“What camera is that?” you ask me in puzzled wonderment. Well that would be the RED Scarlet. Those of you who aren’t aware of RED...well, frankly should be. They’re first camera, the RED One, revolutionized digital cinema once before when it was introduced in 2007. Simply put, the RED One was able produce a RAW (non-compressed) video image that was higher quality then any digital video camera had been able to produce before. And by high quality I mean not only the quality of the camera's sensor but also the resolution of the video. The RED One shoots at a full 4K! That’s 4520x2540p broken down to actual pixel size. Compare that to HDV's end resolution of 1920x1080 and you can see a huge difference. I could go on about the RED One, but there are tons of online resources you can check out.
Now while the RED One was amazingly high quality, its price point was ridiculously low. $17,500 got you the bare camera and about $30,000+ would get you a fully functional rig. Considering the least expensive camera to output that quality previously was over $300,000, you can see why people were excited about it. Granted that’s a great price, but filmmakers like myself would never be able to even dream of using something like that.
“…look for us next year” Ted Schilowitz of RED said at NAB ’07, but he wouldn’t say more than that. So wait we did until rumors of a high-end, professional grade camera that would be a little brother to the RED One surfaced. Something that would have RED quality written all over it but also be less expensive so more people could afford to invest in it. Speculation rose. …would it be HD? …maybe 2K?
Finally NAB ’08 comes and Ted officially announces the Scarlet. Not HD. Not 2K. But rather a camera that will shoot in full 3K! A camera that uses RED’s RAW codec and shoots in full 4:4:4 color spacing. A camera that would shoot at 120 frames per second in standard record mode and up to 180fps in burst mode. A camera that would have a 2/3” sensor that would rival most professional grade cameras. A camera that would have a built in 4.8” screen and use compact flash storage.
…all this for $3,000.
If that doesn’t floor all the indy filmmakers out there, I don’t know what will. This is something that we’ve all dreamed of but never thought any company would be able to do. This will open up opportunities for small production studios, independent filmmakers, cinematographers, and many others to jump into the world of high quality, professional grade video production. Never before have the possibilities been this numerous or exciting.
When can you get one? Right now RED says early ’09, but that’s subject to change. It is important to note that you will probably have to invest in high-speed CF cards when you buy the camera and depending on your capacity preference, those can run anywhere from $200-$1,000. A decently stocked Scarlet would probably run around $5,000. Considering the Panasonic HVX-200, Canon XL-H1, and Sony EX1 are all considerably more expensive, I’d look at that $5,000 as still a fantastic price.
Another thing to note is the Scarlet will not have interchangeable lenses. It will have a fixed high quality lens. RED’s goal is not to make another camera that would be in direct competition with the RED One. By taking away some of the RED One’s versatility and features they can reduce the cost and still have a high quality, professional model. For some people, the Scarlet will be a main camera. For others, it may be a B camera that they have several of. In any case, the Scarlet will be an asset to many.
Check out RED.com for full specs of the RED Scarlet.
Check out scarletuser.com for a growing community of people like myself who are really excited about this camera.
Check out camcorderinfo.com’s interview with Ted Schilowitz from NAB ’08 which has more details on the Scarlet along with RED’s announcements of two other products. The RED Epic which will shoot in 5K and the RED Ray which will record RED RAW video to disk.
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