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Filed under: Cameras •Production •

RED Build 16: A Camera Whose Time Has Come

REDSPACE, REC 709 and RAW: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

Build 16 introduces RedSpace, a new color space for the RED camera. From what I’m led to believe by those who appear smarter than myself, RedSpace is a brighter and more saturated version of the REC 709 setting already installed in the camera. My past efforts at using the REC 709 color space have been disappointing, mostly because the gamma curve makes the midtones too dark. As a result the monitor just doesn’t look right, which is why we’ve been told for so long to treat the RED ONE “just like film”: because you couldn’t really see what it was doing, so you’d just have to trust your meter.

That’s fine for a film stock, but I’ve not worked with many HD cameras that react to a meter the same way twice.

RedSpace is a definite improvement. The gamma curve has been brought up a bit so midtones look normal. Observation of the gray values on a waveform monitor showed that they appear to track properly both by eye and on the waveform monitor, just the way a real camera would. It appears that a waveform monitor could prove usable when viewing RedSpace.

The problem with both RedSpace and REC 709 comes when exposing an 18% gray card using a light meter set at EI 320: the histogram shows the middle gray value falling noticeably to the left of center, technically too low to be truly 18% gray. The histogram seems to be affected by the gamma curve built in to both REC 709 and RedSpace. The only way I can use a light meter (reflected) to accurately place 18% gray in the middle of the histogram is to rate the camera at EI 160.

The same thing seems to happen in RAW mode. RAW purports to show exactly what is happening to the sensor, devoid of gamma curves and knee compression. We saw knee compression on both REC 709 and RedSpace, and both REC 709 and RedSpace are affected by changing the EI of the camera. RAW is not. You can spin the EI setting all over the place in RAW mode and you won’t see any difference at all. I like that. A lot. Because it shows me what’s REALLY going on.

Once again, though, middle gray comes up significantly left of where it should on the histograms. We’ve been told that the EI sweet spot is 320, but if we go by the histogram the camera is a stop slower. If someone from RED would like to email me with an explanation of this phenomena I’d be happy to post it. Or it could be posted in the comments for this article.

Good news and bad news about the histograms on the next page:

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Thanks once again for such useful info. I hear you on the Macbeth chart—but I also think we (actually, SMPTE or somebody like them) need to come up with some sort of electornically generated color pattern that helps us set up the new monitors. The SMPTE Split Field bars miss a lot, while addressing things that aren’t really that much of an issue for digital, namely phase. Understandable since they were designed decades ago for the transmission of composite NTSC color, and nothing else!

And congrats on you guys finally being able to go forward with the wedding! The best news of a turnaround of a turnaround I’ve heard in a long time!

Posted by Steven Bradford  on  07/04  at  01:27 PM

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[That’s fine for a film stock, but I’ve not worked with many HD cameras that react to a meter the same way twice.]

that’s exactly how it is with a DALSA, which is why I try to work with camera that whenever possible

red’s build 16 is a mild improvement, complicated, and the camera is still a PITA. no thanks.

mXb

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  07/04  at  10:20 PM

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Thanks for the info and mucho congrats on getting married. One piece of advice. Don’t take a serious camera on your honeymoon unless your wife’s a DP too.

Posted by davhud  on  07/07  at  08:25 AM

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okay
has its time come?

is there anywhere i can go and see an actual movie done by this camera ( i saw zodiac, and it was sort of cool the way the viper did the digital look of the darkness)

any movies out i can see? even just on DVD….

Posted by billS  on  08/08  at  04:02 AM

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