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SENSORS THE NEW MONSTERS
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START WITH LOADS OF RESOLUTION AND YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE A LOT. BUT THE LARGE-FORMAT REVOLUTION IS UPON US FINCHER Lens focal lengths are now skewed as mid-shots become wides and some zooms become more mid. You have to take care with faster lenses because of the increased depth-of- field. Also the resolution that comes with large-format cameras becomes a playground for certain directors and DOPs. David Fincher extracted 7K and 6K for Mindhunter when he used the RED 8K VistaVision. So he could stabilise almost every shot while reframing as he went. Start with loads of resolution and you can afford to lose a lot. But the large- format revolution is upon us and lens manufacturers are releasing larger lenses to suit. MONSTRO MONSTER Californian company RED has a new cinematic CMOS sensor for its Weapon cameras, called the Monstro 8K VV. It is said to offer the best image quality, dynamic range and shadow detail of the range. It captures 8K full-format motion at up to 60 frames-per-second, shoots 35.4-megapixel stills, and has data
The camera is made of carbon fibre, magnesium and aluminium alloy and weighs just 1.5kg with its media bay. “RED’s internal sensor program continues to push the boundaries of pixel design and Monstro is the materialisation of our relentless pursuit to make the absolute best image sensors on the planet,” said RED President Jarred Land. “The full-frame 8K Monstro provides unprecedented dynamic range and breathtaking colour accuracy.” A new Weapon camera with Monstro sensor will cost £85,000/ $79,500 and go on sale in early 2018. To make the camera useable, you also need to buy an accessory package such as the cinema pack which includes a display and control functionality, Input/Output connections, a handle, mounting equipment, and a method of powering the camera. You also need a lens mount of your choice and some media. This pack can add around £30,000/$30,000 on top of the base price and is one of the reasons a camera like this is usually rented rather than bought outright by independent shooters. RED’s latest Image Processing Pipeline (IPP2) firmware includes smoother highlight roll-off, better colours, improved shadow detail, more accurate mid-tone and improved de-mosaicing algorithm. There’s HDR and standardised colour space and gamma. VENICE The Venice is the first full-frame cinema camera from Sony and
speeds up to 300 MB/s. It can also record Redcode Raw and either Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD/HR simultaneously, too. Panavision has an agreement with RED to provide them with sensors and so Monstro is also appearing in their new DXL camera. The sensor is 8192x4320 pixels and measures 40.96x21.6mm so is slightly wider but shorter than the traditional 35x24mm full-frame sensor. Although this is close to the same area, it means some full-frame lenses may vignette. The sensor is claimed to offer more than 17 stops of dynamic range, with maximum frame rates of 60fps at 8K, 120fps at 4K and 240fps at 2K all at the full format size. If a 2.4:1 cropped format is used, these figures increase to 75, 150 and 300fps respectively.
ABOVE Frame grab from RED’s new Monstro camera.
BELOW The RED Monstro isn’t full- frame but is a kind of full-frame plus. Is this the sweet spot?
DEFINITION FEBRUARY 2018
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