Great video! I’m an owner-operator who owns an Alexa Mini, Amira, Monstro, Ranger Gemini, Komodo, (2) FX6 and (2) FX3 cameras (I know, seems like overkill). But they all have paid themselves back over and over, and get tossed into rotation depending on the project. I too rarely use my Komodo anymore (just doesn’t have the same dynamic range and robust image as my Monstro and Gemini), so I’ll likely sell it at some point, as it’s kind of a specialty camera at this point. I can’t justify moving into DSMC3 due to RED’s notorious depreciation in value, so my DSMC2 cameras will continue to be in rotation until they retire. Also, I much prefer the image that I see from the Monstro and Gemini than most of what I’ve seen coming out of DSMC3 (almost looks too digital / videoy in comparison). The ARRIs are definitely in a league of their own with their look and dynamic range. Again, great video!
Really interesting! I was personally recently thinking about the Monstro and Gemini and how good they are and will continue to be as bang for buck options with an amazing image. How do you think the end results from the Mini and Amira compare to the other cams in your kit? I know there's still people in my area buying both of those cams used and being super happy. Being a doco shooter the Amira was always a camera I would of loved but I felt like I left it to late, would love to hear your thoughts on how they stand up at the moment
I shoot with Canon C70's. I love the DGO sensor and RAW image. If I was gonna try something new it would be with a RED. I have a lot of RF glass. But now with the Nikon entry I'd be nervous that it goes away from RF. A lot of good stuff out there now. We are lucky.
The C70’s are great - I’ve got friends who own and are super happy with them. They actually match with the Komodo’s pretty well also. Yeah interesting about the RF mounts right!! Seemed like all future Red’s would keep that rf mount but who knows now🤷♂️
I sold my Komodo and picked up a DSMC2 dragon kit. The older sensors are far more ‘film’ like and better for narrative. The Komodo is good for corporate stuff. I like the Raptor… but it’s a bit too pricey for what it is.
Definately agree! It's a shame that Red marketing worked so well to convince people they need all of their new products to be honest, the older ones are great. Yeh I'd love a Raptor too, but just doesn't make financial sense for me at the moment!
Own a Komodo and I absolutely agree with you on this. Want to see how a scarlet Dragon will look with modern glass like DZO Arles or supreme Primes or Signatures
@@blackicestudios For sure! Would love to test those out as well. The DZO's will probably be more within the budget of this channel haha so will see if I can get my hands on some for some tests!
As a Nikon shooter living on the northern beaches, it was good to hear your perspective on Red. It will be interesting to see what Nikon/Red spit out in around 3 years when they start combining technology and IP. I dare say the price will come down, as Nikon is the most aggressive on price compared to Canon and Sony.
Thank you talking through it. Retaining the value is a big one. I am a Burano guy, I kind of think Sony is like Nintento, whatever they do don't make sense! Red is kind of feels a bit evil to me with all the copyright stuff, and Arri feels like Apple, elegant and kind of behind in tech, but they absolutely nail it every time! :D
Haha good analogies! I was originally actually going to compare Red to Apple with their 'You need to buy every amazing new product we release' style business strategy. And then ARRI is more like a luxury car/high fashion brand - No one is under the illusion they offer 'value for money' as such, but also cant deny they make very well made , very thought-out products. Buranos are great! Definitely the best all round workhorse for work veering towards the higher end space - As soon as a suitable project pops up I'll be renting one again
@@2424rocket I was about to comment that :D The are leading the pack big time. Even there 10 year old sensors are ahead of everything that other brands currently offer (maybe not Venice)... But I "feel" the are like apple, lol
You can get great images from the Burano, Red and Arri but only 2 of these have great resolution. Arri is very cheap second hand too and very expensive to fix if something goes wrong.
RED are awesome and they have great tech. Definitely think the execution hasn't been the greatest hence the resale value. Curious to see what Nikon makes of it. Blackmagic are legit. Although there is a gap between the AUD $4k FF Cinema 6k and the $9k Ursa 12k. If they released a $6-7k faster sensor camera with like 14 stops DR, 4k 60 or 4k 120 uncropped. whether S35 or FF. then that would be great.
100%. The sensors, menu design, codec, etc - a lot to love about RED, but of course a few aread they could do better. Basically never having a camera with good audio is kinda outrageous. Good points about Blackmagic! The Pyxis looks interesting.. but not sure what itll be like to operate having everything on the side like that
Hehe yeah. That would be a good series as well. "Angry DOPs and the cameras they operate" then again as 98% of cams are from rental houses would be a difficult one.
I was close to buying RED but for just under 10K$ BRAW, no crop frame rates, and built in NDs sold me on URSA mini pro 12K. The only regret I have is that having BM isn’t as cool as having a RED, and it sucks that I either have to seek to fit in or enjoy my tool.
