Hello all,
I find myself in a semi-unique situation. The RED VV format has been my primary imaging format for over 5 years now and prior to that I've had a bit of VistaVision film experience, which is likely why it has seduced me so effectively. For those who have frequented REDUSER over those years I've shared tests, lens coverage notes, and other little discoveries along the way. After spending so much time with format in each of it's generational improvements I've learned much and have gathered a lot of perspective when it comes to practical and applied filmmaking with this format. Much like always, there will likely be some who are totally new to all of this and I'd like to share some thoughts, tips, and guides regarding V-Raptor 8K VV. Also, rather than me posting this is a multitude of places online, I'm going to use this as a repository so it's easier to find and add to. In fact, here's a tiny URL: phfx.com/RR or just bookmark this page.
Charts and Guides like this are useful to for Directors, Producers, VFX and Post Houses; or just generally good to have on hand if you don't have this memorized. I've also added V-Raptor to my tools like formatCompare, useful for working with multiple formats as well as multiple camera systems.
RED DSMC3 Firmware and Software Downloads
As with any modern digital cinema camera it's important to keep your firmware up to date. As always, after you update your firmware it's critical to run a Sensor Calibration.
- RED/SmallHD DSMC3 Touch Firmware
REDCINE-X PRO is RED's free software to quickly edit and export your REDCODE RAW material.
Major Format Chart
This chart illustrates the Major Formats found on the V-Raptor sensor as well as their film format relevance and equivalence.
Raptor 8K VV Spherical Format Guide
This guide details the Major Spherical Formats as well as their Film Format counterparts. I've included some useful notes and some of my mindset as well.
Raptor 8K S35 Spherical Format Guide
Raptor 8K VV Anamorphic Format Guide
RED V-Raptor 8K VV has a great deal of Anamorphic Modes allowing for usage of pretty much any anamorphic lens released in the last century.
Raptor 8K S35 Anamorphic Format Guide
8K VV Sensor and Format Information
Some quick background info. RED V-Raptor 8K VV is the 3rd generation of the RED 8K VV format. Their first VV sensor was built off of the popular Dragon 6K S35 sensor technology increasing the dimensions of the S35 format outward to the larger format VV sensor. This format has some lovely synergy with film and digital workflows and features a maximum image plane of 40.96x21.60mm, image circle of 46.31mm, a pixel resolution of 8192x4320, with a total 35+ megapixels captured per frame.
DSMC 2 Dragon 8K VV was announced in 2015 and released in 2016 and is able to capture the full 8K frame at up to 60fps. That film format synergy I mentioned related to Dragon featuring a 5 micron pixel pitch that for many holds real value in providing a digital to film alternative experience as the resolving power and formats that align nicely with motion picture film.
RED built on this further with a new sensor technology called Monstro in 2017. Monstro 8K VV is also built on the same 5 micron pixel and tops out at 60fps at full 8K resolution, but there were notable improvements in color capture and reproduction, improved image quality in shadows, and in general was a generational leap in image quality. Monstro is the flagship sensor technology of the DSMC2 lineup and still today is one of the best sensors found in digital cinema cameras.
Dragon and Monstro 8K VV sensors found their ways into DSMC2 style camera bodies, RED Rangers, custom cameras for prominent filmmakers, as well as being the sensor technology that Panavision's DXL and DXL2 cameras have been built around.
In 2021 we are now presented with V-Raptor 8K VV. A new sensor design that further builds on Dragon and Monstro. V-Raptor 8K VV makes a huge leap into the new DSMC3 body that features much higher data rate bandwidth allowing for increased image quality as well as a maximum of 120fps at full 8K 17:9 resolution with an even faster sensor readout.
Recording Codecs, Modes. and Tips
To tackle different types of workflows RED V-Raptor features two recording codecs and 3 recording modes.
RECORDING CODECS
Selecting the right Recording Codec for your project is critical. For most who are working with RED cameras, RAW is one of the biggest features and a given, but sometimees there's projects where you may want to deploy a different workflow depending on the production's needs.
RED REDCODE RAW
REDCODE RAW is RED's widely supported Compresed RAW Codec. Though compressed REDCODE RAW is essentially visually lossless in DSCM3 bodies, this helps keep your data footprint down versus an uncompressed acquistion method. REDCODE RAW is also ideal for a non-destructive workflow as you can't rewrite or re-render over the footage captured in this format. This is particular useful for projects that require a secure and uneditable digital negative. This also means you aren't locked into a specific color space or gamma as this is RAW data. In DSMC3 cameras REDCODE RAW exists in 3 encoding strengths which have an impact on datarates. HQ, MQ, and LQ. It's useful to test, but there is a very minimal quality difference between these three encoding "qualities" which really can be mostly seen in a frame loaded with high frequency detail.
