Red is at it again

Looks like Red is shaking up the camera world again. Who? Red - the other camera company. A year ago they came out with a digital movie camera that completely blew away the movie industry. They made an announcement today that may have an effect on the future of photography as we know it. They announced some new cameras. How about a camera that shoots full frame 24 meg pictures at 30 frames per second? No? How about a full sized medium format 65 meg sensor that shoots at 50 frames per second? The cameras are modular so you can clip in any size sensor you want. No obsolecence. What else? Oh, yeah, you can use either Canon or Nikon lenses on the full frame camera.

So how does this apply to us? Well, since the cameras are expensive - not outrageous - just expensive, it may not apply to us now, but rather it does suggest the way cameras are headed in the future. Something else to consider - Red has said they will announce a new camera system in January (that if I interpret them correctly) will be more still oriented and is supposed to completely rewrite the book on photography. More information on Luminous Landscape:

http://luminous-landscape.com/whatsnew/

Or go to www.red.com (under Scarlet)

It will be fun to see what they come up with in January. It is hard to imagine what a camera will look like in ten years (or maybe even five.) We sure do live in interesting times.

The Red cameras are very interesting but until I win the Powerball I can't see one in my future! I especially like that you can change lens mounts and use Canon, Nikon, and other lenses--very cool. I also like that you can upgrade individual components instead of turning your expensive (but now out of date) digital camera into a door stop every couple years!

George thank you for posting this. I have to admit I have never even heard about them . How cool...!!! They are coming up with some great stuff, ofcourse I am interested in Epic 617 with a 186X56mm 261 Megapixel model For $55000 I can feed my entire village in India for years!!! Thank you for posting this again...regards, Rajeev.

I've been hearing teasers for awhile now. This is an exciting development in digital imaging. A lot of groundbreaking concepts here. Should really shake things up in a lot of ways - or at least I hope it will. You have to wonder if the Red influence is a factor in the video features we're now seeing in dSLRs.

Now, the Bank of Jesse is off to apply for some government bail-out money, for that 617 model.

I really like the idea of all the interchangeability, but at those prices they won't be getting a serious look from me. Ground breaking yes....but until they can reduce costs, they won't make much of a splash in the photography market. I won't be canceling my 5DII order, that's for sure!

I must be the only person who just doesn't find this stuff interesting. I'm not a videographer and have no interest in pursuing that path. I don't particularly like editing my work down from 400 frames to 10 keepers. I really doubt that I'll like editing from 20000+ frames to 10 keepers. I will say that the 617 format sensor is impressive, but is the technology actually there?

I've been doing alot of experimentation with film lately and have come to the conclusion that the suggestion that a 35mm film frame = 6-8MP digital is hogwash. There might be visible grain, but most fine grain films can truly support scans at 3200 - 4000ppi netting 15-21MP, but consumer scanners cannot provide real detail above 2400ppi (which coincidentally nets ~8MP).

I have heard that the movie industry is largely keeping the film business afloat and I worry that digital movie capture might change the movie industry too quickly and wipe out the film business. Alot of the technologies that we are seeing in film are coming from technologies developed for the movie industry.

For a wildlife photographer 30fps would be mind blowing, for a landscape shooter, not so much. I definitely agree with Mel about the additional workload that it would entail, but think of the motion studies possible with this, eg. hummingbird wing beats, the pounce of a cat, etc. But the big thing here is the interchangeability aspects which could help cut costs of keeping up with future technological gains.

What I am hoping all this will translate into eventually is a resonably priced full frame or medium format camera that will be modular, reasonably priced and can use both Canon and Nikon lenses. The movie part doesn't interest me in the least. Maybe I am just getting too old to carry this dang 4x5 around and hope someone comes up with a camera that will equal large format at half the weight and cost. Now, there's an idea.

Click HERE to read an article that Wired Magazine wrote about Red. While it will be interesting to see what they bring to the photography front they seem to be rewriting the books on video capture.

Mark

Hmmm... 11+ stops of dynamic range @ 30 fps on the S35 model. I think this could significantly change the HDR world. I wonder when they'll have a P & S model?