Long time REDuser Mark Toia got his hands on an EPIC with a RED DRAGON sensor and posted the results to REDuser.net and vimeo last month. His verdict?

It's the real deal.

Toia's five minute test reel highlights the impressive dynamic range and ISO flexibility that DRAGON has to offer. The camera was pushed to impressive limits, with some images listed at 6400 ISO. No matter the exposure conditions or framerate, the new DRAGON sensor has impressed both fans and critics alike.

RED has spent years improving on its resolution and latitude, but the finer details of the sensor are what make it truly special. Skin tones and fall-off in the highlights appear so natural that they're not discernibly digital. Toia describes it thusly:

"RED DRAGON now has the best highlight fall-off I have ever seen from any digital camera. Beating film.... After shooting film and pushing it around in telecine chains for more than a decade, I can categorically say that this new sensor has a better range than film ever had."

Mark's claims are bold, but he posts his footage alongside them to back them up. Since Toia's posting, images from Tom Lowe and Peter Collister, ASC have begun to surface - all reaffirming the notion that the new DRAGON sensor is the "real deal." When summing up his experience with the DRAGON sensor, Mark does so in one sentence.

"It's the first camera ever that I have used that captures exactly what I see with my own eye."