Red, after a couple of delays, has just announced that the first cameras will be shipped next week.
I am very much looking forward to hearing the first reviews. I’ve spoken to some people about this camera, and we all agree that it does sound great on paper, but has to show its worth in field use.
A while ago, I wrote about the Red camera project. Now they have not only released some test films, but also a price list. But first a little note on the test films. Our editing station has two 24-inch monitors. Viewing the 1080p (not i!) resolution film fills out the whole screen. Every single pixel. Plain amazing! (just for comparison, here’s a link to a framegrab from a HDV camcorder) And this camera is capable of up to 2540p – i.e. more than 4 times the resolution of 1080p. (Framegrab, Framegrab 2-you see the structure of the mascara!)
Now I am really looking forward to trying out this baby. Luckily a guy I know has pre-ordered one, so hopefully I’ll be able to do some tests. But I am sure there’ll be lots of buzz around when this camera hits the sets.
But how much does this miracle of tech-specs cost? Well, let’s have a look at their price list, and put together a nice package to get us up and running: more…
About a year ago I first heard about the Red Camera Project. A group of dedicated people were working on making a beyond-high-def, affordable cine-style digital camera. At that time it just sounded too unreal. But since they have had a stand at the NAB, the project has gained a lot of momentum.
Personally, I took the project way more seriously when I found out that Graeme Nattress (maker of the famous filter packages for Final Cut Pro) was involved.
Some more information has been released, and they are planning on shipping the first cameras early next year. If only half of the specs make it to the finished product, it will be one amazing camera. Spotting more than 4k worth of resolution (compare this with standard definition’s tv of about 0.5k and the new hi-def of about 1k, and this by itself becomes a killer cam) at a price of $17.500, plus a f300/t2.8 lens for $5.000, you should get a working camera package for the price of a high-end DVcam system.
But the camera offers more than just resolution power. The camera will offer frame speeds of up to 60 fps (and down to 1 fps), and even higher speeds when lowering the resolution. Speaking of lowering, it will be possible to either downconvert from the full chip size (which has the same size as an 35mm gate), or to use only part of the chip. It will shoot in a variable number of formats from uncompressed RAW down to, yes, DV.
I am sure looking to their release of the first working models towards the end of this year. Might just be the successor to our trusty (if 4:2:0) DSR-570 DVcam.
