RED has been inviting some high profile directors to test out the Mysterium-X upgrade to the RED One camera.
12.11.2009 Don Burgess, ASC from “The Book of Eli”
I was a bit skeptical when I signed on to shoot “Book of Eli” on the RED ONE so we did a side by side test next to an Arri 435. The results surprised all of us, including the producers, who guessed wrong which camera was which in the film print. The look of RED was perfect for this movie and the cameras were easy to work with and no trouble the entire shoot. I loved getting instant feedback from the r3d files and am considering using RED on my next project.
Don Burgess, ASC
10.08.2009 Greg Williams
Greg Williams who has been shooting the covers for Esquire magazine on the RED One had this to say:
Mysterium-X is the bridge I was looking for between the stills and movie world. The original Mysterium served me very well on my Red One but I was always pushing the boundaries with the files and working on stories for which the quality worked as a cinematic effect, but I could not put my hand on heart to say it compared to what I could pull out of a DSLR. Mysterium-X changes all that. Detail in blacks, use in tungsten light and a tremendously improved dynamic range put the stills right up there. This sensor WILL change how photographers work in a huge way and forever. As a result of the new lighter Epic camera I believe that 90% of the photographers, who can afford the new camera, will all become photographer/directors within the next 3 years. The first true Digital stills motion camera is here. Exciting times.
Greg Williams
10.08.2009 Steve Meizler, 1st AC on Social Network
Steve Meizler, 1st AC on ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ among many others said:
To me, the new sensor is the biggest leap I’ve seen RED achieve. We rated the sensor at ISO 500 and did not see any noise in the blacks in low level lighting situations. The image is super clean.
Steve Meizler
I have been abusing DSLRs for quite a while shooting 10.000 pictures a day to compose large stills or even assemble videos from single frames, so I’ve been salivating for designs like Scarlet/Epic right from the beginning. I seriously thought about renting a Red One for a project I did in February but the people familiar with the camera told me that they wouldn’t use ISOs of 800 and higher for “looks” at best. I knew I needed 2000 to 2500 ASA so I stayed with my Nikon D3. And this seems to be the catch, here: Still photographers today are offered useable ultra-high sensitivities by the Canons and Nikons and while I’d really, really love to have a full frame full resolution camera with video frame rates and no mechanical mirror and shutter flapping around in front of the sensor I won’t compromize on the low-light image quality I’ve come to expect. If “Super clean images at ISO 500″ was meant to be an enthusiastic endorsment it felt like a bucket of cold water to me. I know it’s great at movie shutter times but even in bright daylight a still photographer needs something like ISO 2000 when shooting moving people with a telephoto lens at 1/4000s. So high sensitivity might be the real battle ground for the convergence of still and moving picture. Let’s hope the RED people have some more tricks up theirs sleeves.
I don’t think this first batch of Scarlets and Epics are really aimed at professional photographers. The 2/3″ Scarlet will be great for web stills but not nearly high enough res for print. Even the S35 Epic and Scarlet fall a bit short resolution wise for photography. S35 is close to APS-C and I don’t know any pros shooting on that. It is with the 3rd generation Mysterium-Monstro sensor for the FF35, 645 and 617 DSMCs that RED is really going after the pro photographers in my opinion. Jim has stated that the Mysterium-X that will be in the 2/3″ and S35 DSMC cameras will be natively rated around ISO 800. That is a huge jump over the ISO 320 that RED rated the original Mysterium sensor at. I expect the Mysterium-Monstro sensor will take another large jump in sensitivity and will be able to compete with the high end offerings from Canon and Nikon.
The quote regarding clean blacks at ISO 500 was referring to the S35 Mysterium-X sensor and I expect that sensitivity will be improved greatly on the sensors that reach into the resolutions that pro photographers desire. Here’s to hoping anyways!