Live Production Status:
Project Red is gathering artists and craftsmen from around the world to participate in an open source media project shot with the RED ONE in the name of art, science, and education. We’ll be chronicling our production, documenting our workflow, and uploading our source plates and project files to share with the world!
2007/OCTOBER/07
Yesterday morning Scott Broock and I decided to have an impromptu shoot in Central Park. Both of our cameras were freshly re-shimmed at Abel Cine Tech so we wanted to get them out in some sunshine. Producer, Kwesi Collisson and director Hans Conosa joined us and took the opportunity convince us to do some VFX tests for an upcoming film of theirs. Kwesi brought along actress Kate (a Ford model) to be our victim... ahem, I mean subject.
The disclaimer is that we were just having some fun. It was 1:00PM and the sun was in full effect. No ND, no pola, no mattebox, just REDs #39 and #40 with the RED 18-50mm lens. I promise to post some properly lit interiors that you guys can rip apart very soon and of course the Project Red production itself will have a proper crew and equipment. For now, we continue to enjoy owning our very own 4k cameras that we can go out to the park with and shoot.
Walking around with 2 REDs on a beautiful Saturday in Central Park certainly draws some eyes.
In honor of Stu Maschwitz Ive decided to upload both 2k jpegs and the untouched low con 4k DPX files. Have at it guys and post your grades in the forum, would love to see what looks everyone comes up with. You'll also note that some of the images are soft. Focusing continues to be a challenge for a run and gun style of shooting. This is to no fault of the camera, but focusing with a S35mm sized sensor at 4k is just tough. Don't leave home without your measure tape.
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
UPDATE: Based on a Reduser.net thread I've uploaded two more version of the above image. The discussion was that the highlights on her arm are very blown out. Well, yes thats true, the highlights on her arm are blown out but thats because we were shooting in a very high contrast setting under direct sun. I was already near T22 and I was trying to maintain as little depth of field as possible. The question was how much can be pulled back out of those seemingly clipped highlights? I've gone back into RedAlert! and exported two more frames which can be seen below.
This is the same frame as the first but I've reduced the iso from 320 to 250 and I've also pulled down the top end of the curve. You can see I was actually able to recover quite a bit of data. It is still clipped but looks much better than the original.
In this next image I choose a different frame from the sequence where I had physically stopped the iris down while shooting. I preferred the look of the 1st frame even with the blown out highlights but I could easily recreate the lighting scenario by pulling up my mid tones and/or using power windows.
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Yep, thats dirt on my lens
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
This fountain shot is not 100% untouched. I played with the curves a touch in REDALERT!
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
The next set of images are from Scott Broock. 4K DPX is not available for these, just 2k jpegs. He applied subtle CC in REDALERT!
Yesterday morning Scott Broock and I decided to have an impromptu shoot in Central Park. Both of our cameras were freshly re-shimmed at Abel Cine Tech so we wanted to get them out in some sunshine. Producer, Kwesi Collisson and director Hans Conosa joined us and took the opportunity convince us to do some VFX tests for an upcoming film of theirs. Kwesi brought along actress Kate (a Ford model) to be our victim... ahem, I mean subject.
The disclaimer is that we were just having some fun. It was 1:00PM and the sun was in full effect. No ND, no pola, no mattebox, just REDs #39 and #40 with the RED 18-50mm lens. I promise to post some properly lit interiors that you guys can rip apart very soon and of course the Project Red production itself will have a proper crew and equipment. For now, we continue to enjoy owning our very own 4k cameras that we can go out to the park with and shoot.
Walking around with 2 REDs on a beautiful Saturday in Central Park certainly draws some eyes.
In honor of Stu Maschwitz Ive decided to upload both 2k jpegs and the untouched low con 4k DPX files. Have at it guys and post your grades in the forum, would love to see what looks everyone comes up with. You'll also note that some of the images are soft. Focusing continues to be a challenge for a run and gun style of shooting. This is to no fault of the camera, but focusing with a S35mm sized sensor at 4k is just tough. Don't leave home without your measure tape.
