RED

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or get my latest posts directly in your mailbox. Thanks for coming to the Foo!

It’s probably been in the cards for a while, but we have ordered our Red One camera. Sometime before the end of the year (fingers crossed), we’ll be able to churn out pictures at such high resolution that they can be used for digital cinema. We’ll be able to use variable frame rates. I’ll be able to chose from many different lenses. We’ll be able to tell our stories better.

Just to give you an idea of the firepower of this camera, look at this picture, showing proportionally the full size of the Red picture, and in comparison that of Standard Television 4:3. It is about 6 times the resolution of even High Definition Television. And it meets or succeeds the specs for digital cinema (Norway is aiming to become the first country in the world to be completely digitized in cinemas.)
But it is not stopping here. Red One is also a very low-noise camera. Here is a 1:1 crop from an image exposed at ISO 2000. Click on the image to see it in full. (Read more about this here.)

This is nothing short of amazing, and will enable us and many other documentary makers to tell stories that simply couldn’t be told before. Brace yourself for a whole new world of clarity.

For comparison, here is the same 1:1 crop at a modes 320 ASA/ISO:

And for further comparison, here’s a framegrab from our current camera, a Sony DSR-570, which is the best DVcam money can buy. Properly exposed. You’ll see noticeably noise in the background. More than the Red even pushed to the extremes.

(Framegrab from our Documentary “Words and Shadows” with the former prime minister of Norway, Mr. Odvar Nordli.)

Here’s an interesting example of what you can do with high-speed filming (though I would have used more fill- and eyelight):

Action Figure slow motion video from Stig Nordas on Vimeo.
I am looking forward to learning, and to push myself to new borders.

Found a great paper by Canon on lens theory, which also explains the common terminology used in lens construction. The paper also includes an extensive collection of graphs showing the optical resolution of all Canon lenses, both wide open and at F8.

Great resource if you have a Canon stills camera, or a Red One with the very soon forthcoming Birger mount (video link).

Very soon we will know more, but Red has given some more hints about the Scarlet. It will be running Red Code, which means more-than-HD. It will be smaller than the Red One, but “it won’t fit into your shirt pocket.” And it will cost below 10,000 USD.

Nab is the yearly major event for anything connected with video/media production. I´ll make some wild(ish) guesses as to what might delect my fellow camera(wo)men

Sony / Panavision

It will be exciting to see how the big guys are going to react to the Red One camera. I would hope for an affordable 2k shoulder-mount camera, that supports higher frame rates, and has interchangeable lenses. Competitively priced against the Red. Sort of a Red light for ENG work.

Red

Red is a master of hype, and this NAB looks like Red might just steal the show again. They have announced 3 big and 3 minor news. With only a little bit of foundation, I will do some wild guessing as to what they might be

Majors

1. A palm sized 4k camera. This has already been announced, but none of the details are out. I would imagine that it is either a slightly downsized Red One camera, meaning aimed at the professional market. Or it could just be a more consumer-friendly priced camera, something for the video enthusiast.
2. 4k projector. Its been rumored a long time that Red would produce their own affordable solution for viewing 4k. With that in mind, it gives an extra layer to view the recently published Mythbuster video on Red.
3. This is the most mysterious one. Some suggest a time-reversal machine. I would guess that it could have something to do with the handling/archival of digital files. Harddisks are unreliable for long-term storage, DLT a bit cumbersome. At the same time, lack of a good archival system for file-based cinematography has been holding its development back.

Minors

1. Direct support for FCP, Avid, Premiere. Since Apple is not having a stand this year, we know that there won’t be a new Final Cut Pro/Studio coming out.
2. Red One Build 16. Greater colours, higher frame rates. But a faster boot-up time will come at a later time.
3. Optical viewfinder. PS Technik in Germany has already announced one, but wouldn’t it be great if Red had that option built-in?

The others

Will be interesting to see when other battery technologies become viable.There will be some new solutions for the tapeless workflow in post production.I guess also the tendency is that the workload shifts from the set to the post production. Adobe is just one of many players here, but they have come up with a very exciting concept around focus/depth of field:

I am having some crazy weeks, with just too much work. Which, of course, is a luxury problem. But no time for proper posts here. Today I did get to have a proper(ish) look at a Red One, and it is much bigger and heavier than it looks on the pictures. Very cool menu options. Unusual design. Definitely worth the money. But needs good lenses.

And here a little clip for the week-end. Test your awareness:

Over at the Red forum, I found a good table on the weight of all the parts for the Red camera. Good to calculate heads (and how much work-out you should do while waiting for your camera to surface)

And the the RED EVF weighs 2.4 pounds, or 1090 gram.