Scarlet At $10K

[Don Miller]

$14K for the kit.
A disappointing day

[Don Miller]

Well, it sounds good relative to the competition.
Is it really an S35 sensor?

[Jerry Porter]

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? Have you seen the specs??? Right off the site, just a few minutes ago. I want one.



SCARLET-X

Overview
Features
Tech Specs

Camera Views





Camera Views
SENSOR 14 MEGAPIXEL MYSTERIUM-X™
PIXEL ARRAY 5120 (h) x 2700 (v)
DYNAMIC RANGE 13.5 stops, up to 18 stops with HDRx™ 6 fps with 5K FF and HDRx On 12 fps with 4K HD and HDRx™ On
MAX IMAGE AREA 5120 (h) x 2700 (v)
LENS COVERAGE 27.7mm (h) x 14.6mm (v) = 31.4 mm (d)
LENS MOUNT Al Canon EF (PL mount optional)
MAX DEPTH OF FIELD Equivalent to S35mm (Motion) / APS-H (Still) lenses
ACQUISITION FORMATS 5K FF REDCODE RAW (Full Frame)
4K HD REDCODE RAW
3K HD REDCODE RAW
1080p REDCODE RAW
1K REDCODE RAW
PROJECT FRAME RATES 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 47.96, 48, 50, 59.97
MONITOR/PROGRAM OUTPUT HD-SDI and HDMI with Frame Guides and Look Around or Clean Feed 1080p 4:2:2, 720p 4:2:2 SMPTE Timecode, HANC Metadata, 24-bit 48Khz Audio
DIGITAL MEDIA REDMAG (SSD) Module : (64, 128, 256GB Media)
REDCODE™ 16-bit RAW Processing : Compression choices of 18:1 to 3:1
1-12 fps 5K FF
1-30 fps 4K HD
1-48 fps 3K HD
1-60 fps 1080p HD
1-120 fps 1K
AUDIO 2 channel, uncompressed, 24 bit, 48KHz.
Optional 4 channel, and AES / EBU digital audio.
MONITORING OPTIONS RED LCD 5" Touchscreen Display
BOMB EVF™ High Definition Viewfinder
REMOTE CONTROL REDLINK Wireless, Ethernet, RS232, GPI Trigger
WEIGHT 5lbs. Body only
CONSTRUCTION Aluminum Alloy
COLOR Battleship Gray Brain Body, Black Canon Mount and Side SSD, All DSMC Modules Black
TEMPERATURE RANGES Operating Range: 0˚C to +40˚C (32˚F to 104˚F)
Storage Range: -20˚C to +50˚C (-4˚F to 122˚F)

[Les Wilson]

According to TechCrunch, Red said it would ship November 17.

[James Huenergardt]

I want one too. Incredible camera.

[David Knaggs]

I remember dropping about $13K back in mid-2005 for the first-model JVC ProHD camera (fully kitted out).

And that was for 720p. (Wow!) And onto an unreliable mini-DV tape with an MPEG-2 codec.

It's amazing how quickly times change.

For around the same amount today (or after December 1st), I can shoot 4K (probably about 3.2K debayered) in 24p and 25p.

Personally, I'd call that progress!

Coming from a PAL area, my primary needs are 24p and 25p. But I do understand the disappointment of those in NTSC areas who need 30p (no 4K).

I've been heavily considering an F3 because of a couple of jobs coming up next year, but this announcement is right in my ballpark.

My biggest query on the Scarlet is whether the cut-down electronics (internally) will have an adverse affect on image quality.

Edit: The initial Twitter feed I was following said that it maxed out at 25 fps for 4K, but I see in a post above it says Scarlet will also do 4K at 30 fps. Good news for everyone!

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Don Miller

$14K for the kit.
A disappointing day

Thats a bargain... though a bit of a step up from $3000 :)
I'd happily pay that for those specs.

[Don Miller]

For me it's a rent, not a buy at $14K.

The NAB 2008 price announced by Red was ~$3K for the body. It's not like people made up their own expectations.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Yeah, but the $3K price was for a 2/3" sensor.

This is a rent for me too. But with a DSLR for day to day shooting, it's the best of all worlds.

1080p @ 60fps in REDCODE RAW is pretty sweet.

[Bernd Eller]

OMG, what happened to the Scarlet Fixed? Of course, the Scarlet now seems to be a great camera, but I would have preferred the camera Ted Schilowitz showed around: 2/3" sensor and fast 8x zoom. Only a few months ago, we were officially told the Scarlet Fixed would cost around $6000, and now it got completely scrapped and replaced by a slowed down Epic brain for $10000? RED is famous for changing each and everything, but that's hard to believe and really disappointing.

