nofilmschool » dynamicrange

RED EPIC-Shot 'City In The World' Paints a Darkly Beautiful New York City in HDR

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:18:31 +0000

I’m as captivated by striking portrayals of urban nightscapes as anyone, ranging back to the existing-light-only Nocturne, to the aerial ghost-eye-views of FIREFLY. There’s just something breathtaking about seeing the biggest centers of life and activity during the desolate, slumbering hours. Filmmaker Colby Moore has added another quieting noct-urban document to the list. City In The World lays some high dynamic range RED EPIC sights on the city that never quite gets to sleep. Check out some of New York City’s dark side below, plus some details from Colby about his non-HDRx workflow. (more…)

Will 6K with RED Dragon Mean Unmanageable File Sizes? Plus, New RED Rocket Card in Development

Joe Marine — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:36:12 +0000

While companies like Sony and Canon are just starting to offer their first affordable 4K cameras, RED is forging ahead to even higher resolutions. 5K is so 2012. Thanks to RED we’re about to get 6K. But it’s not all about resolution, we’re also getting other improvements with their new Dragon sensor, including better sensitivity and more dynamic range (Dragon will likely surpass the best 35mm film stocks with the latter). With all of these advancements comes a potential data headache for any working professional — what are we going to do with all of this data? RED and Sony both work in compressed RAW formats, but 4K compressed RAW is still a lot of data, and 5K pushes that even further. How will we deal with 6K RAW? According to CEO Jim Jannard, that’s where the power of RED’s wavelet codec comes into play. (more…)

RED Dragon Indeed: First 6K 2000 ISO Images from New Sensor Unveiled

Joe Marine — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 20:07:08 +0000

Jannard and Co. have been quiet for a while now except for the occasional firmware update. When the guys at RED aren’t talking with users on their forum into the wee hours of the morning, there is a sure bet that something is brewing. We got our first image of the spectacular dynamic range of the sensor (which looks to be well over 14 stops), and now Jarred Land has posted some of the first still images taken from 6K (6000 x 3000 pixels) 86fps footage. (more…)

RED Dragon Unleashes Its First Image, and SCARLET Camera Gets an Upgrade Path

Joe Marine — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 06:52:29 +0000

It may be 2013 in many places around the world already, but it probably feels like a whole bunch of holidays wrapped into one over at RED. The company has been somewhat quiet about their Dragon sensor over the last few months, but thanks to the CEO Jim Jannard we’ve been getting details here and there throughout 2012 about the sensor. It’s claimed that it will be able to achieve over 15 stops of dynamic range, and they are trying to back up that claim with a dynamic range chart showing what appears to be that, and possibly more. (more…)

The Numbers Are In: the Sony F3 S-Log Firmware Upgrades its Dynamic Range to 13.5 Stops

Ryan Koo — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:40:39 +0000

Sony’s paid S-Log upgrade for its F3 camcorder has been out in the wild for a while now, but to date no one has released a scientific test of how much extra dynamic range the $3,600 upgrade adds to the camera. Abel Cine has just done so, and they find the firmware takes the camcorder from from 12 to 13.5 stops (which is awfully close to ARRI ALEXA territory — and that camera costs $75k). Here’s the test: (more…)

New AMP HDR Camera Records Up to 20 Stops of Dynamic Range

Ryan Koo — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:22:08 +0000

In the High Dynamic Range imaging arena, it looks like RED’s HDRx mode just got some competition. But while RED’s technology cleverly combines two different exposures taken with the same sensor (fractions of a second apart), newcomer AMP uses a beam splitter to divvy up incoming light onto three separate sensors. We’ve seen beam-splitting HDR before, but this is a single unit that currently claims 17.5 stops of exposure, with up to 20 being claimed for the production unit. However, while the demo video says it “reveals reality,” in fact tasteless HDR can render reality into a garish mishmash: (more…)

Zacuto's 'Great Camera Shootout 2011' Evaluates Dynamic Range of Eleven Cameras

Ryan Koo — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:52:03 +0000

The first episode of Zacuto’s anticipated sequel to the Emmy award-winning Great Camera Shootout 2010 is now available. This year’s installment is a bit different than last year’s, as it’s actually a documentary on the Single Chip Camera Evaluation conducted by Robert Primes, ASC. The cameras tested include 35mm film (Kodak 5213 and 5219 stock), the Arri Alexa, RED ONE M-X, Weisscam HS-2, Phantom Flex, Sony F35, Sony F3, Panasonic AF100, Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 1D Mark IV and Nikon D7000. (more…)

