Cameras Category

RED CES news - 4K delivery and Scarlet

I know I'm late to the party but there were some important announcements at CES (Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) by the creators of the RED camera.

Jim Jannard (head honcho) yesterday announced a 4K delivery system in response to the 4K displays announced at the show by Panasonic and Sony. He was not specific about what this delivery system would be comprised of but he has stated in the past a desire to create 4K projectors and it was interesting to note that he said "in the home as well as on the big screen".

I'm wondering what sized screen (and what sized house!) you would need to get the full benefit of 4K in your home (Panasonic's one is 150"), but I guess all will be revealed at NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters conference) in April.

Earlier in the week, Jim also revealed that there is a "pocket professional camera" in development called Scarlet. Further details will be given at NAB, but Jim did imply that it was intended to compliment, not replace the RED One.

That Jim loves to tempt us. It's a great way of getting people to talk and speculate about his products though. Apple adopts a similar strategy.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Wednesday January 9 2008 4:55 AM to Hardware, Cameras, Indie
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Blogwad 12/13/07

Here are some of the headlines that caught my eye recently:

Oscars go long with songs - 59 songs are in the running for an Oscar nomination this year.

ProTools LE controlled with an iPhone - Someone has managed to create a hack that allows you to control ProTools LE in real-time from an iPhone. Looks pretty cool. Complete with video.

YouTube a conduit for "D-Boys" auditions - A Japanese talent agency is using YouTube as a means of auditioning actors.

Sony sets sights on new camera - Sony is to release the F35 next year as part of its high-end CineAlta line. It's got a Super 35mm sensor and will record a 10 megapixel image. It is planned to retail for $250k for the camera body (no lens or accessories). Sony also says it has a 4K camera in the works but it will take a while. "We don't want to do a low-end 4K camera system" - which is clearly a dig at the Red camera. It will be interesting to see what Sony brings to the table.

New trailers for Youth Without Youth - Two new trailers up for Francis Ford Coppola's new movie. I can't wait to see it.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Thursday December 13 2007 2:54 AM to Industry, Cameras
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RED cameras delayed

RED has announced that it is delaying the shipment of some of its cameras in order to resolve issues discovered with some of the earlier models. They are fitting a new daughter board to the cameras which should increase dynamic range and reduce noise at frame rates 25fps and below, and they are designing new PL lens mounts. The old mounts were causing focus issues.

They are adding these modifications to cameras 1-100 which means that cameras 101-200 will ship a month later on November 30th, with this update included.

RED has stated that it is taking on the full cost of the updates.

[via CamcorderInfo]

Posted by Jon Chappell on Saturday November 10 2007 11:06 AM to Hardware, Cameras, Indie
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Red stills of the Brooklyn Bridge

HDForIndies has some high-res stills from a recent shoot with the Red camera. They really put it through its paces and the results are stunning.

People are calling it a 35mm killer. It could well kill it from a business perspective but the footage does not look like 35mm. If you want a 35mm look, use 35mm.

This is something different. This is something we haven't seen before. The images look very surreal (to my eyes anyway) due to the absence of grain. It looks strange now but this is something we will have to get used to, as this camera looks like it could well become the future of independent filmmaking. I remember hearing about the camera a year or so ago and everyone I told thought I was making it up. That's how much of a game-changer this camera is.

These images are well worth looking at.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Monday October 1 2007 6:30 PM to Cameras
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Panasonic HPX3000 camera announced

Panasonic has announced the HPX3000, a shoulder-mounted 1080p camera. It doesn't appear to be a successor to the HVX but a spinoff targeted at studio work, hence the $48,000 price tag.

The big difference between this and the HVX is that it shoots full raster 1080p, meaning that the footage you shoot is exactly 1920 x 1080 pixels and not subsampled to something lower like 1280 or 1440 pixels. That's only if you shoot using their AVC-Intra codec though. DVCPRO HD is not full raster so shooting in this codec will result in subsampling, which reduces quality. Still looks pretty good though, but not as good as it could.

I'm wondering where it stands with the Red. You buy the Red for $17,500 and once you've got lenses and accessories, you're at about $30-40k, which is still less than the $48k of this camera AND you have more than one lens. And of course, the Red shoots 4K. If you have a project coming up soon, this might be a good camera to hire rather than a Red because the current cameras aren't feature-complete and I heard the post production workflow needs some extra work. This camera, on the other hand, is from an established brand and is fully supported by Final Cut Pro (6 only).

If you are looking to buy a camera in the near future, my advice is to wait until early next year. I heard that Red should have shipped the pre-ordered versions by then and you'd have a better idea of whether or not it's the best thing since sliced bread by then.

The Panasonic HPX3000 ships later this month.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Thursday September 13 2007 8:51 AM to Cameras
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Panasonic to introduce new 32 GB P2 cards

Panasonic announced yesterday that it would commence the shipping of 32 GB P2 cards in November. These would retail at $1,650 with the older 16 GB cards presumably staying at $900.

Panasonic proudly points out in its press release that it has quadrupled the storage capacity of its P2 cards in just one year. I remember the days when the 8 GB card was $1200. Back then it was a rip-off but now I think 32 GB is pretty decent for that price when you consider that a 40 GB Firestore is about the same price. The Firestores, however, have the disadvantage that they are not solid-state which means that they can be damaged if they are jostled and bumped in the field (which is very likely on most shoots).

They say that with 5 cards, you can get 2.5 hours (3 on 24p) on AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD and 5 hours (6.5 in 24p) in AVC-Intra 50 or DVCPRO 50 modes. If you already have installed the firmware update required for the 16 GB cards, you're fine, if not, you'll need to install it before you can use the 32 GB ones.

The full press release is here. Looks very promising.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Saturday September 8 2007 5:29 PM to Hardware, Cameras
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Red One ships today

The first 25 Red cameras are shipping today. Whilst the first shipping models are not fully feature complete, Jim has promised that there will be weekly firmware updates to gradually roll out the features, and that it should be fully complete by October.

Everyone here is really excited about what this will mean for the industry. We're hoping to get our hands on a rental model in the not-too-distant future so that we can get to grips with the workflow and ensure everything runs really smoothly on our system, as we know a lot of our customers are interested in using this camera.

We'll keep you posted on how everything goes. For anyone who isn't sure what the big deal is with this camera, go to the Red site and look at the specs. And then look at the price. Yep, that's not a typo.

Posted by Jon Chappell on Friday August 31 2007 9:55 PM to Cameras
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