(image credits: http://www.motu.com/video-products)
The RED camera is a high performance digital camera that offers the same quality as 35mm film. It allows the shooting of professional-looking films without the budget one would normally require, allowing anyone with a spare $25,000 to become a movie maker.
The camera is produced by the Red Digital Cinema Camera Company and allows for the same depth of field and angle of view as 35 mm because of the size of its CMOS (complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensor, which is called The Mysterium. The first Red camera introduced in 2006 was called the Red One and it weighs only 10 pounds. The Red camera’s Mysterium offers 4520 x 2540 pixels and an over 66db signal to noise ratio, while the camera has a high quality 4k capture.
Films and Reception
In the UK, one very low-budget film called Skyline, a massive alien invasion epic, was filmed entirely with Red cameras. A review of this film noted that even though the film employed 20 people in its production, its use of Red cameras allowed it to go from “zero to 99 on the recognition meter” and that it looked like a blockbuster movie rather than the small, low-budget feature it was.
The film She was made entirely with a Red One by Steven Soderbergh, who said of the camera, “This is the camera I’ve been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded onboard a camera light enough to hold with one hand…Red is going to change everything.” The Informant!, Jumper, Angels & Demons and District 9 also used Red ones, along with several popular television shows like Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson has said of the Red camera, “I liked what they were doing – making a digital camera of the utmost quality and making it affordable for indie filmmakers.”
Jim Jannard, founder of the Oakley eyewear company and RED Digital Cinema wanted to create a durable, compact HD camera. Affordability and taking the resolution “beyond HD” are current goals of the company, and eventually more affordable models will be available.
The camera’s modular design also allows for different applications, and the camera can be configured for tripods, cranes or long lens use thanks to various mounting accessories. Its high-resolution monitors have extra tools for the operator to use for framing, focusing and exposure and it will be compatible with potentially hundreds of additional accessories, some of which have not even been invented yet.
The RED one camera uses a 140Wh V-Mount battery pack along with an optional charger that holds two light-weight batteries, called Bricks. The RED drive, a 320 GB RAID memory that is the highest capacity available can record up to three hours of 4K footage. The camera does not have an internal microphone but has several mini-XLR connectors.
Other brands
Other companies have also come out with their own similar versions of the Red camera, including Panavision. Sony also recently introduced their own prototype.