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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 :)

Well, I'm astounded.

Paul Russell

Paul Russell

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Ours finally arrived yesterday after a tortuous journey through the bandit-land known as Malaysia's Customs Office.

After seeing these recent threads about noise and low light performance I was prepared to be a little disappointed. So I took it out on a test shoot last night around Kuala Lumpur, under streetlights, horrible mixed lights sources of a night market and into a nightclub/bars area. I shot everything at 800 ISO, with some nice fast Contax Zeiss lenses and the Sigma 35mm ART, 25fps 180° shutter. All incidental light.

And this morning I'm amazed. The Dragon appears, to me, to be a quantum leap over the MX sensor. There's a little bit of noise in the shadows but it's very analog and entirely bearable. The subtlety is incredible. There's a short album of highlights here.

Well done, Red Team. Congratulations on making such a world class product.
 

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Paul Russell said:
Ours finally arrived yesterday after a tortuous journey through the bandit-land known as Malaysia's Customs Office.

After seeing these recent threads about noise and low light performance I was prepared to be a little disappointed. So I took it out on a test shoot last night around Kuala Lumpur, under streetlights, horrible mixed lights sources of a night market and into a nightclub/bars area. I shot everything at 800 ISO, with some nice fast Contax Zeiss lenses and the Sigma 35mm ART, 25fps 180° shutter. All incidental light.

And this morning I'm amazed. The Dragon appears, to me, to be a quantum leap over the MX sensor. There's a little bit of noise in the shadows but it's very analog and entirely bearable. The subtlety is incredible. There's a short album of highlights here.

Well done, Red Team. Congratulations on making such a world class product.
Click to expand...

Gorgeous Shots Paul. After see your Dragon in the wild street of KL, I can't wait for that email!
Dragon ISO 800 indeed is usable compared to MX.

Did if you have to pay for custom taxes again during the tortuous journey? I am anxious as I will make that journey to the notorious customs someday?
 
Noel R. said:
Is that all natural light Paul? Great pics, by the way!
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Thx, Noel. Yes, it's all natural or incident light. We were travelling light using only Redvolts and a small selection of primes.

Ricky Guing Senen said:
Gorgeous Shots Paul. After see your Dragon in the wild street of KL, I can't wait for that email!
Dragon ISO 800 indeed is usable compared to MX.
Click to expand...
The sensor seems to suck in a lot more light.


Ricky Guing Senen said:
Did if you have to pay for custom taxes again during the tortuous journey? I am anxious as I will make that journey to the notorious customs someday?
Click to expand...
FedEx didn't process the re-import properly. And FedEx Alaska labelled it as a Cinema Camera, despite Red's own labelling as a video camera. So Customs initially refused the re-import and tried to charge me 10% of the upgrade, USD1,000. But I fought back and got it four days late as a re-import. Later, some senior guy from Customs called me to confirm that the camera is duty-free, and I asked him to send me an email confirmation. Here it is, so you can use it if you need it.


Referred to above matter during conversation with you on Thursday at 6.00 p.m.
2. Upon checking your complaint, the details as follow:
2.1 Custom 1 (Input declaration) W20106013196
2.2 Released on 11th Jun 2014 at 3.38 p.m
2.3 Item declared : 1 unit cinema camera
2.4 Tariff Code : 852580100
2.5 Customs Duty : Nil
Thank you.
Hamiddan Bin Maryani
Customs Senior Assisstant Director II
Import & Free Zone Department
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Paul Russell said:
Thx, Noel. Yes, it's all natural or incident light. We were travelling light using only Redvolts and a small selection of primes.


The sensor seems to suck in a lot more light.


FedEx didn't process the re-import properly. And FedEx Alaska labelled it as a Cinema Camera, despite Red's own labelling as a video camera. So Customs initially refused the re-import and tried to charge me 10% of the upgrade, USD1,000. But I fought back and got it four days late as a re-import. Later, some senior guy from Customs called me to confirm that the camera is duty-free, and I asked him to send me an email confirmation. Here it is, so you can use it if you need it.
Click to expand...


