RED ONE hands-on, RED NAB booth tour

No way some amateurs like us are ever going to be worthy enough for a RED ONE -- which, as you may recall, was originally announced at NAB last year. But there it was, plain as day in their booth, ready to manhandle for anyone willing to wait in the 45 minute line to get in. The ONE isn't so large on its own, but kit it out with any of the copious amount of accessories RED is launching with it, and you'll get a good idea of how serious a rig it can become. We also caught a glimpse of their REDCINE software, which pre-processes all the raw output video you shot. Check it out; prepare to wish you too possessed the talent to bankroll a movie with one of these bad boys.

Gallery: RED ONE hands-on, RED NAB booth tour

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

[Matt @ Apr 16th 2007 6:04PM]

LOL @ everyone who labled this vaporware at last year's NAB.

[Brian @ Apr 16th 2007 6:20PM]

Looks like they made a RED ONE anti-theft-death bot, won't ever have one go missing now.

[zib_redlektab @ Apr 16th 2007 6:22PM]

I don't know what that 4(?)-legged bladed thinger is, but I want it.

[boss sauce @ Apr 16th 2007 6:29PM]

Um, photo captions, please?!?!!

[Ryan Block @ Apr 17th 2007 12:28AM]

You got it! Captions added.

[Nate @ Apr 16th 2007 6:36PM]

~splooge~

[Darwin @ Apr 16th 2007 7:41PM]

Wouldn't that be "spooge"?

[Juaquin @ Apr 16th 2007 7:41PM]

Freakin' awesome. Maybe they'll consider doing a standard digital camera, maybe even a DSLR down the road. I'd be interested.

[Thecompkid @ Apr 16th 2007 8:09PM]

Pfft...what's $13,500 when some people buy $100,000 sports cars for the hell of it?

[Dresarius @ Apr 16th 2007 8:47PM]

It's actually substantially less expensive than any other cameras that come with the similar features.

[JM @ Apr 16th 2007 9:32PM]

RED's closest competitor is a Dalsa Origin camera (you can't buy one, it's about 5 times the size, and it rents for $3000 a day). It's in the same field as the Panavision Genesis, the Arri D20, or a high-end Sony Cinealta, like the F23 (all of which cost well over $100,000).

So $17,500 for a camera that stands toe-to-toe (or better) with any one of the above is a freaking STEAL.

[David H Dennis @ Apr 16th 2007 10:11PM]

Red's founder, Jim Jannard, is quite an interesting person. I admire him a great deal. He decided one day that he wanted a great video camera. Nothing being made would do. Cost was not really an object; the person who paid almost $100,000 for a single lens in his collection isn't going to balk at the $130,000 a Vericam or CineAlta costs. But what he wanted was something that would work like his $8,000 Canon 1Ds, that would create a 12 megapixel RAW image for each frame. This would provide unprecedented image quality, and that is in fact something the RED camera can do, although of course it makes such massive video files that most people are going to use stronger compression methods.

A RED camera actually doesn't cost $17,500. Like a Canon 1Ds, it's useless without a lens or memory card. The typically purchased lens will cost around $6,500 and the cheapest memory option is the 320GB RAID setup for $900. Then you have to add one of two viewfinder options ($1,700-3,000) a rail system ($1,200-2,700), batteries and charger ($1,500) and a few other odds and ends. So if you want a RED One out the door it will cost you about $31,000. That's still about 1/4 the cost of the competition, and you'll get significantly better image quality.

After hearing about the quality of the footage shot with the camera, I really have to congratulate Jim Jannard and friends on a job most impressively done. He has already announced a smaller (but still professional) model; maybe the Compact RED will be a bit easier on the wallet for some of the rest of us.

Until then, though, this is an amazing story about remarkable people doing groundbreaking things, and I think it's well worth understanding and appreciating the great achievement that's been made here.

D

[Brian43ny @ Apr 17th 2007 12:52AM]

It looks cool, the price is great, but can you rent it or buy one yet? Our people using them?

[gxti @ Apr 17th 2007 2:08AM]

I knew when I first saw this that it was going to be big... Can't wait to get my hands on one :D

[rcappo @ Apr 17th 2007 2:26PM]

Does this mean that there will be more HD TV shows and local news? I love my HDTV, but wish the channels would broadcast in nothing but HD.

[kadajawi @ Apr 17th 2007 4:21PM]

If they buy and use these, yes I guess, though I really expect this to be used mostly for films. But I thought in the US quite a bit gets produced in HD.

[Irv Washington @ Apr 17th 2007 5:51PM]

Considering how much a Panasonic DVCProHD Varicam costs (upwards of $50K CDN) and that it can be rented for several thousand a day, the price of this machine puts it right in line for indie filmmakers who already rent out much more expensive gear that doesn't promise what Red does at all.

FYI an $8000 HVX200 Setup including 60GB disk, 16GB of Flash storage and all the other elements costs about $375 a day. A Sony XDCAM with a some kit and lenses costs upwards of $1700 a day. This will be much more affordable in the end.