You WILL Bow Down Before Me

RED, the company behind affordable yet crazy high definition video cameras has released their latest product(s) which will amaze and bedazzle you. Just today their "Digital Still and Motion Cameras", AKA Scarlet and EPIC, were unleashed on the public and as expected they do crazy high res video and stills for 1/10 the price of other cameras.

Engadget says, "Scarlet will launch in 4 choices ranging from $2,500 (and possibly less) to $12,000 with a variety of lens mounts (yes, Canon and Nikon) capable of shooting 3K @120fps on up to 6K @30fps."

"Epic will offer similar mounts with capabilities spanning 5K @100fps ($28k) to 9K @50fps ($45k) -- a 28K system hitting 25fps is expected in 2010 for $55k. Still image resolutions will range from 4.9 megapixels to a freakish 261 megapixels. The first Scarlet systems could come as early as Spring of 2009 while EPIC should arrive by summer."

As you can see from the image it is highly modular so when RED release a new bit (including the main processing part) you can just replace that one piece. RED also introduced a 3D camera configuration today seemingly as an afterthought (see poster below).

If you don't know what those numbers above mean, the ones ending in a K without dollar signs are the resolution. e.g. "5K" is a resolution of approximately 5,000 pixels wide (1080p is 1920 pixels wide). The "fps" figures are the Frames Per Second with regular TV being between 25 and 30 frames per second (depending on your country of origin). Thus, 5K @ 100fps means the video camera is recording a 5,000 pixel wide image 100 times a second.

RED also claim to have eliminated the wobbly "jelly" look that current video recording DSLRs have a problem with which is an odd effect you get on the video when panning horizontally.