GEAR
REDKOMODO
productions as a crash cam, or B or C cam. But what it’s actually done is opened up the formerly boutique brand to the legion of independent filmmakers who can finally afford a genuine Red camera as a main A camera and all the advantages it brings with it. Best of all, it doesn’t skimp on spec, but actually has more high-tech engineering going on than pretty much any of the Red range, which focuses on pure image quality and a rugged, modular build above all else. It’s the first Red to have a seriously grown-up autofocus system, for example, enabled by using the new Canon RF-style lens mount. At launch, the camera didn’t offer support for the clever AF tech enabled by these RF mount lenses, but a beta firmware update after we tested the camera finally made this possible. We tested it with a Canon EF-RF mount, which enables contrast detection AF with compatible Canon EF lenses. But we used the camera in manual focus the whole time, as seems right for a cinema camera of such pedigree. It will be interesting to test it again with RF lenses when the final firmware is released, as it should transform the usability of the camera towards faster-paced, run- and-gun documentary work. The big selling point of the Komodo is the global shutter, which completely eliminates all the ‘jello effect’ of rolling shutter that every other camera in this price point has. A standard rolling shutter reads out data from the sensor line by line, typically from top to bottom. So if the camera is being moved in fast pan, for example, vertical lines look obviously skewed. If you shoot footage of someone playing
“It’s the first Red to have a seriously grown-up autofocus systemenabled by the Canon RFmount”
these issues totally disappear and everything looks perfectly normal, and that’s what Red fitted to the Komodo. It works perfectly, with no jello effect. In theory, global shutters can make action footage look a bit different to what we are used to, but everything looked completely normal to our eyes. It certainly didn’t stand out as an issue. One of the main reasons more camera companies don’t use global shutters is that they can reduce dynamic range and ultimate sensitivity of the sensor. Red’s new sensor is claimed to have over 16 stops of dynamic range, so this is certainly not an issue. And with ISO going from 250 to 12,800, with a sweet spot around ISO 800, then sensitivity isn’t a huge problem either. The global shutter makes this camera a true standout performer. Red managed to coax such good performance out of its sensor because it has always pioneered the use of Raw capture, which it does in a slightly different way to other cameras. Some cameras record full- fat Raw in an uncompressed 16-bit format, which leads to truly massive file sizes that are pretty much impossible to record internally. Other cameras record in compressed Raw internally, which is partially de-bayered in-camera. Then the remaining de-bayering is in post.
a guitar and focus on the strings, this effect can make the strings look like they are very wobbly and bendy. And if you are filming something with flashing lights – such as strobe flashes at a paparazzi-style photo shoot, a pop video or maybe a welder sparking up – then you often get the split-frame effect that looks awful. With a standard rolling shutter camera, there really is no cure for this, so filmmakers learn to avoid these situations when possible or spend significant time and money in post improving it. As a global shutter reads out data from the whole sensor at once,
ABOVE There is a brand-new touchscreen display panel to help you navigate all the menus
BELOW Using the free Redcine-X Pro Raw conversion software is simple and gives total control
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PRO MOVIEMAKER
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