Red One Camera Round-up - Can You Believe the Hype?
Wednesday, September 12th, 2007
Well the Red One camera shipped last Friday and all the VFX guys I know are going nuts. Love it or hate it, it’s real and it’s here. This jesus-camera seems to have a crazy devoted following. A lot of people love the 4k for 20k idea (the Red shots a 4k RAW image and costs 20k US$) and the fact that this camera has enough tech-bling to make any visual effects nerd pop some major wood. Here are some of the discussions going on around the industry right now.
Does it really cost $ 20k?
The answer to this is a definitive “NO!”. The body itself is useless out of the box. No lenses, rails, grips, viewfinder or even a power supply. I went to the web store and filled a cart with just the basics (2 lenses, basic body kit, viewfinder, memory, power supply, an LCD and some cables) and the bill shot up to over $ 32,000. Pricey to be sure but still a fraction the cost of a new Viper.
Is the image quality really all that great?
Oh yeah. Peter Jackson’s clip was cool, but the full rez frames on fxguide really show the detail you can get from this puppy. I’m practicly foaming at the mouth waiting for a decent VFX DP to shoot some bitchin’ zero-G explosions. I’m curious how the exposure will hold up when you blast fire at this thing.
Does it really work?
Well, sorta-kinda-maybe-not-quite-yet. There is currently no support for, sound, high-speed, time-lapse and the live output is is limited. Also getting images off the camera and into the computer is a bit dicey. Right now you have to shoot onto compact flash, export to firewire and then covert to frames using a piece of Red software. Red has assured it’s customers that all this will be fixed by a series of continuing updates beamed into the camera through the interwebs.
Let the record show that I did not buy a Red One, nor do I plan to in the near future. There seem to be too may questions at this point for me as far as visual effects goes. I don’t see how this camera can shoot motion control for one. And from what I’m hearing, if you want to use the Nikon mount you also have to use an external follow focus motor. This camera is a major departure from the conventional wisdom of film cameras for VFX. Will the old way of doing things be swept away by the ever advancing tides of change? Or, is the Red One just a huge steaming bottle of snake oil? Only time will tell.
Some other Red Links
fxguide covers Red launch (with unboxing photos)