Ahh man end of the day you've got a solid, pretty future proof cam capable of producing some super nice images - ready to go straight out of the bag instead of needing building up/rigging all the time like Red's. Market perceptions of different brands can be super annoying but I feel like that's changing a bit and will be less and less of a thing as time goes on. Good motivation to go shoot some work that looks better than what other people have shot on Red;)
Nice. I know..never would of predicted that comeback hey haha. Actually really wish I had of kept mine, unfortunately at the time I was a broke student who needed the funds to roll into the next camera purchase🥲
Most of the DSMC1 cams are dying due to the overheating of components I suppose. I've had 3 brains - Scarlet MX, Epic M, Epic MX. I've got one that died on me, but after disassembly there were signs of water damage - it does seem it was flooded once, or used in a terrible weather conditions (I've used mine in -24C, got into some heavy rains with no issues at all though). One thing to note - the thermopaste used on the RGB board is some kind of plastiline like substance, which dries out over time and is loosing it's state. I've then dug into my Scatlet after the SDI was blown out by the Tilta ring grip - just to see that the thermopaste was in the same state, despite it was 3 years younger than the Epic M physically. Though, this can be swapped at a local electronic repair shop, but I suggest not to dig into the cams without any other reason - the screws and the assembly on the serial ones are kinda easy to snap over time, which I can't say about M models. With the price ranging anywhere from 1000 to 2500 usd - I'd say just buy another brain if the older one fails (just like I did with my Epic M - purchasing another Epic MX brain).
though business-wise I agree that Red was a bad decision business-wise regarding new brains. They've screwed so many people with Monstro going from 80+k to less than 10k in 4 years. But used is another thing, a steal.
Cool insight mate! I opened an old one up one time but didnt know what I was doing haha. I've had a guy over in the US called Josh Wilson (contact@cgpent.com) service and repair some DSMC1 brains for me - he's the only guy around still touching them as far as I know. Cheers for dropping by, interesting hearing about your journey and the heating issues
Red user and love your footage. You have a good eye. Some thoughts I have on a couple of points. I dont beleive Arri when they claim that they wait to release tech because they are "thoroughly testing it". I believe they playing catchup on digital technology and Red had a massive headstart and still does. It doesnt take that long to test a camera, they only do so many things and when turned on they do the same things each time. Testing in heat etc doesnt take the year it took Arri to even get to 4K. Also on the Arri topic, people are sheep especially new film school students so thats going to account for a chunk of the choices. But the main reason Arri is big in cinema is very simple. They always were. All those pro DOP's that have been shooting the films we watch were mostly using Arri film cameras until one day the studios said switch to digital and they had to. So of course they chose Arri, the brand they trusted for decades. Why would they change even when Red was and still is way better. It was a big switch for them and in the midst of that switch who would change brands...
Cheers for the comment! Yeah all fair points and I definitely agree Arri has a bit of an unfair.. I guess you would call it 'prestige reputation bias'.. that is a bit more subjective rather than factual. I think they only make sense as a camera choice when you are operating in the budget range where the daily rental of a camera is in the scheme of things a small part of the budget. So I agree on what you're talking about. But I will say.. the other thing to keep in mind is I think sometimes Red have placed too much emphasis on high resolutions. Anecdotally - I think its fair to say the end image out of a 2.8k Alexa Mini, would stand up against a - for example - 6k Camera from other manufacturers like Red or Blackmagic. There is a bit of testing out there to support this kind of theory - eg some of the testing done in reports like this: 24x7.com.au/mtf-camera-comparison/ So I guess thats what I was basing my one liner about testing off - that sometimes it can feel like there is more to 'perceived sharpness and resolution' than just bringing out cameras with more k's like Red do. But thats just one aspect of what makes a great image, and there's a bunch of great films shot on Red that show they are up there with any other cinema camera and can produce super nice images.
I just finished a 200hr shoot in blackmagic.... just wish they had 16 bits. The rolloff on my burano is much nicer and simply stunning, especially in xocn, but that comes off at a premium. If I had to choose between fx6 or blackmagic 6k, i would pick blackmagic anyday - unless it's pure night.
Yep, loved that rolloff on the Burano as well! No denying they do have a nice image - just a shame its at such a premium. Interesting to hear you put Blackmagic over FX6! You prefer the warmer colour science?
@calebgrahamfilms I'm a grader, the first thing I would do is rescue the highlights on the braw file, every time the fx6 or fs7 mxf files pop up, I'm stuck with it if it hasn't been slightly underexposed when a sky is in the scene.