I have to to pay customs duty twice on the same REDVOLT that I sent for repair despite declaration of sending for repair note.
there should be any any duty on camera bodies although some accessories are subjected to tax. The worse part is if your good arrive Friday, custom will take time and clear the following week making your stuff sleeping at the store.

your info would help me. Thanks a lot. Hope you enjoy your stay in KL n call me if you decide to pop in Kuching.
 
Paul, those stills look good, and I like this picture
One thing I found with tests is it's really hard to get the highlights to overblown with Dragon using 750W at F1.4 wide open, compared to MX where it would be blown out and have to stop down to around F4.
J5wfjPf.jpg
 
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Those are really nice shots. Wish I was there, those types of shots are so much fun to take.
Glad that you feel the Dragon is so much better. I like the idea of it "sucking in so much more light". Also curious about the improved colors what it would mean to us.
Best
/Andreas
 
Nawaf Alsabhan said:
Paul, those stills look good, and I like this picture
One thing I found with tests is it's really hard to get the highlights to overblown with Dragon using 750W at F1.4 wide open, compared to MX where it would be blown out and have to stop down to around F4.
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Yes, it's very tolerant of highlights. Most of that extra dynamic range seems to be at the top end.
I was out shooting today in very bright sunlight in Putrajaya, which is the head of government here. So you can expect majestic, bright shiny buildings and very bright sunlight. Yet still able to shoot RAW at f16 and not need any ND filters, like this one attached. Rendered out of RCX at 500ISO with Dragon color. No other adjustments or curves. There's only one spot where it blows out, but even that is achieved in a nice gradual way.
 

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Paul Russell said:
Yes, it's very tolerant of highlights. Most of that extra dynamic range seems to be at the top end.
I was out shooting today in very bright sunlight in Putrajaya, which is the head of government here. So you can expect majestic, bright shiny buildings and very bright sunlight. Yet still able to shoot RAW at f16 and not need any ND filters, like this one attached. Rendered out of RCX at 500ISO with Dragon color. No other adjustments or curves. There's only one spot where it blows out, but even that is achieved in a nice gradual way.
Click to expand...

Those leaves look far improved from MX color rendition, especially under the heat.
 
Mixed lighting, especially at lower Kelvin, was a challenge for the MX sensor/color matrix. For the record, the Black Magic cams are far worse in mixed lighting, almost as bad as their ergonomics - but I digress.

While the red/orange noise in the bottom is a bummer, we shouldn't forget the many things it does exceptionally well.

1) Dragon has much purer color, especially in the shadows, than the MX. To me, the color improvements alone are worth the upgrade cost.

2) I torture tested the top end and was amazed at what it could hold.

3) There is significantly more resolved detail, far more than going from 5K to 6K would suggest. This "denser negative" (there's got to be a better term) improves the image is ways that most people don't consider as a key benefit of higher resolutions. The thing I notice most is a greater sense of depth, and, due to better texture rendition, an enhanced sense of "feel".

Cheers - #19
 
Paul Russell said:
Yes, it's very tolerant of highlights. Most of that extra dynamic range seems to be at the top end.
I was out shooting today in very bright sunlight in Putrajaya, which is the head of government here. So you can expect majestic, bright shiny buildings and very bright sunlight. Yet still able to shoot RAW at f16 and not need any ND filters, like this one attached. Rendered out of RCX at 500ISO with Dragon color. No other adjustments or curves. There's only one spot where it blows out, but even that is achieved in a nice gradual way.
Click to expand...

That at is very welcome news.

Blair S. Paulsen said:
While the red/orange noise in the bottom is a bummer, we shouldn't forget the many things it does exceptionally well.


1) Dragon has much purer color, especially in the shadows, than the MX. To me, the color improvements alone are worth the upgrade cost.
Click to expand...

I have read others making either of these same observations elsewhere, but never both. They seem contradictory. Could you please clarify a bit?
 
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Blair, ridding the dragon's floor of red noise is Graeme's latest goal to achieve. So we just need to wait and see.
 
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