Big Red One digicam debuts at NAB

So, Apple wasn't the only company with something big to show off at NAB today. Turns out that Red Digital Cinema, a company started by Oakley founder Jim Jannard, chose the venue to roll out the Red One, an HD camcorder that boasts 11.4 megapixels at up to 60fps. The camera is based around what the company calls the Mysterium CMOS, which we assume is made by Kodak, Sony or one of the other big sensor makers, though -- as made clear by the name -- Red is maintaining an air of mystery (we assume someone will pull the lens off one of these soon enough and solve this one, though). The camera also features an optional "Red Cage" -- designed, presumably, to protect it from hordes of digicam junkies eager to check it out, and has a big red HAL-like light on the front, presumably because Jannard and company think it looks slick (and it does look a lot better than most of Oakley's traditional gear). A mere $17,500 will get you one of these (if and when they're manufactured, that is), and a 300mm lens will set you back another $4,750.

[Thanks, Henry]

[mavrick @ Apr 24th 2006 4:08PM]

dunno about it being a camera. Sure looks like a big laser you put on the back of a shark.

[Matty matt matt @ Apr 24th 2006 4:18PM]

I've wondered why they couldn't have done this sooner..since you get a live view on 10MP digicams. I don't have an electrical engineering degree so I always chalked it up to my ignorance... Maybe it was getting that information to to tape/disk media? I guess they figured out a way... The thing write to a RAID Array. The most exciting thing to me is the fact that it can record in RAW format. HDR Video anyone?

[Bryan W @ Apr 24th 2006 4:18PM]

If this thing's specs turn out to be real and it arrives at that price, it's amazing. 4000p, Super-35mm sensor (35mm DOF!), 60fps, standard lens mounts, and a great modular design? All for under 20 grand? That thing will even compete with Arri's new digi-cam.

[Chris @ Apr 24th 2006 4:19PM]

For everyone to put this in perspective, Sony's HDCF950 4-4-4 digital cinema camera (used for starwars), is only 2MP and costs $250,000 with everything you need to shoot.

Now your talking for $25,000 I can shoot at 4K!!!! Unbelieveable change in the industry.

[Jaron Whittingham @ Apr 24th 2006 4:29PM]

I used to send all of my customers when doing internet tech support to "Red.com" because everyone knows the word red, and it used to say "Red, the color of Life".

Once they changed to the camera company I stopped, but I was very interested in the camera. Now I know what all the hub-ub is about.

[erik @ Apr 24th 2006 4:39PM]

and if you really cant wait, plop down a $1000 deposit and get a red metal R icon...

[Evan Donn @ Apr 24th 2006 5:12PM]

Jim Jannard's been posting about this thing on several camera forums for a few months now - according to him the mysterium sensor is their own design, and won't be made available except in this camera. Assuming they can meet their target of shipping it this year, this is going to shake up the whole industry - at this price point it's both significantly less expensive and more capable than anything from the big manufacturers.

[Karl Viklund @ Apr 24th 2006 5:28PM]

WoW, that "thing" looks awesome!
I realy want one of these just because ot the futurustic Matrix design.

But maybe this was what those Laser-dolphins that escaped had on their heads :)

[Bigfat @ Apr 24th 2006 5:31PM]

4:4:4 pulldown for less than 20k? Jesus christ give me this now!

[Dredeezy @ Apr 24th 2006 5:43PM]

I feel like Cindy Brady lookin' at the big red honkin' light.

Baton Rouge! Baton Rouge!!

[Foof @ Apr 24th 2006 6:14PM]

Anybody else look at that and think "Terminator?" Wow.

[silly willy @ Apr 24th 2006 6:15PM]

I'll show you a big red one OHHHHH

[HarrytheHood @ Apr 24th 2006 6:55PM]

Holy Flurking Schnit, lets not all run out and buy HD equipment just yet, I smell either a: BS vapourware or b: (pleasepleaseplease) paradigm shifting hardware. Imagine this; broadcast TV is dead, we've all got ADSL 2 connections at 24Mb/s or better and content is produced and delivered on 4k.

[Elan @ Apr 24th 2006 7:16PM]

Pretty slick stuff. I have been reading about projects to create realy realy high def stuff, but this is very cool. Its been in the works for awile now and it's great to see it getting some press and support. 35mm DOF is very slick.