[Erik Rangel]

I'm blown away! It's a RED ONE but smaller and less $$'s, with a canon mount? Nice:)

[Ger Griffin]

Im wondering what prints from the 4k video footage will look like.
Thats all I care about.
Not sure if we're there yet but closer no doubt.

[Robert Turchick]

Baffled at today's news. Canon...$20k?? Out of their damn minds!

Red...$14k package without a lens, and a just a single 64gb ssd?
To shoot in the real world it's gonna be $20k but at least it'll do 4k and some higher frame rates at 30p...but what happened to the 120fps 30p?

The 1Dx is actually looking like a viable option for video and would give me a killer still cam for 1/3 the price...then again...my 7D footage still makes my clients' jaws drop and keeps em comin back for more!

Guess I'm not ready to step up to the next level!

[Wayne Morellini]

Media professionals don't know much about how much things really cost. I read that it is using Epic sensors that were not up to putting in the Epic camera. If so, there will be only a certain amount in excess, and they can afford to charge more to restrict demand. Simply, commonly used economic strategy. This might explain, in part, the change in strategy from the $7k s35 scarlet to the Epic S, now Scarlet X strategy, to leverage the cost benefit from sharing the Epic sensor line when they saw the spread of quality in the sensors coming off the line. It is not uncommon in the silicon chip industry to see a spread in performance of manufactured chips. Intel used to sell under performing chips, I believe, as lower speed chips, or crippled to be celerons etc, years ago. I had been planning my own Digital Cinema camera products in times past, and been involved with the development of others, and being designing my own non camera product projects for years, so have some idea.

Unfortunately the economy might seem against a less expensive mass produced model. As the cost reductions from mass production are to a great portion based on mass sales to enthusiasts, internet and video journalists outside mainstream big media) and small video producers who all are less likely to afford to buy much in the current market etc. However, I believe that there is clear enthusiasm still to buy a cheaper knock out product, and such a product can still succeed to some extent So, I'll wait to see the fixed or other comes along. 2/3rds was a lesser strategy, that a number of us realised, and Red also. S16 is a strategy that can still take 2/3 rd Lens through changeable mount, as is 4/3rds that s16 can fit into, and ff35. But, the less actual camera formats the less cost. So I expect a fixed, if it has not been permanently killed, and or s16/4/3rds or ff35. So one or two more models.

So what could the Scarlet have been. 24fps is not the future, high speed 48fps+ is (50fps preferable to slot into Pal production markets). 4k is the killer format feature, so 4k p48 or p50 would have made it really shine for that price segment, as a product into the future to distract the thousands of people distracted by the Canon announcements. Let's hope they can upgrade, the Dragon sensor upgrade should be very promising for the price.

You notice that Red was waiting for Canon to commit, and Canon commited to an unusual choice, 50mbs mpeg2 cinema camera, with 4k sensor but recording reportedly upto 1080p30, and this thing sounds like a firmware update away from 4k support. But for people that understand markets, this is not so unnusual. Canon has good brand loyalty, and apart from true blue Canon fans, that loyalty attracts loyalists in general that may see benefit in buying Canon quality, equipment and support, as Canon often releases quality at a price with that little bit extra in the upper video market, compared to other big brands. This is enough to slightly erode sales from the top, unless 4k support upgrade is announced. Jim has now commited to this model, then a few hours after the announcement, comes up about the ff35 4k 24fps Canon SLR that erodes from underneath, to non cinema people and people commited to their pro video line. Sounds like a strategy, and what are they going to do next. 50mbs mpeg2 is nothing. The $899 gh2 body has been hacked to do 176mbs, the new JVC cheap camera is doing 36mbs h264, I even found a really cheap pocket camera years ago rated at hundreds of mbs of mjpeg. Last year a 5mp 30p chipset was announced by one of the cheapest quality hd camera chipset makers and I expect a shd announcement soon (please also note that cameras are doing 60 fps 8mp+ of burst still already). What gives that a camera of $16k dollers can give so little, and that is happening next. This is why a quick sharp low blow a few years ago would have given the major manufactures more problems in responding.

Red just showed up that things are not as they seem in the industry, what will be next.


Thanks.

[Eric Lagerlof]

I was excited about the idea of Scarlet from years ago, of a 'everymans' kind of product from Red. This version seems to be more of a crippled Epic than the $3-6k fixed Scarlet of old. Still a good deal but for me not the game changer I thought Red was going to create for the smaller corporate/event guys like me. Oh well...