RED KOMODO | USER REVI EW
understand and use, once you get yourself into a position to see and use the screen. But the camera does come with built-in Wi-Fi, so if the camera is in an awkward position, then it’s best to link up your smart device and control it from the dedicated app. Red cameras differ from the vast majority of cinema cameras that typically come with useful features like built-in ND filters, XLR audio inputs and lots of buttons on the side of the camera to tweak most-used settings. Red has none of those. What you are buying is a small but potent box camera that weighs just 960g/ 2.1lbs for the body only and is a cube measuring 102x102x102mm/4x4x4in. You then bolt on accessories to transform it into the precise camera you need it to be. At the rear of the camera is a battery-mounting plate for a pair of Canon BP-955 or BP-975 batteries that can be hot-swapped. But for more power, we opted for a Bebob V98 Micro V-Lock battery and the Wooden Camera V-Lock plate, which also has D-Tap sockets to power an external monitor. At the bottom is the Red Expander Module, which gives more options for mounting, as well as genlock, BNC, time code and four-pin control sockets. On the top, we bolted the Red Outrigger Handle, which has a start button and makes the camera much easier to handhold. We also had the Komodo Link Adaptor to give USB-C control, ideal for connecting the camera to a smart device. But this doesn’t work at the same time as the Outrigger Handle as there is only one set of connector pins. To the top of this, we attached the GDU
workstation, but the quality is superb, and the control that Raw files give means you can push and pull them around to tweak them as you like. The skin tones are very smooth and natural, and the Raw capture means you can pull back a huge amount of highlight and shadow detail. There is an optical low-pass filter to prevent moiré, and we didn’t encounter any at all. The images are what made Red famous, and the Komodo continues that tradition of excellence. When recording, you have a choice of different resolutions, but as the camera records from the whole size of its Super 35 sensor in 6K, going down to 5K, 4K or 2K is simply a crop of the sensor, so the angle of view changes as well as the maximum frame rate. Compared to a full-frame 35mm sensor, shooting the Red Komodo in 6K gives an equivalent 1.34x crop and a maximum frame rate of 40fps. In 5K, it’s a 1.61x crop and 50fps, while 4K is 2.01x and 60fps. Shoot in 2K and it’s a 4.02x crop compared to full- frame, but this allows you to record up to 120fps. This is slower than many of Red’s DSMC2 range of cinema cameras, but that’s why they are more than double the price. It’s not the king of high-speed frame rates. And it’s also not the prince of darkness! At low ISO settings, up to around 800, it’s noise-free, although you do need to give the sensor lots of light where possible. It’s a decent performer at up to ISO 3200, but after that it becomes a bit too noisy. And, of course, there is no built-in noise reduction in-camera. Getting the exposure right colour display. This is only small at 73.7x73.7mm/2.9x2.9in, but allows you to access the menus and a small live preview. And it shows a cool skull logo when you boot up the camera, which takes almost half a minute. At least it’s something to look at. The screen has a histogram display as well as false colours and a traffic- light system to show whether your is key, helped by what is a first for Red: a built-in touchscreen exposure is right. The screen is on top of the camera and is fixed, so it’s hard to see if the camera is at eye level. Many users will rely on an external monitor with a range of exposure and focusing tools to get everything right, but you still need to input camera settings on the small touchscreen anyway. This uses a totally new Red UI, which is easy to
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monitor mount, to which we fixed the SmallHD Focus Pro OLED screen. And at the front we used the Canon EF-EOS to RF lens adapter to allow use of ED lenses. All this kit adds to the weight of the camera, but does increase its usability significantly. And when you fix a quality cine prime to the front, the whole package increases in weight hugely. The Red Komodo is a truly flexible camera that offers fantastic performance, stunning R3D Raw output, no rolling shutter issues and the status of owning a Red camera. All for a price that’s more affordable than any other Red.
BELOW A first for Red is autofocus, using RF lenses or EF with a mount converter
JANUARY 202 1 | DEF I N I T ION 27
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