[John Connor @ Apr 24th 2006 8:01PM]

SKYNET

[ramos @ Apr 24th 2006 8:15PM]

actually it comes out to 40k once you buy all the separate modules. all modules are proprietary except for the pl mounted lenses.... i see it if at all hitting the streets in 1.5 to 2 years

[Special_K @ Apr 24th 2006 8:22PM]

Is that a drive bay I see in the back of that thing: http://www.red.com/products/cameras/redone/index.html (second picture)? If so, does that mean this thing will write to media (HD) at SATA speeds? Schweet!

[erik @ Apr 24th 2006 9:21PM]

the specs on the site say there will be a 40-160GB eSATA drive option and a 32-128GB flash options.

[Porkchop Flavored Cupcake @ Apr 24th 2006 11:16PM]

This cam just flipped the industry on its head, then kicked it over on its ass, and flipped it on its head again, then spit on it and backflipped over it while laughing and blowing bubbles.
Amazing Amazing Amazing

[Filmie @ Apr 24th 2006 11:34PM]

Seriously, for 40K, you might be able to get a decent still camera. Used. I don't buy this for a second. Top it off with a bunch of hearsay and conjecture, and we've got a full-fledged rumor on our hands. All I know for sure is that someone has designed an unwieldy and intimating camera housing. Try getting your actors to relax in front of that monster.

[Chris B @ Apr 25th 2006 12:07AM]

Does anyone even consider the data rates this thing must output?? Just doing the math comes out to a sustained data rate of 23.1 Gb/s. WTF can write that quickly?? Can someone confirm these calculations?

[Allan Alfabet @ Apr 25th 2006 12:23AM]

Am I the only one in this lot that thinks this has got to be the most over-the-top, useless design b/s ever? Get a clue, CNC'd and drilled aluminum are only cool when they actually serve a purpose such as cutting down weight, not because they have a "futuristic matrix design". Filming a snowboard film? Fat chance of getting any good shots while trying to hold one of these suckers from a helicopter, I don't care how good the specs are. Jim Jannard is officially my new poster boy for why american's don't know good design.

[James @ Apr 25th 2006 1:09AM]

I second the Allan. Honestly this guy should stick to designing ugly sunglasses that wouldn't have even looked good a decade ago. 11 megapixels at 60fps??? LOL right. As mentioned above the thing would have to transfer data upwards of 500MB/sec, which no drive can do. Next year? No quite, and if it was it would cost a fortune.

[Chewie @ Apr 25th 2006 1:31AM]

Open the pod bay doors, HAL!
I'm sorry Dave; I'm afraid I can't do that.

[yeti @ Apr 25th 2006 4:07AM]

honestly, i cant stand oakley haters. 95% have never seen the product line and yet still have such a hate.

I am pretty sure my two oakley watches are more eye catching and impressive than others in their price range.

Honestly, go check out the website and see their product line. They make a lot of innovative stuff.

[Stiffler @ Apr 25th 2006 10:01AM]

87% of all stats are made up.
I've done the research I know.

[JD @ Apr 25th 2006 10:21AM]

James - 500mbs+ sustained is not hard.

Pair up 2 Xsans, or build your own 14 disk raid array running an areca or rocketraid.

go check out barefeats.com for 500mbs+ read / writes

[Porkchop Flavored Cupcake @ Apr 25th 2006 10:21AM]

WTF is up with all the naysayers?
Must be Sony and Panasonic engineers worried about losing their jobs, or disgruntled videographers who just blew their wad on an overpriced Cinealta or Varicam.
The camera has been tested by respected cinematographers and engineers over the last year.
The specs have remained consistent through all development stages.
This camera is real.
Visit DVXuser forums under RED, or DVI.net under RED to get a better understanding of who all is involved in the project, it's much larger than people are led to believe.
Also, wrg to the calculations by Chris B on the data rate of the camera, here are two data rate specs provided by Ted Schilowitz, formerly of AJA video desktop solutions, and now Employee #1 at RED - said that the uncompressed 2K produced out of this camera came at 300 megabytes a second - 15 gigs a minutes - almost a TB for an hour, by translation the uncompressed 4K will be double those specs.
Aside from uncompressed, a very critical cornerstone of their development are recording alternatives via a ton of different compression options for the camera, from DVCPro, HDV, H264 to wavelets, etc., it looks very promising.

