Well, I'm astounded.

[Patrick Grossien]

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.

Lovely images, Paul! Very well done! I like these a lot.

Do you ask permission of the people you take pictures of? Around here it's tough nowadays. You can't just walk around with a bigger camera, pointing it at people.

 

[Elsie N]

Blair, ridding the dragon's floor of red noise is Graeme's latest goal to achieve. So we just need to wait and see.

I just hope taking the red out of the noise doesn't mess up the new color characteristics. If it does, I may be shooting on 5.15.51 firmware from now on.

 

[Lakis Amarantithis]

>>Do you ask permission of the people you take pictures of? Around here it's tough nowadays. You can't just walk around with a bigger camera, pointing it at people.

I thought that's what paparazzis do in the US 24/7 and making lots of money also. I see pics everywhere from them, do they ask permission?

Back to Red Dragon..

Awesome pics. Just curious: How the camera was white balanced?

 

[Patrick Tresch]

>>Do you ask permission of the people you take pictures of? Around here it's tough nowadays. You can't just walk around with a bigger camera, pointing it at people.

I thought that's what paparazzis do in the US 24/7 and making lots of money also. I see pics everywhere from them, do they ask permission?

Back to Red Dragon..

Awesome pics. Just curious: How the camera was white balanced?

A smile and being friendly helps a lot by getting the permission. Where are you based in?

Pat

 

[Paul Russell]

Lovely images, Paul! Very well done! I like these a lot.

Do you ask permission of the people you take pictures of? Around here it's tough nowadays. You can't just walk around with a bigger camera, pointing it at people.

So long as you're on public land you're ok. Even the cops were thrilled and came over to ask what kind of camera it was.

 

[Paul Russell]

>>
Awesome pics. Just curious: How the camera was white balanced?

thank you. I white balance in RCX, but the only shot that has been white balanced is the motorbike cop. The rest are 5600 0 Tint. That's to give everyone an idea of what Dragon Colour looks like from RAW

 

[Patrick Grossien]

Thank you Paul and Patrick.

I would really love to know how you approach the people. Or don't you approach them / talk to them before hand and just shoot and smile ?

Patrick, I'm based in southern Germany in Stuttgart. People don't care what they post on Facebook of themselves of their kids and anybody who was unlucky enough to be in the area of the smartphone attack. But as soon as a bigger camera comes into play they become upset. Of course it's not like this every single time but the tendency is clear.
It could be that people here in Stuttgart have more of a stubborn "but it's my right" kind of attitude, but it really drives me away from shooting with my Scarlet in public places.

 

[Ricky Guing Senen]

Thank you Paul and Patrick.

I would really love to know how you approach the people. Or don't you approach them / talk to them before hand and just shoot and smile ?

Patrick, I'm based in southern Germany in Stuttgart. People don't care what they post on Facebook of themselves of their kids and anybody who was unlucky enough to be in the area of the smartphone attack. But as soon as a bigger camera comes into play they become upset. Of course it's not like this every single time but the tendency is clear.
It could be that people here in Stuttgart have more of a stubborn "but it's my right" kind of attitude, but it really drives me away from shooting with my Scarlet in public places.[/QU

Lakis and Patrick,

a friendly smile and politeness will do just fine. In Dubai, you need permission as it is considered rude to just shoot. I can't say much for other asian countries but I am from Borneo Island of Malaysia and it is quite ok to shoot and in some cases they just get curious but overall helpful.

 

[Patrick Grossien]

Yeah, I somewhat figured it's different in Asia. I see it quite often in the US as well. Not so much over here. But maybe it's just me. Although I'm a very polite and friendly person, of course

 

[Jarred Land]

Great tests thanks for sharing Paul.

 

[Vadim Bobkovsky]

So long as you're on public land you're ok. Even the cops were thrilled and came over to ask what kind of camera it was.

Lucky with the cops. Usually it's the other way around and a lot less friendly, at least in some places.

 

[Paul Russell]

There's a much lower fatality rate to dealing with cops here.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Congrats. nJoy!

 

[Paul Russell]

Here is the cut from that night. No denoising.

http://vimeo.com/98795973

 

[David Battistella]

Thanks Paul,

A few beers and a walkabout. Looks great. You used the available light so nicely in this piece! And it does show just how lovely the dragon renders color.

Cheers,

Battistella

 

[Jan Reiff]

this looks great. maybe there is noise (is there ?) ;-) - but the whole impression of the image is great - especially the colors ... i think it´s time again to see the great side of dragon - the other stuff is in Graemes skilled hands ... i am more than optimistic ...

 

[Jan Reiff]

can you upload this on the 4K youtube ?

 

[Jim Hoffman]

I have to say - I got my Dragon a bit ago and haven't been able to take it for a simple test drive. Yesterday I went out for a few minutes just to shoot something...anything... I was interested just to see how it handled color and the overall look of things. I have to say I'm impressed with the color and ease of getting something nice. I haven't felt that way before with our One and Epic x. Still a five minute sample is hardly something to write home about, but sometimes we forget about that first wow moment. I like the way the color looks and the smoothness of the transitions. Serious testing to come: low light / noise / etc, but for now...

Wow.

T001_C004_0619HJ by jawiho, on Flickr


T001_C006_0619SI by jawiho, on Flickr


T001_C008_0619DE by jawiho, on Flickr

T001_C002_0619BF by jawiho, on Flickr

 

[Les Hillis]

Beautiful pictures Paul and Jim. Thanks for the reminders of how good the Dragon can look (even without the upcoming fixes).

 

[Paul Russell]

Lovely shots, Jim.

Someone was asking for the 4K version of my cut.
Here it is. Rendered out to 120Mbps bit rate for YT transfer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYUmn5ieKM4