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
UPDATE: Based on a Reduser.net thread I've uploaded two more version of the above image. The discussion was that the highlights on her arm are very blown out. Well, yes thats true, the highlights on her arm are blown out but thats because we were shooting in a very high contrast setting under direct sun. I was already near T22 and I was trying to maintain as little depth of field as possible. The question was how much can be pulled back out of those seemingly clipped highlights? I've gone back into RedAlert! and exported two more frames which can be seen below.
This is the same frame as the first but I've reduced the iso from 320 to 250 and I've also pulled down the top end of the curve. You can see I was actually able to recover quite a bit of data. It is still clipped but looks much better than the original.
In this next image I choose a different frame from the sequence where I had physically stopped the iris down while shooting. I preferred the look of the 1st frame even with the blown out highlights but I could easily recreate the lighting scenario by pulling up my mid tones and/or using power windows.
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Yep, thats dirt on my lens
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
This fountain shot is not 100% untouched. I played with the curves a touch in REDALERT!
Right Click 'Save As' 32MB 4k DPX
The next set of images are from Scott Broock. 4K DPX is not available for these, just 2k jpegs. He applied subtle CC in REDALERT!
posted by Emery Wells @ 06:30 PM
2007/OCTOBER/02
Well I've been feeling left out with all the stills and clips being posted on the web. I think many of us have held off on posting early tests because they were shot under less than ideal conditions and are not very representative of the skill of the shooter or capability of the camera. But for many of us, one of the coolest things about Red is we *can* go into our backyards and shoot butterflies or run up to the roof of our buildings during sunset to fool around. Owning a 4k camera in your home or office and being able to pick it up and shoot anytime you'd like is really great fun. So with that in mind, here is some of the 'fooling around' I've been doing the past 2 weeks.
All were shot 4k REDCODE RAW, brought into RedAlert!, exported to 4k Tiffs, scaled to 2k in Photoshop, and saved as high quality jpeg. Some images were slightly color corrected in RedAlert! and others were left untouched. I have noted this below each image.
The movie clips were created by using the 2k Quicktime generated in RedAlert! and then exported from QuickTime Pro to H.264, high quality.
You'll also probably notice that generally not much is really in focus due to the flange focal distance issues discussed here. To check your FFD, follow the steps outlined here.
Red 18-50mm Zoom:
Uncorrected
Uncorrected. Right Click 'Save As' 15.6MB H.264 QuickTime
Subtle curve adjustment in RedAlert! and very minimal saturation increase. Right Click 'Save As' 44MB H.264 QuickTime
Uncorrected
Subtle curve adjustment in RedAlert! and very minimal saturation increase.
Minimal saturation increase.
Uncorrected
Curve and contrast adjustment in RedAlert!
Curve and contrast adjustment in RedAlert!
Curve and contrast adjustment in RedAlert!
These next two images were shot with a PL Mount lensbaby similar to the one shown here, which is a really neat little lens that gives you a dreamy 'spot focus' effect.
Uncorrected.
Uncorrected.
Well I've been feeling left out with all the stills and clips being posted on the web. I think many of us have held off on posting early tests because they were shot under less than ideal conditions and are not very representative of the skill of the shooter or capability of the camera. But for many of us, one of the coolest things about Red is we *can* go into our backyards and shoot butterflies or run up to the roof of our buildings during sunset to fool around. Owning a 4k camera in your home or office and being able to pick it up and shoot anytime you'd like is really great fun. So with that in mind, here is some of the 'fooling around' I've been doing the past 2 weeks.
All were shot 4k REDCODE RAW, brought into RedAlert!, exported to 4k Tiffs, scaled to 2k in Photoshop, and saved as high quality jpeg. Some images were slightly color corrected in RedAlert! and others were left untouched. I have noted this below each image.
The movie clips were created by using the 2k Quicktime generated in RedAlert! and then exported from QuickTime Pro to H.264, high quality.
You'll also probably notice that generally not much is really in focus due to the flange focal distance issues discussed here. To check your FFD, follow the steps outlined here.
Red 18-50mm Zoom:
Uncorrected
Uncorrected. Right Click 'Save As' 15.6MB H.264 QuickTime
Subtle curve adjustment in RedAlert! and very minimal saturation increase. Right Click 'Save As' 44MB H.264 QuickTime
Uncorrected
Subtle curve adjustment in RedAlert! and very minimal saturation increase.
Minimal saturation increase.
