DC Metro Final Cut Pros

REDundead.

REDundead is a command line tool that recovers R3D files from drives and CF cards that have been formatted to the file system that has been corrupted. It does a great job of recovering the R3D files unless the drive was erased and then recorded onto again… but it might recover the remaining files.

Filesystem corruption usually happens when a drive is unplugged from the computer when the filesystem is being written to.

REDundead has saved many a project.

REDcolor vs. Camera RGB.

Camera RGB is the native color coming off the sensor. REDcolor is corrected Camera RGB matched to industry standards. The punchline is… use REDcolor.

White Balance

So just how important is WB? Check out the two grabs below.

The top one’s WB is from metadata (about 4200K, -6 tint) left over from a previous in camera Auto WB (I forgot to do a new one in different light).

The bottom is the same clip but with a picked WB in REDCINE-X (about 5100K, -2 tint). Seemingly not a ton of difference… but look at the histogram of each. The 1st is clipped in the blue channel, the 2nd not even close. If I had exported the 1st clip to an RGB space for grading, I would never have been able to bring the clipping back in.

(Note the RED logo on Force’s car)

RESOLUTION.

RED 4K-RAW cameras have 4096 horizontal pixels. Since RAW is a Bayer pattern, the actual measured resolution is less. You can use 80% to figure out exactly what the final measured resolution will be. For example, 4K-RAW will end up as roughly 3.2K (4096 x 80% = 3276) measured resolution. 5K RAW (EPIC) will actually measure 4K (5120 x 80% = 4096).

4K delivery

We believe that 4K delivery (4096 x 2160) is the future of cinema, both in theaters and in the home. 4K is roughly 430% more resolution than 1080P. We also believe that it is not a good idea to acquire in 1080P or 2K for a 4K delivery.

A 4K film scan has measured resolution of about 2.8K for fast film (ISO 500) and about 3.2K for slow film (ISO 100). We do believe that 3K of measured resolution will scale to a 4K delivery with no problems. 3K of measured resolution is 256% greater than 1080P (3072 x 1728 = 5308416 vs. 1920 x 1080 = 2073600)

We don’t believe that we are alone in this thinking. Sony, Christie, Barco, Meridian, JVC and Epson have 4K projectors (the newest Sony T Model is incredible). Panasonic has just introduced their 152″ 4K plasma. Samsung, Sony and Sharp have all shown 4K displays. Now all they need is RED 4K (RED Ray) to deliver the content.

Resolution 101

In the very near future we will see 4K delivery. No doubt about it. But who gets to play?

It seems obvious that Standard Definition is not High Definition. But is High Definition (720P and 1080P) able to scale to 4K? Not from where I sit. Pushing less than 2K up over 400% to “fit” a 4K delivery is exactly the same as pretending that SD is HD. It just isn’t.


We will attempt to demonstrate exactly what we mean. I will add other cameras performance as we do the testing. But to begin with… let’s start with the Canon 5D, which promises a 1080P output. While the file size is 1080P, the actual measured resolution is quite a bit less. So too is Bayer pattern resolution lower than the file size. RED 4K actually measures about 3.2K and 4.5K actually measures about 3.7K. The new EPIC 5K will measure a full 4K. For comparison, 35mm Film measures about 2.8K for ASA 500 stock and about 3.2K for ASA 100 stock… both from a 4K scan. Film resolves much less from a 2K scan… less than 2K.


Graeme has shot Zone Plates of the 5D, along with the new M-X sensor upgraded RED ONE.


Here are the results.

M-X sensor (in red) and the Canon 5D (in black). The grey area is where the 5D2 provides either NO detail or corruption caused by aliasing. It really measures a “ragged” 1.4K horizontal resolution vs. about 3.7 for the Mysterium-X at 4.5K.


BTW… that is over 4 times more measured resolution.


3800×11630 = 6,194,000 measured resolution from 4.5K Mysterium-X sensor
1400×1080 = 1,512,000 measured resolution from the 5D

6,194,000 / 1,512,000 = 4.09 times more resolution


So… what measured resolution actually qualifies to be 4K delivery worthy? Same answer as what qualifies for HD. We know of no 1080P output camera that actually measures a full 1080P. There are varying degrees of uprezzing in every HD delivery. Some not much, some more. Same will apply to 4K delivery. The industry will decide.


We beg our customers to debayer RED footage at full resolution for final output. If you do your debayer at half-res, you throw away one of the primary advantages of RED… resolution. It will matter in the future.

The wonderful thing about REDCODE RAW is that when color science improves… you can go back and old footage becomes NEW. This is an example. This was shot two years ago.

The 1st one is Camera RGB and REC 709.

The 2nd one is REDcolor and REDgamma. No other changes…