Gear Talk: RED Raptor VV

Thoughts on RED’s latest lizard camera after a 3 day shoot.

Getting our hands on the second addition to the DSMC3 lineup was exciting. For the purposes of our shoot, having the resolution and raw capabilities of a camera with a full frame sensor opened up the possibility of using the Laowa 24mm probe lens at its full angle of view.

What we didn’t love about this camera wasn’t so much the camera itself, but the accoutrements around it that we we thought could be better. Our first concern was during the build process, we want to utilize the Kippertie Revolva to make use of ND’s while using the the probe lens. Unfortunately, this filter works well with the Komodo, but with the way the hinge is built on the SmallHD monitor it blocks the the filter from fitting in the Raptor’s mount. In the end this wasn’t a huge deal, because we shot a few FPS faster, and stopped down a hair more with the probe lens. For our shots where we didn’t use the probe lens, we had a matte box and filters for it.

The other thing we didn’t love was the SmallHD monitor. The DSMC2 monitor made by Red was a much better user experience, and didn’t washout with light or have as much glare. The UI on this monitor is better in comparison though, and navigating menus felt more intuitive.

A final note with this camera is that the firmware we used at the time was still technically in beta. It would be nice to see a final version, but, if the trend for Red is to release cameras with firmware still in beta testing, the release of a “completed” firmware might be a moving target. We didn’t encounter much problems, other than the camera locking up once after trying to access the menus on the actual body. The Raptor froze for about a minute, and then had to reboot. In our situation, this wasn’t a serious issue, but in other applications like capturing wildlife this would be a problem and a constantly looming concern. Ideally, releasing cameras with unfinished firmware will be a short lived trend.