A Look at the Sony FS100's Dynamic Range

Ryan Koo — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:01:21 +0000

Abel Cine continues their helpful camera tests on their blog with an insightful look at the dynamic range of the post-HDSLR Sony FS100 camcorder. They find the camera gets a respectable 11.5 stops, which according to similar tests is the same as the Sony F3 and Canon DSLRs like the 5D Mark II. They also look at the different CinemaTone settings, which are the customizable knee settings in the FS100. Along with pro audio inputs and interchangeable lens mounts, these settings help separate it from its cheaper HDSLR brethren: (more…)

A Perfect Video Demo of Why RED's HDRx is a Game-Changer

Ryan Koo — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:15:36 +0000

I just got through watching Doug Liman’s Fair Game, and was impressed with how the film dealt with the Valerie Plame affair without dumbing it down — it was a refreshingly “adult” Hollywood feature. However, what I wasn’t impressed with was the RED cinematography, with Liman himself serving as DP. It looked fine, but it didn’t look great, to my eye. In camera tests to date we’ve seen that the RED has plenty of shadow detail but lacks the highlight details of film, and it’s the slightly blown-out look of skin tones and other highlights that has has me “meh”-ing some RED cinematography. Enter RED’s game-changing exposure hack, HDRx. The following video was posted to the Cinematography Mailing List a while ago, but it’s a great explanation of HDRx in action on the RED EPIC, and also offers a glimpse of Assimilate’s post-production software SCRATCH at work: (more…)

The Sony FS100 Goes Up to 16,000 ISO

Ryan Koo — Tue, 31 May 2011 04:05:18 +0000

The folks at AbelCine have put the prosumer Sony FS100 through the same tests to which they subjected its professional cousin, the Sony F3, and have discovered some interesting things. First of all, it seems the FS100 gets about 10 stops of dynamic range as opposed to the F3′s 12 stops. But the FS100 has higher sensitivity settings, which let it reach the equivalent of an astounding 16,000 ISO. Here’s the chart that AbelCine came up with, to translate Sony’s video-centric “db gain” settings to the filmic ISO rating to which many are more accustomed: (more…)

Results from the Single-Chip Camera Evaluation Conducted by Robert Primes, ASC

Ryan Koo — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:10:24 +0000

One of the highlights of NAB’s “content theater” screenings was the Single-Chip Camera Evaluation, the result of an exhaustive camera shootout conducted in February by Robert Primes, ASC and a full crew (totaling what was estimated at over 5,000 man- and woman-hours). After seeing the terrific half-hour presentation at Zacuto’s booth, I went back for a second look at the full presentation. While the images — which should be released online in the future — are far more important than the charts, here are some key results from the screening, which featured cameras ranging from the cheapest Canon DSLR to cameras costing hundreds of thousands. (more…)

More Revealing Tests of the Sony F3's Dynamic Range and Gamma Settings

Ryan Koo — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:08:18 +0000

Andy Shipsides at Abel Cine has put the Sony F3 through some more dynamic range tests, which confirm earlier tests that the F3 gets about 12 stops of dynamic range (the S-Log firmware update will reportedly add another stop when it is released for $3,300). In addition to demonstrating the number of stops, Abel Cine has gone through the differences in gamma settings and has put together an informative video stepping through the chart: (more…)

The Sony F3 Put to the Test: 12+ Stops of Dynamic Range and a Bit of Aliasing

Ryan Koo — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:17:04 +0000

Video gurus Art Adams and Adam Wilt have put the Sony F3 through a suite of proper resolution, aliasing, IR sensitivity, and tonal-scale tests, and compared it with the Panasonic AF100 (now in stock at B&H), RED, and ARRI ALEXA cameras. We’ll have to wait for Zacuto to publish their forthcoming single-chip shootout to get a look at proper real-world comparisons (their DSLR vs film shootout was nominated for an Emmy), but here are the result for the time being. The F3 gets 12 + stops of dynamic range — before upgrading to S-Log, which Sony is claiming offers significantly more dynamic range — which, in this price range, is unprecedented. More from their results: (more…)

RED EPIC HDRx Makes 'Impossible' Shots Possible

Ryan Koo — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:32:07 +0000

We’ve taken a look at RED’s High Dynamic Range mode, dubbed HDRx, in the past. But now that over a hundred EPIC-Ms are out in the wild, shooters are putting the camera through its paces in the real world. According to most tests the ARRI ALEXA has around 1/2 to 1 full stop more dynamic range in native mode (14.5 to 13.5), but with HDRx RED is claiming up to 18 stops total. Here’s a shot that wouldn’t be possible without HDRx: (more…)

What Your HDSLR is Missing: Dynamic Range

Ryan Koo — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:44:51 +0000

Well, I should say, “what your DSLR is missing — among other things.” But one of the less obvious shortcomings of our DSLRs (other than aliasing, lack of good sound options, etc.) is the lack of dynamic range that DSLRs exhibit in video mode. And what better way to demonstrate this lack than by putting a Canon 7D side-by-side with a high-end ARRI ALEXA, and do a comparison video? (more…)