Uncorrected
Curve and contrast adjustment in RedAlert!
Curve and contrast adjustment in RedAlert!
Curve and contrast adjustment in RedAlert!
These next two images were shot with a PL Mount lensbaby similar to the one shown here, which is a really neat little lens that gives you a dreamy 'spot focus' effect.
Uncorrected.
Uncorrected.
posted by Emery Wells @ 02:45 PM
2007/OCTOBER/01
Seeing that several cameras have been affected with an incorrectly set flange focal distance, I recommend that all camera owners do a quick check. Unlike an HD video camera, PL mount cameras have a fixed non-adjustable flange focal distance. To correct an incorrectly set flange focal distance, the PL mount must be shimmed to alter its distance from the film plane. An error as little .01 mm ( one hundredth of a mm) will cause the focus marks on the barrel of the lens to not match when the image is actually in focus.
The down and dirty way
Place your camera about 3ft from a subject with fine detail (I used a book with relatively small text). Zoom in all the way (50mm if you are using the RED 18-50mm) and focus by eye using the onboard LCD or EVF. Using the 'zoom in' factor on the camera will aid in focusing. Record a few frames. Then go to the widest focal length (18mm if you are using the Red 18-50mm lens) and record a few more frames without adjusting the focus ring. You should not have to refocus your image if you do not physically move the camera. Changing the focal length does not effect the distance in which your subject will be in focus. If your back focus is really off you will clearly be able to see it on the LCD. However, if its only slightly off, you'll need to import the clips into RedAlert! and export a 4k tiff from each clip. Open the tiffs in Photoshop or your image editor of choice and view the image 1:1 (zoom level 100%). If the wide shot is not in focus, than your cameras back focus is off and you will need to call Red to have it reshimmed.
The more accurate way
Again place your subject 3ft from the camera but this time measure out 3ft from the focal plane which is the front plate with the Red logo on it. Any measure tape will work but if you bought the focus hook set then do yourself a favor and pick up an AC's soft tape which has a hook that will slip over the focus hook that is attached to the focal plane. Set the lens to 18mm, and adjust the focus to read 3' on the lens. Theoretically, this should be razor sharp but in my case it was clearly not in focus just by looking at the LCD. Either way, record a few frames of this. Now focus by eye using the onboard monitoring. If you are unsure where your image is exactly in focus, record several takes, each time adjusting the focus on the lens in 1" intervals. Make sure to keep notes of your lens settings for each take.
Now repeat this process at 50mm.
Import your clips into RedAlert! and export 4k tiffs. Open the tiff files in Photoshop and view 1:1 (100% zoom). Now if your back focus is way off, it will immediately be clear that the image which SHOULD be in focus at 3ft, is not. However if it is not obvious just by looking at it then we need to probe further. From this point on the image which should be in focus at 3ft will act as our 'control' of sorts. Now drag a small marquee around a portion of one of the other images, and drag that over top your control image. Line the images up as best you can and then use the visibility icon in the layers pallet to turn the layer off and on. This will give you an A/B comparison and it should be immediately clear which image is more in focus. Continue doing this until you have found the sharpest image. In most cases it will be pretty easy to identify without even doing the A/B comparison.
Depending on which direction your shims are off will dictate which focal lengths your focus is off. This is why its important to test at varying focal lengths. For instance, you can see in the previous posts chart, the error reaches zero at 50mm. Your results could be opposite.
General Notes
If you have a focus chart, then you should obviously be using it. If you do not have one handy, a book with some small text should do the trick. Also, make sure you have enough light as it will be easier to identify focus errors with a clean, noise free image.
Seeing that several cameras have been affected with an incorrectly set flange focal distance, I recommend that all camera owners do a quick check. Unlike an HD video camera, PL mount cameras have a fixed non-adjustable flange focal distance. To correct an incorrectly set flange focal distance, the PL mount must be shimmed to alter its distance from the film plane. An error as little .01 mm ( one hundredth of a mm) will cause the focus marks on the barrel of the lens to not match when the image is actually in focus.
