RED Komodo Footage is Starting to Hit the Internet. What Do You Think?

RED has been delivering Komodo to early adopters for about a week now. In May, Jarred Land posted on social media that RED would start to sell "some crazy colored Komodos to my friends and anyone else who want's be a little 'different'." Since footage of the 6K camera has found its way online. 

It's important to note these early cameras are running beta firmware. The final version of the software won't be made available until RED starts shipping the standard black models. Those are expected to arrive for another month or so. The first batch that shipped included Phil Holland, Philip Grossman, Tim Daust, and Curtis Boggs. 

Holland has posted several videos and his initial reaction, "Some early thoughts as I continue to dive in. Komodo is super compact. I knew this, but now that I've put a bazillion lenses on there, it's very much a whoa. I have this little cloth bag that's about 1/2 size a cloth grocery bag and I can fit it rigged in there. Feels a bit like DSMC2 loaded with a lot of 'new'."

Holland also did a short camera test with Komodo in 6K 17:9 24p shooting REDCODE RAW HQ. He mentioned the captured images are "straight out of the camera" with a "wee bit of white balance." The color is straight IPP2 of medium contrast, soft highlight roll-off and no grade. The lens used was a Tokina Ciname Vista 25mm T1.5. 

Grossman compared the Komodo with Helium in an "qualitative test comparison" using both cameras maximum resolution and lowers compression. For the test, he used a single Aputure 120d MK II fixture set at 50% power, then reduced it further for the last two clips. He also did some other ISO, high frame rate, and gimbal testing with Komodo. Check out the clips below. 

Curtis Boggs uploaded an unboxing on Vimeo: 

Tim Daust shot some test footage.

He also did complete walkthrough of the menu. 

But Scott Baulkman hosted a nearly six hour live stream with Komodo owners that included Land, who pops in at the 2 hour 30 minute mark. 

Land pointed out that Komodo was originally conceived as a better crash camera, and has been in the works for about five years. The idea being that Komodo could fit into tighter windows and produce better RAW footage than something like the GoPro. The camera has evolved a lot since then, and is still finding its way. Land said previously the camera would include Phase Detection Autofocus, which is a first for RED.

What do you think of the camera so far? Hit us up in the comments below.