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 David Mullen, ASC on the Mysterium-X sensor
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:05 pm    Post subject: David Mullen, ASC on the Mysterium-X sensor Reply with quote

Director of Photography David Mullen, ASC recently wrote this online about his experience with the Mysterium-X sensor:

"I spent yesterday shooting tests of the new M-X sensor over at Fletcher. They borrowed a converted Red from OffHollywood because their Reds are still being converted.

We had a few hiccups in the morning -- we had some problem with the blacks going green as we pushed the ASA heavily, and black shading again didn't help... but Red sent us some new software that fixed the problem and the blacks stayed neutral after that.

I did most of my testing in 3200K balance because, frankly, almost all low-light shooting is near 3200K, plus Chicago is mostly lit by orange sodium vapor streetlamps at night.

We also went out and shot some driving shots in daytime and night.

My initial impressions just based on seeing the image live on a Cinetal monitor and then later after transcoding using Fletcher's RED Rocket™™™ on the same monitor:

There has been a major improvement in the Red image since I last used the camera in the summer of 2008. It's night and day, the quality is SO much better now.

First of all the image is very low in noise. And what noise you see at higher ASA ratings like 800, 1000, 1600, 2000 ASA in 3200K lighting looks much more subtle, almost like mild film grain, not that ugly blue mottled grain that you got on earlier builds on the old sensor when boosting a 3200K image. In other words, the look of the noise is a lot more attractive. And the increase in noise as you go up in ASA ratings is not fast, you don't see big jumps in noisiness.

There is a smoothness to the image -- RedGamma is a superior format to convert the image too, you get a wide latitude image that looks very pleasant and is easy to correct (I think -- I haven't done that step yet). The clippiness of the image is greatly reduced.

The image is sharp but not electronically crisp, it's smooth and elegant.

I shot outside in daytime at 400 ASA, then at night in the brighter parts of the city at 800 ASA, then out in some dark areas of the city at 1600 ASA. I picked 400 ASA for the day exterior work mainly because I find that higher ASA ratings are hard to deal with in sunlight due to the heaviness of the ND filters needed.

In testing, I noticed that when I set the camera to 320 ASA, the brightness of the image in RedColor matched the brightness in RAW View -- the crossover point on an 11-step chart matched each other. At higher ASA ratings, there was more overexposure headroom added (obviously.) I don't know if this means that the "real" sensitivity of the MX sensor is 320 ASA, it all depends on whether you want some decent overexposure headroom.

But the noise is so low that I think 500 to 800 ASA is a good starting point because you get a more film-like response in the highlights.

This is a gross simplification, but I've always felt that the "film look" was low in contrast in the highlights but higher in contrast in the shadows, whereas the "video look" has traditionally been high in contrast in the highlights but low in contrast in the shadows. So I think that the M-X Red rated near 800 ASA starts to look more film-ish because of the nice roll-off in the overexposed areas (also I guess thanks to the improved Color Science, RedGamma, and FLUT™™™ controls). But the new sensor helps a lot in this regards because the low noise floor allows you to essentially expose more for the highlights by using higher ASA ratings (i.e. underexposing the sensor.)

I also appreciate that the image does not have a "crispy" overly edgy look built-in -- I can always add it later in post if I wanted to.

The new M-X sensor, the new Color Science, RedColor & RedGamma -- it's all a great leap forward compared to where Red was a year ago.

I'm finding now that my only problems are post-related -- trying to get everyone comfortable with the data-centric workflow, getting data from Chicago to Los Angeles where the post is taking place, finding out which post houses can handle the M-X sensor footage properly. That's still a bit of a hassle for me to deal with and I'm hoping that the network making this pilot doesn't get cold feet as we deal with these workflow issues."

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