The new DRAGON sensor from RED — with quoted specs like 6K resolution, clean 2000 ISO, and over 15 stops of dynamic range — was originally set to be released all the way back in late 2012. There were some promises — and then some delays. But the sensor is now finally done, and camera upgrades will begin in September. The first little tease of what DRAGON is capable of was released by Mark Toia, Director of toia.com; he has unleashed the first footage ever from the sensor. He did a stress test with the camera in all sorts of real-world scenarios:

RED EPIC DRAGON - ITS THE REAL DEAL ! from Mark Toia on Vimeo.

The two main areas Mark Toia wanted the camera to perform in are :

"HIGH CONTRAST information, just how much is hiding on the shadows and highlight. And secondly, Just how far can I push it in the dark. What is the most usable ISO without the aid of any noise reducing plugins. Data was also big question for me, I’m a laptop warrior, I travel the world with RED and MAC.. I don’t need anything slowing me down. So the question was, Just how long are these cards going to last… So my idea of testing lower compression rates to save space, and then to push the limits of the ISO into 17:1+ compression to see if it fell apart. The simple answer is no… Dragon @17:1 looks like MX @8:1. So we are all saved, none of us have to run out to buy more cards.

Skin tests, filter tests, IR tests, were also done".

Just as a refresher, here are some of the DRAGON specs listed by RED:

SENSOR: 19 MEGAPIXEL DRAGON™

PIXEL ARRAY: 6144 (h) x 3160 (v)

S/N RATIO: 80db

DYNAMIC RANGE: 16.5+ stops

MAX IMAGE AREA: 6144 (h) x 3160 (v)

LENS COVERAGE: 30.7mm (h) x 15.8mm (v) x 34.5 mm (d)

ACQUISITION FORMATS

• 6K RAW (2:1, 2.4:1)
• 5K RAW (Full Frame, 2:1, 2.4:1 and Anamorphic 2:1)
• 4.5K RAW (2.4:1)
• 4K RAW (16:9, HD, 2:1 and Anamorphic 2:1)
• 3K RAW (16:9, 2:1 and Anamorphic 2:1)
• 2K RAW (16:9, 2:1 and Anamorphic 2:1)
• 1080p RGB (16:9)
• 720p RGB (16:9)

REDCODE™

• Compression choices of 18:1 to 3:1
• 12 and 16-bit RAW : Compression choices of 18:1 to 3:1
• 1-100 fps 6K
• 1-120 fps 5K, 4.5K
  
• 1-150 fps
• 4K
  1-200 fps
• 3K
  1-300 fps 2K