Red Digital Camera – 4K RED One Camera
Jim Jannard, founder and CEO of Oakley, known for its sun glasses, wanted a compact and durable HD camera. Oakley is well-known for its relationship with sports, so this wish was not too surprising. Jim’s idea did not find any friends at broadcast equipment manufacturers such as Sony, Canon and JVC.
Left with his idea, Jim founded RED Digital Camera, a company that aimed to create a high-resolution “Beyond HD” camera that can capture the fast pacing world of sports – in an affordable way.
The first product, RED One, does not yet achieve this goal, but is an indication of what we can expect to see from this company in the future. The compact and durable HD camera should come with the upcoming debut of RED Scarlet, a “pocket-sized” professional digital video camera. (More details about the Scarlet will be released at this year’s NAB convention in Las Vegas – lectures starting on Friday, April 11th.)
In this story, we will focus on the experience of assembling RED One, one of the most fascinating video cameras you can buy today.
High-end HD camcorders
Typical high-end HD camcorders have 2.1M pixel sensors and record with 3:1:1 color sub-sampled video at up to 30fps. RED offers the Mysterium ™ Super 35mm cine sized (24.4×13.7mm) sensor, which provides 4K (up to 30 fps), 3K (up to 60 fps) and 2K (up to 120 fps) capture, and all this with wide dynamic range and color space in 12 bit native RAW. At 4K, that’s more than 5 times the amount of information available every second and a vastly superior recording quality. In addition, you get the same breathtaking Depth of Field and selective focus as found in film cameras using equivalent 35mm P/L mount lenses. Mysterium ™ boasts greater than 66db Dynamic Range thanks to its large 29 sq. micron pixels. And 12,065,000 pixels deliver resolution that can only be called Ultra High Definition.
Modular Design
Shoot lightweight EFP style (body around 10 lbs., in rugged aluminum alloy) or load it up to shoot a feature film. Options include RED-RAIL™ mounting accessories that “grow” the camera body. Configure for tripod, crane or long lens applications. High-resolution RED LCD and EVF monitors come equipped with advanced tools for framing, exposure and focus. The RED ONE™ body and RED-RAIL components provide numerous mounting points to allow hundreds of optional RED and third party accessories… some that haven’t even been dreamed of yet. Choose between the convenience and durability of recording directly to Compact Flash, in-camera, or outputting signal to RED FLASH DRIVE or RED DRIVE (RAID) for even longer recording options.