10:39AM
RED/NAB News!
Ok so what is RED you ask? From what I understand, it's considered the best bang for buck when finding a digital equivalent to film. So then what is NAB? National Association of Broadcasters, where all the leading media brands release huge news on new products (its a very exciting week.)
Well NAB is this week and RED has news!! They have a smaller cheaper camera Scarlet, a bigger more expensive camera Epic RED, and a RED RAY that plays RED media. Read about the announcement here.
Info on Scarlet can be found here. Info on the Epic, here. Visit the RED website HERE.
3 Comments
Reader Comments (3)
I think its interesting that the RED camera is shooting ahead of projection technology. 4K is just now becoming available in theatres, and they're already advertising 5K cameras. Still not sure how they keep the costs so low, since a 2K Sony is substantially more expensive. I like the idea of the RED Scarlett, since if its really available for $3000 then that would be a great boon for no-budget indie filmmakers.
I've had a crazy couple of weeks, so I just heard about SCARLET today. (No, I hadn't read your blog in a few weeks either, John-Clay,--sorry!) I spent a while today reading REDUser.net, which has new Scarlet/Epic forums up. Someone made a very good point--while the actual pixel resolution of RED ONE or EPIC is 4k or 5k, since they are single-chip Bayer filter cameras, the actual detail in the image is lower--something like 78% of stated resolution max for the RED systems. According to the theory, then, the choice of 3k/5k for the new cams is specifically because 5k resolution ends up with right about 4k spatial resolution, and 3k downsized will result in a great 2k master. And yes, I'm tickled to death with SCARLET--now I have a good possibility of owning one in the near future, unlike RED ONE. Major question is whether it will record to an external FW800 or USB2 drive, since dual 8GB CF doesn't make for more than about 20min recording time. A lot of answers to wait for, but this looks like a killer cam! Forget XH-A1...I want to shoot SCARLET!
John Calvin Young
The 20 minute recording limit isn't as bad as all that. Just buy a couple of 8GB CF cards and swap them out. A USB 2.0 reader should be able to download a 8 GB file in a few minutes, and USB 3.0 is supposedly "on its way" this year, which will be in the 4.8gb/s range.
Personally, I like the idea of using a bunch of small, cheap CF cards. They would limit your shooting time to only a few minutes at a pop, but it would be like old time filmmaking, with 4 minute reels or something like that. Creativity is bred from adversity!