For a while, I had been looking at getting a Panasonic AG-HVX200. While it has some resolution issues I was enamored of the P2 storage and the variable frame rate not to mention that the codec they are using is far superior to that used in HDV cameras.
I was counting my pennies and looking at accessories.
Then earlier this year Jim Jannard, the guy who founded Oakley, started talking about building a new camera company. The Red Digital Cinema Company was going to build the best digital cinema camera that technology would allow. It was going to have a 12 megapixel sensor to capture a phenomenal 2540p with variable frame rates up to sixty frames per second. That sensor would be the same size as a Super35mm frame and so would be able to use cine lenses to get a nice shallow depth of field.
I thought that would be a pretty sweet camera to rent for when I get to the big show. The few cameras with specifications that got even close to that were renting for $9,000 for the minimum three day rental and weren’t for sale… but if they were it would probably be for well over $100,000. The Sony CineAlta HDW950 can only capture at 1920×1080 and it is way on the other side of $100,000 when it is ready to use.
I figured that Red would try and sell the Red One for under a $100,000 but that it would still be way out of my price range. I went back to looking at the Panasonic.
Then Jim said he would sell the Red One body for $17,500!
Okay, that is all well and good but a cine lens can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars so it is still out off… what’s that, they will make adaptors to use the relatively inexpensive lenses in the 35mm still camera line from Canon and Nikon? And Red will make their own line of cine lenses that will be far lower priced than the Cooke or Zeiss Ultra Prime cine lenses?
With formatting options unmatched, they would also allow you to window down on the sensor and only use the center so that you can use 16mm lenses and get 2k footage, 1080p HD or 720p HD… from 1 frame per second on up to 120 frames per second.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got the vibe that Jannard and the rest of the Red team were earnest and genuine in what they wanted to do but they were talking about coming in to a new field and doing something that the established players insist is years away yet… and that more than one film snob is saying couldn’t be done.
And then Mike Curtis, a guy who writes it as he sees it, had a chance to see some of the footage off of the very first working sensor and he was very impressed. So impressed that at least one of the other camera companies he works with took exception to the laudatory nature of his post.
With them showing footage at IBC 2006, this really seems to show that they are on target and that it just might come about.
The upshot of it is that I now have a rather spiffy hunk of milled titanium sitting on my desk signifying that I’ve put $1000 in Jim Jannard’s hands and am now standing 351st in line to get a Red One digital cinema camera. As well, I’ve sent in the form to lay $750 dollars towards a $9,500 18-85mm f2.8 cine lens. If you add in the cost of storage which would be $2000 to start off with… and then there is a follow focus and matte box… and a rail system to support it… were looking at somewhere just on the up side of $30,000 US to get it ready to go. Sure that is more than close to three times as expensive as a similarly kitted Panasonic AG-HVX200 but seeing as how it is an order of magnitude better I’m going to see if my budget can stretch to it.