General recommendations when rolling with REDCODE RAW:
Remember that you are often oversampling with RED Digital Cinema Cameras like 8K capture for a 4K or 2K delivery. In my personal opinion I don't have a problem using any of these ratios for large screen high resolution displays. But I also generally film at the highest data rate possible for most shoots.
Remember with REDCODE RAW there is no line skipping or binning. When you shoot say 5K on an 8K sensor, you are seeing what the 5K resolution crop is from that format size. This also is often referred to as windowed in. In reality you are changing your format size as well as your capture resolution, which is a familiar concept when working with motion picture film.
APPLE PRORES
Apple ProRes has become the defacto industry standard when it comes to Proxy, Mezzanine, or Intermediate Codecs. It is a lossy codec that does feature generational quality loss, but for many use cases and workflows it's an ideal solution for quick delivery of a master files, ENG, dailies, etc. DSMC3 can record up to ProRes 4444 XQ, but there are some caveats I'll mention below.
When recording in ProRes you can encode in either the color space and gamma of REDWideGamutRGB and Log3G10, RED's modern wide color space and log gamma. Or you can select Image / LUT which will apply whatever the Color Space and Gamma you select as well as an optional LUT, Display Preset, or CDL does to the recorded image. This is known as a baked-in workflow and useful for dailies or straight to delivery content that you don't intend on color grading extensively after the shoot.
RECORDING MODES
As mentioned, there are three recording modes on V-Raptor.
Available Recording Modes:
REDCODE RAW
This only rolls and encodes REDCODE RAW. Which is actually pretty common in the modern era. I'm a big advocate of the RAW workflow for motion picture acquisition and editing. With modern CPUs and GPUs and the right hardware realtime or faster editing, grading, and playback is all possible. There's been great advancements in GPU Rendering Acceleration on Export as well as GPU Decoding Acceleration on the timeline. Additionally various software packages allow you to lower or raise the demosaic quality which helps speed up underpowered hardware when performing "wicked fast" editing.
REDCODE RAW and ProRes
Dual recording is extremely useful if you need to create dailies in camera as well as capture the RAW footage. When you offload your media you will have both files at your disposal and you won't need to render out the proxies or intermediates as they are there and good to go.
Notable Dual Record limitations. When rolling in Dual Record with REDCODE RAW and ProRes, your ProRes resolution will be capped at 2K. Additionally you can only roll up to 60fps. The three ProRes strengths available in Dual Record are ProRes 422 HQ, 422, and LT.
ProRes
Some situations require a straight to air or straight to delivery codec and ProRes has certainly become the standard on that front for fast turnarounds. V-Raptor can encode 4K and 2K ProRes which correctly scales down from whatever resolution/format your camera is filming at. i.e. if you have 8K 17:9 selected to use the full sensor on V-Raptor 8K VV and select 4K or 2K, it scales down appropriately. Note the camera won't upscale, which is generally not a recommended workflow industry-wide for many, many reasons.
When in dedicated ProRes Mode you have access to ProRes 4444 XQ, ProRes 4444, ProRes HQ. You'll have a maximum frame rate available of 120fps. V-Raptor can exceed that maximum frame rate at specific formats and resolutions, but you will need to be REDCODE RAW only Recording Mode.
One Additional Note
Additional signal/monitoring outs can be used for recording via external recorders via wireless streaming feed (1080p max resolution) or the SDI Outputs (4K max resolution). SDI Output is SMPTE ST-2082 compliant and capable of a chroma subsambled output of 444 for 30p and 422 at 60p. You can output RWG/Log3G10 or Image/LUT. You'll want to setup your SDI Output if you are intending on capturing a clean feed, with tools enabled, or with the full GUI on output. There's applications for all of those options.
I'll attempt to keep this brief, but we can go very deep into the woods together discussing all things media related. I mainly want to discuss what media type RED V-Raptor uses, why, and some of the small differences in flash memory that may or may not have an impact on your decision on what to use. What I'm presenting here is based on my own R&D, testing, as well as consulting with RED, AngelBird, and even other manufacturers.
What type of Media does V-Raptor use and why?
