RED unveils Scarlet mini camcorder

RED just unleashed its promised Scarlet "pocket professional" camera at NAB 2008, and it's certainly a sight to see. The teensy 3K resolution camcorder is based on a 2 / 3-inch Mysterium X sensor, can shoot at 1 to 120 FPS and records to dual CompactFlash cards, which can handle up to 100MB per second of REDCODE RAW HD video. You can preview your shot on the 4.8-inch LCD, and there's a 8x RED zoom lens included. HMDI, HD-SDI, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 inputs are built in, and the device is compatible with "many" RED ONE accessories. WiFi control is also included. In typical RED fashion, the only promises about the final product is that "specifications, delivery dates and design are subject to change... count on it," but this is certainly a good start. No pre-orders are being accepted at this time, but the price is purportedly to going to be a bit under $3,000, and the release is slated for early 2009.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Nutsy @ Apr 14th 2008 12:48PM]

But what resolusion?

[KR @ Apr 14th 2008 12:52PM]

3k

[Andrew @ Apr 14th 2008 12:53PM]

REDCODE RAW HD. Up to 4096×2304. Google is your friend.

[alexmueller @ Apr 14th 2008 12:55PM]

man engadget your reply system sucks

and it's resolution @Nutsy, and 4K @KR and Andrew beat me to it

[KR @ Apr 14th 2008 1:06PM]

@Alex:

According to Red's site, the Scarlet is 3K. Take it up with them.

[alexmueller @ Apr 14th 2008 1:32PM]

ya sorry i assumed it was the same as the red one's resolution, I stand corrected

[fumanku @ Apr 14th 2008 12:49PM]

One million dollars!!! Muahahahaha

[mcheddadi @ Apr 14th 2008 12:54PM]

Add Your Comments

[Reader @ Apr 14th 2008 2:14PM]

What?

[DiscoCat5 @ Apr 19th 2008 1:35AM]

grape juice PIPING HOT! haha this is perfect for those american families with too much mooney at an 8 year olds birthday party.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Apr 14th 2008 12:56PM]

At 2/3s of an inch of a sensor means HUGE BACKGROUND BLUR!!! No need for 35mm adapters anymore for most people who just want some basic depth of field! I am getting one 100% if the price is indeed $3000. RED is kicking Panasonic's, Canon's and Sony's a$$ here, very seriously, at least in the indie filmmaker's world.

[Videas @ Apr 14th 2008 1:22PM]

Hi Eugenia (I know you from the HV20 forums). I agree with you, this is HUGE! This little Scarlett shoots raw footage beyond HD (3k) that closely approximates the quality and resolution of 35 mm film, for $3000.

As Colbert would say: Sony, Panasonic, Canon... you are on notice!

:)

[Deputy Doffoos @ Apr 14th 2008 2:29PM]

Euginia if that's you in that picture I think I just found my soul mate.

[andyo @ Apr 14th 2008 4:48PM]

But they don't mention the lens' f-stop range. For the same f-stop, the lenses for bigger sensors will be much bigger for the same field of view (longer focal length needed). If they skimp on the lens and make it a slower one, your DOF advantage (and a presumed low-light advantage) will be gone, and you could have a just-as-good thing, or a bit worse, depending on how slower they make the lens.

[luna @ Apr 14th 2008 1:01PM]

expensive and the zoom isnt much

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Apr 14th 2008 1:06PM]

For what it offers, it is not expensive at all. And you don't need more than 8x zoom for the included lens. I mean, this is not a camera that you go and shoot birds or your grandmother and her dog. That's a filmmaker's camera.

[StreetStealth @ Apr 14th 2008 4:43PM]

Are you kidding?

Looked at rental prices recently for pro digital film gear?

This thing's gonna put the rental places out of business for indies.

[maddope @ Apr 14th 2008 1:04PM]

hah...you obviously do not know what you are talking about. Try and stay in focus on 3k is a nightmare. This is pros only man. Plus you're gonna need some lenses to go with the body which may rise the price to let's say...$10000 for a start (and thats a crap lens)

Sony ain't that bad man

[davec @ Apr 14th 2008 1:20PM]

It comes with it's own lens.