The down and dirty way
Place your camera about 3ft from a subject with fine detail (I used a book with relatively small text). Zoom in all the way (50mm if you are using the RED 18-50mm) and focus by eye using the onboard LCD or EVF. Using the 'zoom in' factor on the camera will aid in focusing. Record a few frames. Then go to the widest focal length (18mm if you are using the Red 18-50mm lens) and record a few more frames without adjusting the focus ring. You should not have to refocus your image if you do not physically move the camera. Changing the focal length does not effect the distance in which your subject will be in focus. If your back focus is really off you will clearly be able to see it on the LCD. However, if its only slightly off, you'll need to import the clips into RedAlert! and export a 4k tiff from each clip. Open the tiffs in Photoshop or your image editor of choice and view the image 1:1 (zoom level 100%). If the wide shot is not in focus, than your cameras back focus is off and you will need to call Red to have it reshimmed.
The more accurate way
Again place your subject 3ft from the camera but this time measure out 3ft from the focal plane which is the front plate with the Red logo on it. Any measure tape will work but if you bought the focus hook set then do yourself a favor and pick up an AC's soft tape which has a hook that will slip over the focus hook that is attached to the focal plane. Set the lens to 18mm, and adjust the focus to read 3' on the lens. Theoretically, this should be razor sharp but in my case it was clearly not in focus just by looking at the LCD. Either way, record a few frames of this. Now focus by eye using the onboard monitoring. If you are unsure where your image is exactly in focus, record several takes, each time adjusting the focus on the lens in 1" intervals. Make sure to keep notes of your lens settings for each take.
Now repeat this process at 50mm.
Import your clips into RedAlert! and export 4k tiffs. Open the tiff files in Photoshop and view 1:1 (100% zoom). Now if your back focus is way off, it will immediately be clear that the image which SHOULD be in focus at 3ft, is not. However if it is not obvious just by looking at it then we need to probe further. From this point on the image which should be in focus at 3ft will act as our 'control' of sorts. Now drag a small marquee around a portion of one of the other images, and drag that over top your control image. Line the images up as best you can and then use the visibility icon in the layers pallet to turn the layer off and on. This will give you an A/B comparison and it should be immediately clear which image is more in focus. Continue doing this until you have found the sharpest image. In most cases it will be pretty easy to identify without even doing the A/B comparison.
Depending on which direction your shims are off will dictate which focal lengths your focus is off. This is why its important to test at varying focal lengths. For instance, you can see in the previous posts chart, the error reaches zero at 50mm. Your results could be opposite.
General Notes
If you have a focus chart, then you should obviously be using it. If you do not have one handy, a book with some small text should do the trick. Also, make sure you have enough light as it will be easier to identify focus errors with a clean, noise free image.
posted by Emery Wells @ 09:30 PM
2007/SEPTEMBER/27
Although Project Red states we are not about testing, while we ramp up to production we clearly need to do some test for ourselves. It's been two weeks since I received Red# 40 and while Im absolutely loving the camera, it's only fair to set our 'fanboyism' aside for a few minutes and discuss some of it's growing pains.
On Tuesday, September 25th, Learan Kahanov and I took Red #40 to TCS in New York to do some critical testing. Up to this point I had never been able to achieve a truly sharp picture though I was mostly trying to focus by eye using the onboard LCD. In practice, the AC would almost always measure the distance to your subject with a soft tape but until RED unleashes their magic 'focus assist' tool, critical focusing in 4k is very difficult to achieve using the onboard LCD. This is to be expected and not at all a fault of the camera but I digress.
At TCS we planned on doing some critical comparisons of the Red 18-50 T3 zoom against an arsenal of cine lenses worth several times the cost of the RED ONE itself. Early into our testing we were immediately thrown off. Where is the focus plane? Well if you bought the focus hook set you were probably baffled as to where you might attach it. There was seemingly no place for it on the body of the camera. After a few frustrating moments it became clear you had to remove one of the screws from the front body plate of the camera to attach the focus hook. There are several screws on the front of the camera which provide a multitude of positions to attach it. Confident we had conquered the focal plane battle, we positioned the camera 3ft from the focus chart and began our testing. After going through our initial round at varying focal lengths with the RED 18-50, we loaded the footage into RedAlert!, exported 4k tiffs to view 1:1 in Photoshop and yikes! Everything was out of focus!
