GEAR
REDKOMODO
What the Red Komodo does is record compressed Raw at three different quality levels – low, medium or high – and all the de- bayering is done in post. This means it’s much easier and quicker to capture in-camera, and allows the Komodo to record its R3D Raw files to a CFast card. At around £400/ $400 for a compatible 512GB card, that’s around a third the price of the Red Mini-Mag media many of the DSMC2 Red cameras use. The Komodo can also be set to record in various flavours of ProRes 422 for a faster workflow, but doing that means missing out on the true strength of using Raw video files, which is the pure data right off the sensor. You can switch between Raw and ProRes, but the camera has to reboot each time you change. There is a learning curve to working with Raw files, which traditionally have used a stand- alone software like Red’s free Redcine-X Pro to transcode them into something that’s editable. Although nowadays, Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Blackmagic Da Vinci Resolve will read them as native files. Whichever you choose, working with pure Raw files means you
“The Komodo can also be set to record in various flavours of ProRes 422 for a faster workflow, but to do someans tomiss out on the true strength of Raw”
can change the white-balance, ISO, highlight and shadow detail, highlight roll-off, sharpening and add noise reduction as you see fit. The settings you use while shooting are kept within the file structure as a sidecar metadata file, but don’t actually affect the Raw file itself. This means you can change whatever you want, and add sharpening and noise reduction, as none is added in-camera. You can then export from Redcine-X Pro into whatever format you like for editing, and of course the original Raw files are still kept intact. The camera supports custom LUTs and you can upload your own. Red also provides around 28 different custom LUTs for free on its website for you to download and use, or you can make your own. Working with the largest 6K files puts stress on your editing workstation, but the quality is superb and the control that Raw
ABOVE The menu items are laid out logically and easy to understand and use, which is an important consideration for a professional camera
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