It’s been a long time since the last RED camera showed up at CineD HQ, but here it is again, with the RED V-RAPTOR 8K VV in our hands. I would love to test it in our standard lab tests. Also curious? Then read on…
Many readers have asked us if we have the opportunity to test the RED V-RAPTOR 8K camera in our lab, especially after we tested the new ARRI ALEXA 35 (lab test here).
The RED V-RAPTOR has amazing specs with a 35.4MP (40.96 x 21.60mm) full-frame CMOS sensor, 8K@120fps and a claimed 17+ stops of dynamic range.
It sounds amazing, but as we all know, there is no set standard for testing the dynamic range of moving images (see our article and how we do it here) – so we created a standard CineD lab test to not know what the manufacturer says !
So, let’s figure it out – it makes sense to read the article before watching the video, but this is up to you 
.
Before starting, we let the camera warm up for 20 minutes, then shade (calibrate) the sensor with the lens cap closed (the current camera firmware is 1.2.7). As usual, my dear colleague Florian Milz once again helped me with this lab test – thank you!
Using our standard rolling shutter measurement method with our strobes, we get a solid 8ms (less is better) in full-frame 8K 17:9 DCI readout. This is to be expected, otherwise 120fps at 8K would not have been possible. This is one of the best results we’ve tested, only the Sony VENICE 2 has a lower rolling shutter of 3ms (for example, the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF has 7.4ms, tested here).
In 6K Super 35 mode, rolling shutter time is reduced to 6ms, allowing you to shoot at 160fps at this resolution. These are first class values.
As usual, we used the DSC Labs Xyla 21 chart to test the dynamic range. RED V-RAPTOR does not have a defined native ISO, REDCODE RAW ISO can be set to post.
Now you might be wondering what’s going on here? Why didn’t I start counting stations as usual and ignore the second station from the left? Well, the second stop from the left is reconstructed from clipped RGB channels, which is “Highlight Recovery” built into the RED IPP2 pipeline by default.
If you expand the RGB channels of the waveform, you can see what happens – the second stop (indicated by the red circle) does not show any RGB color information.
Only the third station from the left has all 3 RGB channels, but the red channel is already at the clipping threshold. Therefore, we count the stops of the dynamic range from the third patch.
So with our standard procedure (as with all cameras) we can go up to about 13 stops above the noise level. This is a very good result – compared to the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF (lab test here) it is only one step higher (ALEXA 35 is 3 steps higher). The best full-frame consumer cameras usually have about 12 stops to see through everything.
Now, you might be wondering why I didn’t count this “recovery” stop? The answer is that it lacks all the color information. The implications here are obvious if you scroll down to the latitude results.
Looking at the IMATEST calculations, this default highlight recovery skews the results because IMATEST also computes stops that are not clipped but restored. Thus, IMATEST shows 13.4 stops at SNR = 2 and 14.9 stops at SNR = 1.
The same applies to full-frame 4K ProRes 4444 XQ. Very interestingly, the IMATEST results at ISO800 are very similar: 13.4 stops at SNR = 2 and 14.7 stops at SNR = 1. I expected downscaling in the camera to improve the dynamic range results.
For cross validation, I also scaled down the 8K R3D to 4K in DaVinci Resolve 18, and here I got the best values: 13.7 stops at SNR=2 and 15.1 stops at SNR=1.
Our current benchmark for full frame dynamic range is the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF with 13.5 stops at SNR=2 and 14.7 stops at SNR=1 with no highlight recovery. ARRI ALEXA 35 (Super 35 sensor) achieved 15.1 and 16.3 stops at SNR = 2 and 1 respectively (again without light recovery).
Looking at the waveforms and IMATEST results, I think the RED V-RAPTOR has 1 stop more dynamic range than the best consumer full frame cameras. The ALEXA Mini LF has 1 stop more dynamic range than the RED V-RAPTOR, while the ALEXA 35 has 3 stops more.
Side note: With Blackmagic cameras in BRAW, you can select the “Highlight Recovery” option in the post (in DaVinci Resolve). I recently ran a test with my BMPCC 6K and here the “Highlight Recovery” option resulted in an IMATEST score about 1 stop higher with SNR=2 and SNR=1 than without HLR.
Again, everything was shot in REDCODE RAW HQ at ISO 800 using the DaVinci Resolve (Full Res Premium) development settings shown above.
Latitude is the camera’s ability to retain detail and color when overexposed or underexposed and back to base exposure. Some time ago, we chose an arbitrary brightness value of 60% (in the waveform) for the face of an object (more precisely, a forehead) in a standard studio scene. This basic CineD exposure should help our readers get a point of reference for all cameras tested, no matter how they assign code values or what LOG mode they use. It is very interesting that ALEXA Mini LF is symmetrical about the base reference point of the brightness value of 60% (it is latitude 5 stops above and 5 stops below this point).
For the V-RAPTOR, the 60% brightness setting is already hot, and there are 2 extra pauses in the highlights before the red channel on my dear colleague Nino’s forehead begins to clip:
If we increase the exposure beyond this range, we will hit exactly the reconstruction stop area (which is the second stop from the left in the waveform above):
You can see in the image above that all of the color information on Nino’s forehead (and face) is lost, but some image detail is still visible – that’s what highlight recovery does.
This is nice because it preserves detail in overexposed photos to a certain extent. You can easily identify it with the RED traffic light exposure tools as they show RAW sensor values.
In the example above, if the exposure is increased by more than 2 stops of the overexposed image, the RED traffic lights will indicate that the red channel is starting to be clipped (just like an RGB signal).
Now let’s look at underexposure. By dropping the aperture down to f/8 and then lowering the shutter angle to 90, 45, 22.5 degrees (etc) we get a very nice and clean image with only 6 stops of underexposure (below our base scene) some serious noise:
We hit 8 stops of exposure latitude, the most we can get from a full-frame consumer camera. Well, even the Sony VENICE 2 hit the native resolution limit of 8.6K (using the X-OCN XT codec). By the way, so far the only consumer camera that can come close to 9 stops is the FUJIFILM X-H2S.
The noise reduction still preserves this image, although we end up with a stronger brownish-pink tint (which is not so easy to remove):
We are already at 9 levels of exposure latitude! The best full frame camera to date, the ALEXA Mini LF hits a solid 10 stops. So let’s see if we can achieve this with the RED V-RAPTOR:
Now, with stronger noise reduction, we can see that the image starts to fall apart – we get a very strong color cast, and in the darker parts of the image, all the details are destroyed:
However, it still looks surprisingly good, especially since the noise is distributed so thinly – but judge for yourself.
This brings us to the end result: a solid 9-stop exposure latitude with some wiggle room towards 10 stops.
As for the current latitude reference, the ARRI ALEXA 35 shows 12 stops of exposure latitude in our standard CineD studio scene – 3 stops more, which can also be seen in camera waveforms and IMATEST results (here are the lab tests).
Not only does the RED V-RAPTOR deliver impressive performance, it has also demonstrated high performance in our lab. Rolling shutter values are the best (safe for group leader Sony VENICE 2), dynamic range and latitude results are strong, only about 1 stop from the ARRI Alexa Mini LF – our reference full-frame cinema camera so far.
Have you ever shot with the RED V-RAPTOR? What is your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Fascinated by the new possibilities of compact cameras. Not a passionate shooter who makes a living doing it. Gritting my teeth about the Panasonic GH series, I’ve always wanted to keep my gear as small as possible during my travels around the world where I’ve made film storytelling a hobby.
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Post time: Dec-13-2022