Already next week will see the first RED One cameras getting a sensoral facelift. The new sensor has better dynamic range, higher sensibilty (800 ISO as standard, usable even at 3200 ASA) and the new color science, named FLUT. The swap will also get your camera a new sensor board and a new (optical) low pass filter. A bit over USD 5.750 for the conversion ($1.250 will be refunded when you buy an Epic). Throw in an extra 3k, and you will get a RED Rocket for a bargain price.

Anamorphic, baby

Today RED announced that they will produce anamorphic lenses. Last year they rocked the glass world with their set of primes, where a set of lenses costs as much as you would previously have to pay for a single focal length. Now you have until the end of this year to save towards the 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 100mm lenses; all at T2.4. A 25mm is probably also in the pipeline.

Famous enhance moments

A fun compilation of all those films that use the (non-existing) enhance function that is part of any science-fiction/tech-thriller/computer-action movie. Enjoy!

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(via)

To give you a sense of its size, have a look at this photo. At the rear the little blob is a 35mm camera.

A nice little video showing both the lens and some video footage shot with it:

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Here’s the spec sheet:

About 2 years ago RED scrapped their plans for a mattebox. Yesterday Jim posted the following render, which gives food to the hope that the announcement for late October might just include in this picture (click on it for full size).

Looks like carbon fibre with 2 rotating 4×5.6 trays, enough holders for eyebrows on all 4 edges, and option to clamp it onto the lens.

Lego taken to the next level

There will be a number of battery options on the new camera. As promised, most equipment from the RED One period will be compatible with both the Epic and Scarlet. To use V-lock batteries, there will be a module for batteries – which will take 2 batteries at a time, for extended running times; especially taken into consideration that the new cameras will draw less power.

Some of the renders also sparked new energy in the debate/hope that RED might come with their own mattebox. (Speaking of which, there are rumors of a new light-weight, affordable mattebox coming from a 3rd party this December.)

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He has posted a number of how-to/behind-the-scenes clips on how he achieved those amazing pictures:

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Dolly setup:

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In the end I chose a 150×150 frame, cropped these in Graphic Converter into high quality jpegs (@90%). Then I sorted all crops according to their f-stop. During the next days I’ll post the results.

Today I start with 5.6, which is the stop that should be the sweet stop for most lenses (i.e. 2 stops down from wide open). This should give a good indication of how the lenses perform optically. I opened up all cropped jpegs, without knowing which one belonged to which lens. Then I ordered them as to how good they resolved the text – this step is of course up for discussion, but gives a general idea.

The results

1. 85/1.4 – not surprisingly this lens is called the Hollywood lens.
   
2. 35/2.8
   
3. 135/2.8
   
4. 135/2.8 2x ext – quite surprising that the 135 with the extender (making it a 270mm lens) came up that high
   
5. 40-80/3.5 @55 – This Zeiss zoom resolves also quite well, compared to some of its prime-lens brothers and sisters
   
6. 50/1.4
   
7. 28/2.8
   
8. 25/2.8
   
9. 45/2.8 – this is a tiny lens, and the only Zeiss that feels plastic.
   
10. 40-80/3.5 @40
    
11. 40-80/3.5 @80
    

    From here onwards the results become unsatisfactory.

12. 200/3.5 2x ext – this is curious, that it gets a slightly higher ranking than the same lens without the extender. This comes down to individual judgement, and the result being rather bad on either one.
    
13. 200/3.5
    
14. 80-200/4 @ 200 – there is really not much point in lugging this lens around.
    
15. 80-200/4 @ 120
    
16. 80-200/4 @ 80
    

We can see both the gravity of the occasion – Police is about to attack the strikers, and the photographers prepared themselves with gas masks, goggles and rain hats – and a typical way of handling it – joking about.

Source: The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.

I love the macro lens – it lets you get very close to your subjects. But you have to be very careful, as the depth of field is very, very shallow. Here is a little experiment I shot with the Lensbaby:

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If there is one thing I would like to see improved on this nifty little lens, it would be the ability to set the f-stop. Right now you have to slide in pre-cut masks to set your aperture.