Coming from an HD background you would immediately think to check the back focus. But the RED has no back focus. So we went back to the camera and tried to focus by eye using a 20" Sony CRT. Thinking we had the focal plane incorrectly identified, we set the focus by eye and noted the position on the camera that correlated to the barrel marking. This made little sense however because that placed the focal plane way too far forward, clearly too forward to be accurate. Frustrations mounted when we tried focusing across the full range of the lens, as each mm needed a different barrel setting to achieve focus. Gary Isaacs who was filming behind the scenes created this helpful chart that illustrates the focus error.
Around this time we called in Erik Schietinger of TCS for his assessment on the problem.
It was clear to Erik that the PL Mount was mostly likely not shimmed properly. Eriks father Carl, who is one of those people who just oozes a wealth of experience, joined in the discussion and provided a fantastic explanation of how he would correct the problem if this were a 35mm film camera... these moments are priceless.
While the chart above is not particularly useful, it is illustrative of how important having a properly shimmed PL mount can be. You can also note that we used different focus settings across different lenses which were at the same focal length. Again, this is an example of how difficult it is to focus by eye using the onboard LCD or the 720p 'preview' signal pumped into a 20" Sony Monitor via HD-SDI. Unless the lenses themselves were off (which they were not) the focus should be uniformly off across all lenses at the same focal length. For the most part, our results found this to be true.
I called Jim's cellphone later that evening to discuss the problem with him. True to his word, Jim ensured me we would get the problem taken care of at any cost. The good news is re-shimming the PL mount is not brain surgery and can be done be any skilled camera tech. For good measure I overnighted the camera back to Red headquarters at their expense and Jim promised a one day turn around. While having this problem in the first place is somewhat of a nuisance, Jim and company handled it as well as any company could. Ive asked several other reservation holders If they have experienced the same problem and so far my camera seems to be an isolated incident.
The full resolution uncompressed tiff files are available for download below. Each file is about 48MB. The Optimo 15-40 is not included because, well, it's not in focus. We will redo some focus charts when the camera is fixed. The only thing that was set in RedAlert! was the white balance. All the other settings were set to default. Sharpening was set to 'low.' All lenses were at T3.
UPDATE: I received my camera back from RED with a one day turn around as promised but it looks as though the shims were overlooked for some odd reason. The good news is I got a new PL mount with a MUCH smoother fastener ring than the original one. Early camera owners probably all have the same original fastener which is somewhat crude compared to the butter smooth ring I have now. These small manufacturing improvements are really to be expected. Im sure the 'little things' will continue to improve rapidly over time. Sean from RED also updated my Compact Flash module due to the fact that the earliest CF modules had a small defect which made it difficult to grip the CF card to remove it. As for the bad news, my camera is still not in focus but RED has arranged for me to have it corrected here in NYC so I do not have to send it back to CA again. I've also since confirmed several reservation holders have experienced similar back focus issues. Some people have contacted me offline saying I shouldn't post this information, however I think it's important to keep in mind that this is a relatively easy problem to correct and really does not bear much relevance to the grand scheme of things. Project Red is here to tell it like it is, not hide or sugar coat our findings. On a personal note, this hasn't affected my confidence in the camera or the company at all. On Saturday evening, September 29th I had phone calls and emails from Jim himself, Jarred, and Brent, all oh whom were there to support me and resolve the issue. Id like to see that happen with ANY other company, let alone a camera manufacturer, let alone on a Saturday evening!
Although Project Red states we are not about testing, while we ramp up to production we clearly need to do some test for ourselves. It's been two weeks since I received Red# 40 and while Im absolutely loving the camera, it's only fair to set our 'fanboyism' aside for a few minutes and discuss some of it's growing pains.
On Tuesday, September 25th, Learan Kahanov and I took Red #40 to TCS in New York to do some critical testing. Up to this point I had never been able to achieve a truly sharp picture though I was mostly trying to focus by eye using the onboard LCD. In practice, the AC would almost always measure the distance to your subject with a soft tape but until RED unleashes their magic 'focus assist' tool, critical focusing in 4k is very difficult to achieve using the onboard LCD. This is to be expected and not at all a fault of the camera but I digress.