[Porkchop Flavored Cupcake @ Apr 25th 2006 10:34AM]

BTW, the mysterium sensor is not a Kodak, not a Sony, not a Mastushita, and not a Canon sensor.
It's developed in house. I believe there was an article in Studio Magazine covering this specific issue, and Jim Jannard clearly said that the sensor was not from any outside sources, and that they developed everything, from the sensor - out.
Again, if you go to DVXuser or DVi.net, you'll get a much better idea of what kind of beast this is.

[Fergus Hammond @ Apr 26th 2006 2:42AM]

"The camera has been tested by respected cinematographers and engineers over the last year."

Oh, yeah? I haven't seen any mention of this camera by anyone who's actually *used* it. Got a reference?

[Porkchop Flavored Cupcake @ Apr 26th 2006 8:43AM]

Fergus,

http://www.digitalcinemasociety.org/CurrentNewsletter.php

It's briefly mentioned in the intro at the top of the DCS newsletter, then it's listed in greater detail under the "What's Ahead For Red" section - about 1/4 scroll down the page.
Again, for the 3rd time, if any of you really want to know more about this camera, and those responsible for it, go to DVi.net, or DVXuser and read the RED boards.
Peace

[Mark Crabtree @ Apr 27th 2006 4:57PM]

I am a Varicam owner/user/Dir/DP. I bought the Varicam 2 years ago. While being an outstanding choice for creating a 35mm look in standard def post, the image
has a lot of limitation for Hi-Def. I shot for over a year thinking I was making great pictures. Then my facility went HD post and looking at my footage on a Panasonic 50 inch HD monitor with HD-SDI in I saw a huge amount of low light noise, DCT compression blocking in color gradients (mostly reds and blues)which looks like dancing postage stamps on the 50 inch monitor. Talking with the Panasonic engineers I was told in certain conditions DVCProHD does that. So I was just sick about how this camera was going to look as a primary HD TV spot maker. So I did tons of tests and I have discovered settings that minimize noise and make a pretty good picture. But for the money I expected a more noiseless pristine picture. I went with the Varicam over the 900 because it doesn't blowout the highlights and the color is more film like.
But I would like to do movies digitally and would like a better quality solution. The Red camera promises
almost everything I could ask for in a digital camera. Just look at the specs. This is revolution.
That's why I am have paid my deposit and can't wait to get delivery, probably early next year if all goes well. Until then I'll keep shooting Varicam. When I can I shoot directly to hard drive 10 bit uncompressed to avoid the DCT codec. But even then it ain't what Red is promising.

[Pavel @ Apr 27th 2006 5:54PM]

While it not the camera, but only idea. Somebody visited company RED on NAB Show 2006?
I have visited!
Except for Powerpoint presentations and could not show anything to me. While it only the project. Company RED searches for investors as they need many money for this project.

[eEZER @ Apr 28th 2006 2:00PM]

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/6388.html

[Nick @ Apr 29th 2006 12:53AM]

The RED digital video camera is meant to revolutionize the industry.

As far as the specs, the 4k 4:4:4 60fps is the maximum spec of the CCD. It's meant to be scalable to many applications, whether that be 1080P, 480i DV, or shooting uncompressed for cinema release.

If you want to read more about this camera (and realize that it's NOT vaporware), check out: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=110

[brisci @ Apr 30th 2006 7:09PM]

Pavel wrote:
"Company RED searches for investors as they need many money for this project."

I was at NAB in the Red booth and I didn't hear anyone looking for investors. Pavel obviously knows nothing about the founder of Red.

[Brian @ May 11th 2006 5:13PM]

Just an FYI - the CMOS sensor for this camera is being developed completely inhouse, not by "one of those companies" you mention...

[PG @ Jul 3rd 2006 7:42AM]

Technical specs and practicalities aside, design-wise it's over-wrought in the same juvenile macho way all Oakley product is. And if Balls (above) is happy with his "American" designed iPod, good, so is British designer Jonathan Ives, who designed it. Now, if they gave him a stab at redesigning the Red One...? That I'd like to see.

[BandB @ Oct 3rd 2006 7:41PM]

It sounds to good to be true, which is why I can't help but feel like it's a scam to lure in venture cap and early adopters.

I'm probably just being paranoid and because it's not coming from a brand name.

If it is true, then sweet