of filters are a better.

David
 
David Battistella said:
Hey all,

I realize a few RAVEN users are going to be first time RED owners as well. So, I thought I would start this thread and invite other experienced RED owners help you get up to speed quickly. These are the top five things I would be thinking about, now that you are entering the world of RED.

Having a camera is one thing, but investing in the right things to make great images and keep your clients happy is important to consider.


1. POWER
Give a lot of thought to the power solution you chose and make sure you have enough power to get you through a shooting day. Red cameras tend to consume a lot more power than the camera you might be moving up from, so don't skimp on your power choice and buy enough power to keep you up and running. AB, V-LOCK, REDCOLT, there are lots of choices, research them well.

2. MEDIA
I am a fan of more and smaller media cards and more frequent backups. At the very least have one large card and one small one but don't really try to get away with only one card, thinking you can backup over lunch. Buy as much media as you can afford and I would say, go for more pieces of media over total GB's.

3. SHORT AND LONG TERM BACKUP
Have a strategy for storing the media you will be gathering and figure out a solid and stable backup solution. There are many ways to go, I use single drives, raids and LTO-6 tape. Your RED is a personal archive box because it is grabbing very high resolution images that will be usable well into the future, so you wan to have a plan for all those great shots you are going to collect on your way to the oscars.

4. ONBOARD SOUND
You can attach a camera mic to your RAVEN and you are going to want to figure out a way to mount that MIC to your camera. Pick a decent mic and make sure it works with RED camera's Don't assume anything with a 1/4 mic plug will work.

5. ND FILTERS and MATTE BOX
You don't want to be shooting everything outdoors at F22 or F16 with a shutter angle other than 180 degrees. This will be the first thing that will take that "filmic" look away from your images because you will be destroying that lovely motion blur. Get a basic set of ND's and build up your filter set from there. You can opt for Screw in filters as well but be careful of cheap variable ND's that can mess up your images.


The next most important things you should invest in are:

-Good Glass
-High CRI lighting
-Reading the DSMC manual
-and LOTS OF TESTING. Keep testing until you are making the images you want.

Keep a great attitude and enjoy the ride.

David
Click to expand...


Thank you for information some of what you mention I already practice but will need to re-adjust for the new gear.
 
I would also add, get really comfortable with basic grading in RCX, then move on to more advanced grading in Resolve.

The differnce between capturing good footage, and delivering great imagery, comes in the grade.
 
David Battistella said:
You don't want to be shooting everything outdoors at F22 or F16 with a shutter angle other than 180 degrees. This will be the first thing that will take that "filmic" look away from your images because you will be destroying that lovely motion blur. Get a basic set of ND's and build up your filter set from there. You can opt for Screw in filters as well but be careful of cheap variable ND's that can mess up your images.
Click to expand...

Good thoughts David! Been slowly gathering a few things for the new stable of cameras, but thankfully already have a lot of this to carryover from the DSMC1...

1. POWER
Blueshape. 90wh Granite batteries have been my go-to and I love 'em. Extremely durable, waterproof, and not too heavy. And their customer service has been second to none! Got a failed battery re-celled for free. :)

2. MEDIA
Agreed that more smaller cards is better than one giant one. Redundancy is a good thing.

3. SHORT AND LONG TERM BACKUP
I am a HUGE fan of the Blackmagic multidock + SSD combo. Got it for a job earlier this year and can't understand how I got any work done without it. I order 500gb SSD's off amazon (with little VHS-style cases) and assign each job a master and backup. Being hot-swappable and able to run 4 drives simultaneously it's easy to bounce between multiple projects at will without juggling cables and power supplies.

Once a job's done I tape the master drive into it's case and store it in my archives. (the backup gets erased and rotated back into the "backup" pool... or used for personal storage).
Perfect blend of file and tape workflows imo :)

4. ONBOARD SOUND
Got burned by this just last week. Do your research and DON'T trust the plug as any indication of compatibility.

5. ND FILTERS and MATTE BOX
Recently AC'd a shoot with a very lightweight run-and-gun setup that used a tiffen variable ND and kind of fell in love how nimble it was. I've got a MB and some square filters but thinking about grabbing a variable for those quick style shoots. Why specifically do you recommend against them?


Also just joined the Leica R club (thanks mainly to your other thread!) and am so excited to put them in front of these new cameras!
 
I use those Tiffen variables for run and gun stuff as well with Nikon Glass. They are pretty decent, but you have to watch out for the X pattern that can happen when you push them too far.

David
 
Has anyone shot a test video comparing the different resolutions of the Raven. The same shot in 4.5k, 4k, 3.5k, 3K etc so forth...just keen to see if there's any noticeable noise difference or image quality? Thanks in advance
 
You will definitely see a difference in quality as you window down the sensor, specifically the sharpness will go down and the graininess will go up.

Now, to determine what resolution works best for you, you'll need to test extensively. No one can answer that question but you.
 
Yeah I know, just wanted to have a quick look at different resolutions to cure my eagerness before mine arrives. All good. Waiting patiently for mine.
 
That is an excellent thread. Well worth digesting!
 
Thank you David, that helped really

Any idea on the ND filters I should be looking into? there are many brands out there and and I have the Canon glass
 
Hassan Bienfait said:
Thank you David, that helped really

Any idea on the ND filters I should be looking into? there are many brands out there and and I have the Canon glass
Click to expand...

Chekc out Phil's group buy for FORMAT firecrest filters. I have a few Format filters and they are great. M other filters are Tiffen.

David
 
Great suggestions David,

I would add that it is also very important to have the following when and where possible:

Follow Focus:

While myself, coming form Photography background am very used to and very good at Manually Focusing any lens without the aid of a Follow Focus, having one always makes a Gigantic difference, especially when in need to Rack Focus.

As far as which to choose, the choices this days are many, depending on budget, been my absolute favor the Bright Tangerine Revolvr (out soon), second the Arri FF4, and third the O'Connor CFF-1.

Sorry, this are not the cheap ones... But there is of course several other alternatives, much cheaper ones, I just have only used the ones mentioned and only commented out of personal experience... :)


And outside of the camera itself, but in the image capturing needs, is of course the most important factor, "LIGHTING" be it hard or soft, filtered or unfiltered, bounced or direct, as the desired look requires, but make no mistake that lighting bust be used, even if it is Solar or Lunar, but with NO lighting, you'll never be able to give your images any thru dimension in space and detachment for Foreground and or Background hence creating a tree dimensionality to the image that in turn gives it a more cinematic look.
 
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