At TCS we planned on doing some critical comparisons of the Red 18-50 T3 zoom against an arsenal of cine lenses worth several times the cost of the RED ONE itself. Early into our testing we were immediately thrown off. Where is the focus plane? Well if you bought the focus hook set you were probably baffled as to where you might attach it. There was seemingly no place for it on the body of the camera. After a few frustrating moments it became clear you had to remove one of the screws from the front body plate of the camera to attach the focus hook. There are several screws on the front of the camera which provide a multitude of positions to attach it. Confident we had conquered the focal plane battle, we positioned the camera 3ft from the focus chart and began our testing. After going through our initial round at varying focal lengths with the RED 18-50, we loaded the footage into RedAlert!, exported 4k tiffs to view 1:1 in Photoshop and yikes! Everything was out of focus!
Coming from an HD background you would immediately think to check the back focus. But the RED has no back focus. So we went back to the camera and tried to focus by eye using a 20" Sony CRT. Thinking we had the focal plane incorrectly identified, we set the focus by eye and noted the position on the camera that correlated to the barrel marking. This made little sense however because that placed the focal plane way too far forward, clearly too forward to be accurate. Frustrations mounted when we tried focusing across the full range of the lens, as each mm needed a different barrel setting to achieve focus. Gary Isaacs who was filming behind the scenes created this helpful chart that illustrates the focus error.
Around this time we called in Erik Schietinger of TCS for his assessment on the problem.
It was clear to Erik that the PL Mount was mostly likely not shimmed properly. Eriks father Carl, who is one of those people who just oozes a wealth of experience, joined in the discussion and provided a fantastic explanation of how he would correct the problem if this were a 35mm film camera... these moments are priceless.
While the chart above is not particularly useful, it is illustrative of how important having a properly shimmed PL mount can be. You can also note that we used different focus settings across different lenses which were at the same focal length. Again, this is an example of how difficult it is to focus by eye using the onboard LCD or the 720p 'preview' signal pumped into a 20" Sony Monitor via HD-SDI. Unless the lenses themselves were off (which they were not) the focus should be uniformly off across all lenses at the same focal length. For the most part, our results found this to be true.
I called Jim's cellphone later that evening to discuss the problem with him. True to his word, Jim ensured me we would get the problem taken care of at any cost. The good news is re-shimming the PL mount is not brain surgery and can be done be any skilled camera tech. For good measure I overnighted the camera back to Red headquarters at their expense and Jim promised a one day turn around. While having this problem in the first place is somewhat of a nuisance, Jim and company handled it as well as any company could. Ive asked several other reservation holders If they have experienced the same problem and so far my camera seems to be an isolated incident.
The full resolution uncompressed tiff files are available for download below. Each file is about 48MB. The Optimo 15-40 is not included because, well, it's not in focus. We will redo some focus charts when the camera is fixed. The only thing that was set in RedAlert! was the white balance. All the other settings were set to default. Sharpening was set to 'low.' All lenses were at T3.
UPDATE: I received my camera back from RED with a one day turn around as promised but it looks as though the shims were overlooked for some odd reason. The good news is I got a new PL mount with a MUCH smoother fastener ring than the original one. Early camera owners probably all have the same original fastener which is somewhat crude compared to the butter smooth ring I have now. These small manufacturing improvements are really to be expected. Im sure the 'little things' will continue to improve rapidly over time. Sean from RED also updated my Compact Flash module due to the fact that the earliest CF modules had a small defect which made it difficult to grip the CF card to remove it. As for the bad news, my camera is still not in focus but RED has arranged for me to have it corrected here in NYC so I do not have to send it back to CA again. I've also since confirmed several reservation holders have experienced similar back focus issues. Some people have contacted me offline saying I shouldn't post this information, however I think it's important to keep in mind that this is a relatively easy problem to correct and really does not bear much relevance to the grand scheme of things. Project Red is here to tell it like it is, not hide or sugar coat our findings. On a personal note, this hasn't affected my confidence in the camera or the company at all. On Saturday evening, September 29th I had phone calls and emails from Jim himself, Jarred, and Brent, all oh whom were there to support me and resolve the issue. Id like to see that happen with ANY other company, let alone a camera manufacturer, let alone on a Saturday evening!
posted by Emery Wells @ 05:45 PM
2007/SEPTEMBER/26
If you tried to contact us using the contact form than your email was sent somewhere into the abyss. It's working now.
