Two days ago, I published a small piece about the announcement that RED will make on Thursday. Well, as it turns out, the announcement was bigger than anyone could have imagined, and without any doubt, this announcement was the biggest in history of digital cinema.
What happened? For starters, Jim Jannard, founder of Oakley (and more importantly, RED) stated that all previous announcements were invalid, and that the company managed to create something “beyond the wildest dreams”. “Obsolescence Obsolete” is the new keyword for RED, since the company launched two bodies that aren’t going to become obsolete even 10 or 20 years in future.
Welcome to visual production revolution. Not kidding.
All of launched products are completely modular, available with sensors ranging from 4.9 to incredible 261 million pixels, capturing video between 25 and 120 frames per second in resolutions ranging from 3K to 28K. Hardware support for 120fps in 3K will revolutionize production of sports events, since hardware support for slow-motion and super-slow motion means that super-expensive slow-motion cameras are going the way of do-do birds.
For instance, if you’re covering a Formula 1 or NASCAR race, and every camera in the field is RED Scarlet or EPIC, there are no worries about “capturing the right moment”, since every camera in the field will be able to perfectly reproduce the scene.
Movie-wise, creating an action scene will no longer be an exhausting and daunting work without a rightful capture on screen. Are you annoyed by choppy movements during fast-paced action (Spider-Man and latest James Bond are a living testament of 25fps inadequacies)? Well, with RED Epic, you can shoot the scene in 6K or 9K at 100 or at 50 fps, and then do with the scene whatever you please – you will have enough captured frames to provide smooth action.
Yes, movies and games are coming together in a quest for smoothness of movements, and games showed that 25fps or 30fps just is not enough.
But 28K in native, single-sensor mode is just incredible. Especially given the fact that 1080p cinema camera from Sony will set you back for almost $100,000. For that amount of money, you can buy more than 10 complete Scarlet kits and shoot in 3K, not in “puny” 1080p. Go to RED.Com and see… next year, visual production industry will undergo a revolution.
For the end, here is the picture of world’s first native 3D filming camera – two scarlets are probably the cheapest way to film an event in 3D. No off-line picture separation, this native bi-lens approach could rule the 3D world.
3D Camera for just $30K? Not a dream - two Scarlets can make you a 3D moviemaker