First up. RED V-Raptor has a maximum data rate of around 800MB/s. That's about a notable increase versus the maximum data rate of DSMC2 bodies at around 300MB/s. Because of that, particularly at higher frame rates, V-Raptor needs media that can handle that actual sustained write speed with over-provisioning.
The media type and technology RED chose for V-Raptor is Compact Flash Express Type-B. Also known as CFexpress or CFx. CFx has been around for a hot minute now, yet might be new to you. However, not all CFx is created equally and may not be ideal or compatible with V-Raptor. The performance levels that V-Raptor requires to sustain those maximum data rates are demanding. It's rather critical to use RED Branded or RED approved media that has been fully tested and vetted. The critical features for V-Raptor is the CFx needs the media, controller, and firmware to all meet the specs required for reliable recording. RED has so far tapped Angelbird for their official media, but there are of course RED approved 3rd parties as well.
Selecting the right media for you.
There are some considerations when it comes to flash media. And this is where we get a bit technical, but I also want to provide some practical perspective here. Inside these CFx cards there can be several types of NAND flash as well as grades. RED right now is focusing on SLC and TLC driven NAND technology. These each provide an interesting balance between price, performance, and capacity. And the key word there is performance in the form of endurance. Let's dive in.
There are actually 4 major types of flash media and I'll attempt to summarize those differences below. SLC uses 1 bit per cell, MLC 2 bits, TLC 3 bits, and QLC 4 bits. This will have an impact on media cost, speed, endurance, and capacity for the given form factor of CFx.
Flash media is rated by PE or Program-Erase cycles, a number rating that reflects the ideal minimal cycles before the flash itself begins to wear. I'm providing general approximate minimum writes for each type of flash. And there's a good chance it will perform beyond that spec in most cases.
Let's take a look at Angelbird's line-up for high speed CFx cards
This rings true for the RED branded media of the same capacities.
Taking a look at SLC and TCL NAND Flash for Consumer Grade Media this is often between 50,000-100,000 for SLC and 700-1,000 for TLC. But you will note I stated Consumer Grade Media. I reached out to Angelbird to get an idea of the expected performance for both SLC and TLC. First and most importantly they are using Enterprise/Industrial Grade NAND Flash and this has a big impact on reliability and longevity. Angelbird's performance on SLC is 100,000+ PE cycles and for TLC is landing in the realm of 7,000-10,000 PE cycles.
What does this actually mean on a practical level?
Alright, you survived the tech stuff. Short and sweet, SLC cards will be lower capacity than TLC cards typically when it comes to price. And the question here is should the PE cycle difference be a concern for you if you want that higher capacity?
Consider a pretty heavy filming year for a single media card from a busy rental house or production. A nice number would be 250 days of filming with 4X full media writes and formats. An unusual and extreme workflow scenario really both in cycles and days worked in a year. This makes a nice even number of 1000 writes and formats per year. So for the RED Angelbird media TLC you would have about 7-10 years of this style of very heavy shooting ahead of you before hitting the spec PE rating. But I stress most people will be in the range of 15+ years considering most realistic scenarios are likely 10%-25% of that extreme use case. SLC is pretty much a worry-free condition all together as the PE cycles are so high, but of course smaller capacity cards. And yes, media can fail early for a variety of reasons, hopefully under warranty, but do treat your media like it's your only child in a post apocalyptic survival film.
One last note regarding media failure. Angelbird's cards have a feature that even when the card exceeds it's PE cycles and can't write data near the end of it's cycles, you can still more than likely read off of it. This is a nice additional failsafe for motion picture recording. Several other manufacturers offer this, but not all which was a recent discovery.
Wrapping up and some tips.
Summarized perspective on all of this. If you need bigger mags for longer takes or if that fits your style of working, don't freak out by the differences between SLC and TLC. This article in particular was inspired by the price equality versus capacity difference between the 660GB and 2TB RED CFx cards. In most situations and for most motion picture acquisition scenarios you won't be hitting these PE cycle limits for many years.
I'll end with some media tips. DO NOT put tape or labels on your CFx cards when inserted into the media bay. They run hotter and aren't shielded like the previous generation Mini-Mags. You don't want to add gunk into your camera for sure. I recommend paper tape when removing a full mag to alert that it has been rolled on. I've seen people be pretty hamfisted putting in the cards into the media slot. Though some of these cards do have some weather protection, as always avoid moisture near your media. CFx cases are cheap and the cards themselves usually have individual cases when you purchase them. Don't just toss them in a camera bag, Lint and other baddies can get stuck in your pins.