If you tried to contact us using the contact form than your email was sent somewhere into the abyss. It's working now.
posted by Emery Wells @ 06:52 AM
2007/SEPTEMBER/19
If you are anything like me before I received my camera, then you are a bit confused by the seemingly abundant crossover of Red's software. RedAlert!, RedCine, RedQuick... what do they all do and when do you use what?
RedAlert! was originally developed as an internal tool by Red's Rob Lohman (incorrect, see update at the bottom) to quickly evaluate footage in a light weight app. RedAlert! was never meant to ship to customers, but it seems to have gained new life as an excellent on set tool to pop open .R3D files for on the fly evaluations. You can also think of RedAlert! as RedCine light and as your workflow gateway until RedCine proper is delivered. They both handle the demoasicing of Red's .R3D raw file format into a useable image sequence you can incorporate into your workflow. RedAlert! however, will not handle the transcoding to another quicktime compatible codec. For that you'll need both RedAlert! and RedQuick (otherwise known as REDCODE.QT.component.) Once installed, the Quicktime codec allows Quicktime to access the .R3D file data directly, and demosaics the data on the fly. But this Quicktime file must first be generated by RedAlert!. From there, you can treat the Quicktime as any other Quicktime you have on your machine. You can import it into Final Cut, Shake, After Effects, whatever. There is one important distinction and that is the Quicktime file is simply a reference to the raw data. All the 'uncrunching' is happening in real time, frame by frame. Depending on the speed of your machine, your milage will vary.
Working with these RedAlert! Generated Quicktime files is not an ideal editing format at the time of this writing. You'd probably be much better off transcoding the file into a realtime enabled coded such as Apples ProRes. For transcoding, you'll have to introduce yet another application. This could be Apples compressor, Episode Pro, or any other Quicktime aware transcoding application. Compressor is a great choice because it supports network rendering which will save lots of time, depending on how many machines you have available.
The story does not end there however. There are two Quicktime codecs available. 'Good' quality and 'Medium' Quality and only one can be installed at a time. In the future, Rob has informed me this codec will be combined into one and there will be a user preference for playback quality. Moreover, the Quicktime wrapper files that currently have to be generated by RedAlert! will be generated by the camera itself at the time of recording in all available resolutions: .5k, 1k, and 2k. All three wrappers access the same original .R3D file and this is a virtue of the advanced wavelet based codec. It was once explained to me that you can think of a wavelet codec as an actual wave which can be sliced off at various heights, extracting only the portion that is needed.
With my preliminary testing on an iMac 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, and 2GB of RAM you can expect the following frame rates with the 'good' quality codec installed:
.5k Real Time 24fps
1k < half speed 10fps
2k About no speed 2fps
And the same clip when using 'Medium' Quality:
.5k Real Time 24fps
1k About half speed 12fps
2k About no speed 4fps
With a faster computer such as a Dual Quad Core Mac Pro, these frame rates will obviously increase. More precise testing to follow at a later date.
UPDATE: RedAlert! is a development spawn from RED'S in-house R&D app that Graeme Nattress wrote for the earliest 'Frankie' footage shown at IBC and later for 'Crossing The Line.' Rob Lohman wrote the Quicktime codec and R3D library code that is used but it is Graeme, not Rob, who is the author of RedAlert! (sorry Graeme.)
RedQuick was an app developed for Steven Sodernberg for creating the Quicktime wrappers that the camera itself will be creating in a later firmware build. It is not the name for the codec or the Quicktime component. Most of the functionality was moved over to REDAlert!. The original "make quicktimes" app was written by Rob, and Graeme took that and made the REDQuick app. Rob worked on some improvements for REDQUick while working with Sodernberg in Spain.
If you are anything like me before I received my camera, then you are a bit confused by the seemingly abundant crossover of Red's software. RedAlert!, RedCine, RedQuick... what do they all do and when do you use what?
