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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 :)

Who is still shooting with a Raven?

I’m still shooting with mine. I’m using it primarily for wilderness/outdoor sport content and I feel like it’s a great camera for that type of work. I have tried to find a way to make the sensor not feel as digital but I feel like all the footage out of the raven has a little more of a digital look then the rest of them. Besides that I love the camera and it still holds up for most of the work I am doing! If anyone has found a way to “soften” the look I would love to see what you did!
 
Zach Mckinley said:
I’m still shooting with mine. I’m using it primarily for wilderness/outdoor sport content and I feel like it’s a great camera for that type of work. I have tried to find a way to make the sensor not feel as digital but I feel like all the footage out of the raven has a little more of a digital look then the rest of them. Besides that I love the camera and it still holds up for most of the work I am doing! If anyone has found a way to “soften” the look I would love to see what you did!
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Awesome, I totally agree with the digital look and I recently purchased the 20% CineBloom Diffusion Filter and am impressed you might wanna give it a try if you want a softer (Cinematic) look. You can find a bunch of footage on youtube.
 
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I am still using mine but I have only had it for 4 months :) I am using it with Contax Zeiss and Zeiss ZE lenses. I too think it looks kind of digital but shouldn't it look like any other DSMC 2 Dragon sensor camera but with a little more crop?
 
Steven Ray said:
I am still using mine but I have only had it for 4 months :) I am using it with Contax Zeiss and Zeiss ZE lenses. I too think it looks kind of digital but shouldn't it look like any other DSMC 2 Dragon sensor camera but with a little more crop?
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Hey Steven,

When you mentioned: "... Shouldn't it look like any other DSMC2 Dragon sensor camera ... ?" ~ well, have you not seen some super sharp examples come out of the Dragon sensor before? I have, many times.

I own a set of the ZE Zeiss lenses and use them on my Epic. Some of my lenses are mega sharp that it can look somewhat "digital" instead of organic, as some desire to have. I've not tried the Contax lenses, but from what I've seen, they are quite sharp as well, depending on what you have. For some circumstances the "digital" look is good for some commercial work and work involving VFX and green screen work.

You could look into filtration for taking the edge off or look into some softer lenses. One could try the plethora of amazing vintage lenses out there and adapt them to EF. I have a set of Russian Lenses and they are cheap and give amazing characteristics wide open and good sharp results by f/ 3.5 ~ 4 and are quite usable for a lot of work. They exhibit exciting flares and all sorts of bokeh that some love.

Otherwise, you could try and find yourself a set of the Cosina/Voigtländer in EF mount pancake lenses. I have a set and love the quality of them; they are sharp but, yet still have a soft quality to them and give red flares ~ I think they are fun. They are on the more expensive side, but the build quality is great. They are made in the same factory as the Zeiss ZE lenses.

Otherwise, why not try and get some Canon L glass. Canon have a fantastic image rendition quality and for the 1st and some 2nd generation L lenses you still have that more organic softer edges look. I had a full set of primes and made my bread and butter mainly from the 35mm 1.4 L and they give that professional quality when you need it and some great "cinematic" look as well when needed. Of course we talk about the lighting styles more here, but the lenses do help elevate some of the characteristics that we all seek to have in out images.

Maybe a good question to ask yourself is: what is the look I really like? Then find a few examples from greats images you like and if you can, do the research on who used what lens for that shot; through IMDB or if you can contact the photographer directly, is a good way to find out. Once you find that out, then your search is narrowed down.

If it is Cooke lenses, maybe you cannot afford Cooke. But one could arguably find that in the Lomo lenses and find great examples online for $500, for example, that could achieve the same result. Or you want Zeiss Master Primes? Try the Zeiss Otus ... of if that is too expensive, go right to Sigma Art Primes. Now that will give you sharp digital images!
 
Patrick nailed it the lenses will make a big difference I shoot with older Canon L Lenses and i'm happy with the results. If I need the footage to be super sharp it's easier to ad a lil sharpening in post vs "softening" the image from my experience anyway. Ive shot a few short films a several music videos with my Raven and never had any complaints about the IQ being too sharp or too soft.
 
Daniel S said:
Patrick nailed it the lenses will make a big difference I shoot with older Canon L Lenses and i'm happy with the results. If I need the footage to be super sharp it's easier to ad a lil sharpening in post vs "softening" the image from my experience anyway. Ive shot a few short films a several music videos with my Raven and never had any complaints about the IQ being too sharp or too soft.
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Daniel do you have some examples of stuff you've shot on your raven?
 
Mine still gets used from time to time. These days I'm mostly shooting the Sony FX6 because faster workflows are needed and RED footage is heavy and fat, but a big part of it is that I never really found lenses I liked for the Raven. The weird sensor size makes lens choice unnecessarily difficult.
 
Sean R. Finnegan said:
Mine still gets used from time to time. These days I'm mostly shooting the Sony FX6 because faster workflows are needed and RED footage is heavy and fat, but a big part of it is that I never really found lenses I liked for the Raven. The weird sensor size makes lens choice unnecessarily difficult.
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I agree the footage takes a lot of space and now working with 6k it's even worst lol but theres something about the image I just love. I used to work with Canon dslr's. the RED image is very appealing to me.
 
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