@@LoungearoundTV Yeh ok that's interesting! I know I had similar good experiences with live music footage captured in braw. Especially FS7 era Slog-3 was super sensitive to being perfectly exposed I used to find when I owned one, its gotten better but still easy to mess up
Facebook Marketplace(and the Red groups on there), Reduser.net, Newlifecine.com - those are main ones I know of. A lot of good deals around, but of course always do some research
Cheers, that was the goal! I think at the end of the day everyones out there just trying to get the best cam for the budget to help them level up in some way, so trying to come from that angle with these. I hope so, Im stoked to see the success of Blackmagic so far! I think they just need to listen to people out in the field (Not like Red have done with audio on their cameras haha)
Haha I do offer that funnily enough, super easy to batch things out in Resolve. Reality is.. I'd say on 70% of my shoots data is dumped on the day and then out of my hands
@@calebgrahamfilms My heart goes out to you. Producers who know nothing about tech should stop making tech decisions. 4K Prores even plays back slower on any PC younger than 2008
It's not really rocket science. Modern sensor such as the one in the Komodo process the image on-chip before it's encoded digitally. We have Sony to thank for that development. Sensors haven't really gotten better since 2010. They've just been ironing out the "flaws" that concern the noise floor. I've noticed that the more you mess with the noise floor the more "flat" your image tends to look even in raw. Only positive development I've seen mostly concerns the On-Chip Analog to Digital converters. Also the Komodo no longer uses JPEG 2000 wavelet compression, but instead the Discrete Cosine Transform compression which is the same one used in Prores and h.264. Since the amount of data at 4k/8k is becoming ginormous, lossy compression is becoming a "must" So yeah, things haven't really been getting better. That's why you prefer the dragon image more.
You've got me covered in the tech department haha, solid insight✊ Definitely all makes sense, I need to learn more about some of this - it all definitely helps cut through the 'marketing noise' a bit which is really just how brands people buying their newest cameras. Cheers for taking the time to explain
Thanks for your input on this! Im currently in a bind deciding between a helium 8k s35 and kx. I have realized i can pickup a full build for 10k or less for helium and kx would be a bit more. The image from Helium is just so cinematic compared to kx with like a digital look. What do you rec?
Cheers Shamar! Just hit you back on insta. But for other poeple interested: I think the end results/overall image quality on the Helium will be better, and a bit more future proof with the 8k option. On the flipside - Komodo-X will be better for using on Gimbals, and draws less battery power. I think they're the main things to toss up!
Hi Caleb, thank you for your video. Very interesting to hear your story and how you've upgraded your gear over the years. Some really nice shots in there as well! I have a bit of a tech question: I also shoot with an Epic Dragon and I have the skin tone highlight OLPF in the camera. Which OLPF do you like with your Dragon? I have to say that the STH OLPF doesn't really impress at the moment because of the colors and the pronounced noise. What is your experience with the different OLPF's?
Cheers Ruben! Ahhh you know what I've had a similar experience. When I bought my used Dragon it came with the Skin tone and Low light OLPFs - I naturally thought I was going to love the Skin Tone one, but had weird results - I would say in general worse results than just the standard OLPF. I then read something online about a DP swearing by leaving in the Low light OLPF in all the time and loving the results (You might need to fact check me - but Im pretty sure the film Palo Alto (2013) was shot with this exact setup). Personally I've never looked back from rocking this setup - to me it makes the shadow tones so much nicer and just works well all round, I never seen any colour issues and id say it lets you push the iso to 1600 without ugly noise - side by side looking way better than the Komodo at those ISO's north of 1000
@@calebgrahamfilms Hi Caleb, thanks so much for your info! Good to know others have a similar experience with the STH OLPF. In some cases it can look good but then in others it indeed looks weird color wise (and noisy). I’m now hunting for the LLO and Standard, really looking forward shooting with them after seeing your results.
@@RubenStuveling No worries! Yeah its not what you'd expect hey. But yeh - I used the standard for years on the Epic-X and never had any issues, so it seems like the skin tone one is kind of the anomaly amongst the three versions.
Cheers! And yeh.. realised after posting this I should of talked a bit more about audio. So yes.. I've done a lot of testing in this area, and in the end basically have come to the conclusion that products like the Rode Video Mic Pro, Video Mic NTG, and Wireless Pro's are the types of products that will work best with Reds. The preamps in the cameras are super weak.. so you really need to be sending to the camera the strongest signal possible. So to me XLR shotgun mics just always came in too low.. even with things like an 'A-box'. All those mics I mentioned above - you can boost the volume on the mic - and that helps you get useable audio straight from camera
I tried many things to make the audio work but still unsuccessful. I wanted to ask if you can do a video about audio on Red Dragon (setting, cables etc) because there is not much information about it. Thank you and all the best🤝.
@@makemovieordie2154 Ok cool not sure when but will add it to the list of future videos! One other thing worth trying - a 3.5mm stereo to mono adaptor - Its a small plug that makes sure its only a mono signal going in - that can sometimes help too
Interesting question! So I've been really enjoying the Komodo for Doc work. The Meike variable ND, a sigma 18-35/50-100 set of lenses - and using a Ninja-V monitor with a cheap SSD inside for backup recordings (Angelbird cards I would say are less trustworthy that the older Red-Mags) - thats been a great all rounder setup for me. I haven't used a Komodo-X - but the same would apply to that. The Gemini - many would still rate that as one of the nicest sensors Red has produced, and also really popular for Doc work - so a great option if you can get your hands on one for a good price. Gemini Pros: Nicer image, better lowlight performance. Cons: Heavier, Draws more power. Hope that helps!
Thank you for this video I’m going for a Komodo x setup with a zoom dzo. Sorry I think I missed it, did you talk about how you get insured for your equipment?