RedAlert! was originally developed as an internal tool by Red's Rob Lohman (incorrect, see update at the bottom) to quickly evaluate footage in a light weight app. RedAlert! was never meant to ship to customers, but it seems to have gained new life as an excellent on set tool to pop open .R3D files for on the fly evaluations. You can also think of RedAlert! as RedCine light and as your workflow gateway until RedCine proper is delivered. They both handle the demoasicing of Red's .R3D raw file format into a useable image sequence you can incorporate into your workflow. RedAlert! however, will not handle the transcoding to another quicktime compatible codec. For that you'll need both RedAlert! and RedQuick (otherwise known as REDCODE.QT.component.) Once installed, the Quicktime codec allows Quicktime to access the .R3D file data directly, and demosaics the data on the fly. But this Quicktime file must first be generated by RedAlert!. From there, you can treat the Quicktime as any other Quicktime you have on your machine. You can import it into Final Cut, Shake, After Effects, whatever. There is one important distinction and that is the Quicktime file is simply a reference to the raw data. All the 'uncrunching' is happening in real time, frame by frame. Depending on the speed of your machine, your milage will vary.
Working with these RedAlert! Generated Quicktime files is not an ideal editing format at the time of this writing. You'd probably be much better off transcoding the file into a realtime enabled coded such as Apples ProRes. For transcoding, you'll have to introduce yet another application. This could be Apples compressor, Episode Pro, or any other Quicktime aware transcoding application. Compressor is a great choice because it supports network rendering which will save lots of time, depending on how many machines you have available.
The story does not end there however. There are two Quicktime codecs available. 'Good' quality and 'Medium' Quality and only one can be installed at a time. In the future, Rob has informed me this codec will be combined into one and there will be a user preference for playback quality. Moreover, the Quicktime wrapper files that currently have to be generated by RedAlert! will be generated by the camera itself at the time of recording in all available resolutions: .5k, 1k, and 2k. All three wrappers access the same original .R3D file and this is a virtue of the advanced wavelet based codec. It was once explained to me that you can think of a wavelet codec as an actual wave which can be sliced off at various heights, extracting only the portion that is needed.
With my preliminary testing on an iMac 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, and 2GB of RAM you can expect the following frame rates with the 'good' quality codec installed:
.5k Real Time 24fps
1k < half speed 10fps
2k About no speed 2fps
And the same clip when using 'Medium' Quality:
.5k Real Time 24fps
1k About half speed 12fps
2k About no speed 4fps
With a faster computer such as a Dual Quad Core Mac Pro, these frame rates will obviously increase. More precise testing to follow at a later date.
UPDATE: RedAlert! is a development spawn from RED'S in-house R&D app that Graeme Nattress wrote for the earliest 'Frankie' footage shown at IBC and later for 'Crossing The Line.' Rob Lohman wrote the Quicktime codec and R3D library code that is used but it is Graeme, not Rob, who is the author of RedAlert! (sorry Graeme.)
RedQuick was an app developed for Steven Sodernberg for creating the Quicktime wrappers that the camera itself will be creating in a later firmware build. It is not the name for the codec or the Quicktime component. Most of the functionality was moved over to REDAlert!. The original "make quicktimes" app was written by Rob, and Graeme took that and made the REDQuick app. Rob worked on some improvements for REDQUick while working with Sodernberg in Spain.
posted by Emery Wells @ 06:44 PM
19th
It's alive!...
2007/SEPTEMBER/19
Whew, well it's been a long time coming but projectred red is finally alive. We have to admit, we're still dusting up the place and there are a few features we wish we had enabled already but in the spirit of Red development we decided its about time to get this party started. If you're trying to figure out whats going on here, start at the project overview page to get a good idea of what you can expect. We'll be adding more info over the coming week but in the meantime, register and check out the forums!
Whew, well it's been a long time coming but projectred red is finally alive. We have to admit, we're still dusting up the place and there are a few features we wish we had enabled already but in the spirit of Red development we decided its about time to get this party started. If you're trying to figure out whats going on here, start at the project overview page to get a good idea of what you can expect. We'll be adding more info over the coming week but in the meantime, register and check out the forums!
posted by Emery Wells @ 10:00 AM
Emery We
Mike Sey
Learan K
The fxphd team takes Red training to the next level. For focused Red and Visual FX training, check out fxphd.com.
ProjectRed is not going to happen without the help of all of you! This project is entirely non-profit, open source, and depends on the support of volunteers... so come aboard, have some fun, learn some stuff, make some friends, and support an excellent global cause... Oh yeah, pizza and beer is on us! Check out the recruits page to see what we're looking for.
