Last week, RED announced that they would start shipping the Epic-W and Weapon cameras, both of which feature the new Helium sensor. As many of you know, Helium is an 8K Super 35mm sensor capable of capturing images at full resolution at up to 75fps on the RED Weapon.
While I haven’t had a chance to shoot with the new weapon or the Epic-W yet, I did download a sample clip of RED from their website And spent some time experimenting in late stages. I may do a full review of the Epic-W or the weapon at some point in the future, but for now I want to leave you with my first impressions after analyzing sample footage.
I’ve always praised RED for its ability to push technology forward and deliver cameras that in many ways go beyond the status quo. They’ve been a disruptive company since they first launched the RED One, and their new helium sensor certainly continues that legacy. There’s a lot to like about the new sensor – namely its handling of color – but there are also some caveats that filmmakers should be aware of when using it.
sample fragment
I loaded the Helium sample shots into RED-CINEX PRO to see how they played back on my system (a 12-core Mac Pro) and how well they scored. Based on what I’d heard previously, I expected there to be a lot of shadow detail in the shots and an overall improvement in color depth.
Ultimately, I did feel that the helium sensor provided a noticeable difference in color processing compared to footage captured with RED’s previous cameras. Skin tones feel very natural on both clips, and the image is very flexible…especially the first example clip, which looks equally great when underexposed and overexposed in post.
Surprisingly, even after color grading the clips in RED-CINEX PRO, I was able to play them back smoothly at 1/4 or 1/8 resolution, which I didn’t expect due to the resolution of 8K footage. The rate is extremely high. 8192 x 3456 to be exact.
Although the helium sensor is different from most other digital film sensors, it does seem to have one characteristic in common (at least based on this test shot) – slightly overexposed shots seem to produce the best results when graded. While both clips were very flexible when making color temperature/balance adjustments, the second clip (shot at ISO 800) didn’t perform as well when I raised the ISO setting to 2000.
When I raised the ISO on the second sample, it felt like some color information was lost, and some noise started to appear in the shadow areas. This is perfectly acceptable and certainly has no impact on the sensor (as any RAW digital footage will likely behave the same way)…but it’s worth pointing out that, like most other digital cinema cameras, this camera May perform best with slight adjustments exposed to the right side.
The first image below is unrated. The second was upgraded to ISO 2000.
The detail presented in the image is also quite astounding. When you watch it at 100% resolution on a 1080p monitor, you can really appreciate how much resolution is being used. The image below is a 1:1 crop of the original photo, exported as a PNG file.
What I find interesting is that when zoomed in to 100%, the lens of the eyes looks a bit soft. This may be a lens issue (rather than just a sensor issue), as I’m not sure how many lenses can actually take advantage of an 8K resolution sensor. In fact, it doesn’t matter at all, because for at least the next 10 years, most people will be watching content in 4K or lower. However, I’m sure that as time goes on, more and more 8K-capable glass will be released, which may allow the sensor to resolve more details.
Workflow
While my first impressions of the footage so far have been very positive, there is one big caveat to consider – the post-production workflow. Unless you own a post-production facility, or are running a very powerful system that can access a large RAID/SAN solution, you will find that the Achilles heel of 8K footage is data management and the overall post-production workflow.
I will reiterate that these 8K files are surprisingly smooth when played back at reduced resolutions. That said, it’s one thing to play back footage using a live proxy, but another to render it for a final master.
To try out some different workflow techniques, I converted the first test clip to ProRes 4444 at full 8K resolution. Even on my Mac Pro, the export was extremely slow, resulting in a 3.1GB file of a 6-second video clip.
You might be thinking – It doesn’t matter since I can edit my footage locally using the instant proxy… This is true. You can certainly avoid transcoding during most of the post-production process. But eventually you will have to render out a master file. Whether you’re mastering in HD or 8K, transcoding that footage takes a long time, and depending on the system you’re using, exporting the mastered data can be very difficult.
I learned this the hard way in 2011 when I used 4K RED One footage on the film Footsteps. I will have a difficult time exporting my master. It literally took me dozens of attempts to finally create a master of my data, and I ended up having to export the film in small chunks to get it to work. This was especially frustrating at the time because I was running close to the submission deadline for a festival that I almost missed because it took so long to create the file. In 2016, exporting 4K master tapes is a piece of cake. In 2011, this was not the case – at least on my system.
Now, this may or may not be a problem for you, depending on the system and type of software you’re running. But it’s worth considering that the file sizes and rendering times associated with 8K footage will be significant and may cause you some serious workflow hurdles. Not to mention you’ll need a lot of storage space, especially if you plan to create multiple backup copies of your RAW source footage.
final thoughts
I do believe the helium sensor is a huge achievement for RED, and I have huge respect for the fact that they as a company continue to push technology forward in the industry.
Personally, this is not a camera I would invest in (regardless of price), simply because it would be cumbersome with my current workflow and I definitely don’t need 8K footage. That’s not to say this camera won’t be extremely valuable for certain types of productions (large feature films, green screen work, visual effects panels, etc.). However, for independent filmmakers who need to find the right balance between image quality and efficiency, a camera like the Arri Amira will still be superior.
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