Choosing a camera to document the adventure of a lifetime can be daunting. Here are five reasons we chose the Red Epic Dragon to shoot our latest trip hunting golden dorado in the jungles of Argentina.
Size
The Red Epic Dragon is a compact design, and the actual camera is a small box weighing only 5 pounds. That’s significantly smaller than competitive cameras such as the Arri Alexa classic weighing nearly twice as much at 14 pounds and even the Amira at 9 pounds. Saving weight and not sacrificing image quality is crucial on an adventure shoot.
We spent four full 10-hour days walking upstream through the Argentinian jungle trudging nothing short of five kilometers per day to find fish. When you need to be on your feet and moving all day, keeping the size and weight of your camera package down is absolutely crucial.
Customizable Builds
A huge ergonomic advantage the Red has over other cinema cameras is the customizability of the body. In other words, you can introduce as much or as little added weight and/or accessories as you desire. Each time this camera is built, it is unique to the project and circumstances. The user has the ability to decide which type of batteries are used, if they want a side handle, which monitors are added, etc. The possible configurations are nearly endless.
Red goes further with an interchangeable mount system. For this trip we chose to stay light by using Canon EF mount lenses. The Red enables you to change between PL, Canon, Nikon, and even Leica M mounts. Interchangeable mounts opens up a plethora of lens options and ensures you can use your existing glass with the camera.
Our build consisted of the following:
- Red Epic Dragon Brain
- Skintone/Highlight OLPF
- Canon EF mount
- Red DSMC 1 Side Handle
- Jetpack w/Gold Mount
- PAG 94mwh Gold Mount Batteries
- Red 19mm universal mount
- 12” 19mm rails
- Arri FF5
- Bright Tangerine VIV Mattebox
- Red 5” Touch LCD
- Small HD 702 OLED Monitor
High Resolution
The Red Epic Dragon boasts a massive maximum resolution of 6144×3240 — in photo terms that’s 19 megapixels. Having an image at capture that’s 9-times the size of ordinary 1080p grants you a tremendous amount of freedom in post. You can push in on that shot that was a bit too wide, stabilize bumps, and even create digital camera movements. In the fast paced world of shooting fly fishing, knowing there’s room to perfect your images in post is a godsend.
High Frame Rates
In the real world things happen quickly. Making moments last long enough to appreciate them on film is a tremendous advantage of the Red Epic Dragon. From capturing a jumping dorado to getting 30 seconds of footage from having a fish out of the water for 5. The ability to shoot at up to 83fps in full 6k resolution all the way to 300fps in 2k is a feature I couldn’t imagine going without on an adventure shoot.
Flexibility in Post
The Red Epic Dragon shoots Redcode Raw, an amazing codec. It’s a form of compressed raw which saves space and retains malleability in post. Sometimes you don’t have time to nail the exposure before a shot and it’s important to be able to press record when the action happens.
With Redcode Raw, it’s possible to pull back nearly gone highlights and recover a tremendous amount of shadow information. Colors can be pushed significantly without any apparent artifacts or breakage. This flexibility gives another level of peace of mind while shooting in unforgiving fast moving environments.
