RED SCARLET To Compete With Canon, Sony HD Options

Says it all, doesn't it--except the $3,000 price tag. Yes, that's right--3K for $3K. RED, the maker of the groundbreaking RED ONE digital cinema (read film camera w/o the film--this is WAY better than the camera the Star Wars prequels were shot on) has announced a pair of new cameras at this year's NAB trade show. RED EPIC is a similarly awesome camera, supposedly not to replace RED ONE, which will push the absolute bleeding-edge limits of digital cinematography.

SCARLET, on the other hand, is a lower-end (but still very, very awesome) camera meant to compete in the market currently served by the Canon XH and XL-H lines, Sony's EX-1 and -3, and others. As announced, it is supposed to be able to shoot 3k frames on a 2/3" sensor (Canon XL-H1s is 1/3"), has an integrated lens, shoot to solid-state media, plus goodies like Wi-Fi control and HDMI-out (HDMI-to-DVI-to-1080p LCD can be done easily for $500, while a good HD-SDI monitor starts in the multi-thousands.) All for under $3000, if we are to believe RED. Of course, "SPECIFICATIONS, DELIVERY DATES AND DESIGN ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE... COUNT ON IT"--from the RED site, but if we look at RED ONE, they over-delivered, for the most part, albeit a bit late.

This will probably shake up the market, as cameras like the Canon XH-A1 will have little to recommend them over SCARLET, coming as they do with lower resolution and fewer connections, except a more familiar form factor, cheaper media and an established name. (Oh, and the XH-A1 is $3999, not $3,000.) Sony's EX-1 doesn't even have all that. If RED ONE didn't establish RED as a player, I don't know what will...except maybe SCARLET. It's not quite the revolution in quality that RED ONE was, with its integrated lens and 2/3" sensor, but it would be quite enough for a lot of us. I can actually see myself possibly getting my hands on one in the near future, while with a RED I figured it would be rental for a long, long time. Cameras like this may change the economics of many film projects. Time to get back to work and start saving--spring 2009 isn't that far away!

(The full information is here. For those that want to absorb every bit of the speculation, possibilities, predictions, and rumors out there--I did--there is a fascinating SCARLET prerelease forum on Reduser.net.)

John Calvin Young