[Michael @ Apr 14th 2008 1:06PM]

I'm pretty sure I saw Spike Lee using one of these during the Lakers broadcast yesterday. Didn't know what it was, but here it is.

[Quix @ Apr 14th 2008 2:10PM]

Nope, Lee was shooting with a small Panasonic.

[giuliop @ Apr 14th 2008 1:07PM]

@Engadget: you need to put more space between the text and the photo - can't you see it's all squashed up?

[Blaktornado @ Apr 14th 2008 1:30PM]

looks fine in Safari (Mac)

[giuliop @ Apr 14th 2008 1:40PM]

Maybe you're looking at another photo, as they just changed it and added a padding space at the bottom. The problems remains on all the other posts though; guess they're working on it.

[joe23521 @ Apr 14th 2008 1:08PM]

I'm starting to save for it RIGHT NOW.

[Videas @ Apr 14th 2008 1:22PM]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of film.

This little monster shoots 3k resolution in raw format, and costs less than $3000. Insane. I'm sure indie filmmakers all over are taking notes.

[StrangeBum @ Apr 14th 2008 1:49PM]

Taking notes?

More like recovering from slight head trauma as my head assploded and fell against my desk. /slight exaggeration

Honestly, this could be the dream camera I've been wishing for oh so very long. At the sub $3k pricepoint (or even if it's at or slightly above) I'm definitely stoked for this monster.

I have plenty of ideas/scenes that are just begging to be shot with one of these now.

[required @ Apr 14th 2008 1:23PM]

New high res fugly in quasi industrial taser stylings for spendy mcgoofballs.

So many of these Sanyo Xacti knockoffs popping up this spring, it's wild.

[Videas @ Apr 14th 2008 1:29PM]

Sorry, but the Xacti can't even compare to this little monster. To start, the Scarlett is a professional tool, not a consumer camcorder. It shoots raw 3k resolution (beyond HD), while the Xacti shoots highly compressed AVCHD 720p. Literally, the Scarlett has 4 times the rez of the Xacti, and produces uncompressed footage with a professional chip.

[required @ Apr 14th 2008 4:37PM]

Form factor. BTW the Xacti does more than 720p @60fps, 1080i, and others. But I see you're red in the face and mind so I'll let you return to your pseudo indie fantasy. Cheers.

[tape @ Apr 14th 2008 6:06PM]

Tell me how you can even compare 720p (1080i) to 3k resolution? I don't understand how you can even put the Sanyo and the Red in the same category. The sanyo is made for my mom to shoot birthday parties, the Red is made for budget oriented film makers and compositors. The artifacts in the crappy Sanyo would be so hideous to work with in post production I would want to shoot myself.

[Rob @ Apr 14th 2008 7:49PM]

Comparing this new RED camera to the Xacti is the most clueless comment on this thread. The Xacti image quality is not even up to that of most consumer HDV cameras (that's image QUALITY, not specs on the box). The new RED offering will probably blow away all sub-$25K pro cameras in specs & image quality.

[required @ Apr 14th 2008 11:06PM]

You team red kids are way overly sensitive (your product will be antiquated before it is realized). As was said before, the form factor is not unlike the Xacti nor is its flash. The initial "new high res" fugly in quasi industrial taser stylings for spendy mcgoofballs covered your tacky redundant "3k lil'monster" adspeak.

Red, scarlett, cookie-refresh-self-rank-dolts.

Funny yes.

[loosely_coupled @ Apr 15th 2008 12:44AM]

@everyone

Don't feed this stupid troll. Obviously he is entirely clueless and just trying to make waves..


@required
How about never posting your driveling nonsense on engadget again?

[John @ Apr 14th 2008 1:29PM]

i want


also, you think a macbook air has trouble at airport security...

[db @ Apr 14th 2008 1:34PM]

This post is great and belongs here, but the other camcorders on the blog today like Sony & Panasonic shouldn't be here, there is nothing special about them. Please do not make the shameless advertising plugs, you must make enough money withouth them. Since when is a full video camcorder a gadget?

[Tom @ Apr 14th 2008 1:53PM]

They are new technology, thus belong on this blog. Not everything must conform to your liking to be written to this blog.

[Alex @ Apr 14th 2008 1:35PM]

Are you sure those HMDI, HD-SDI, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports are inputs? Seems like the only input a camera would need would be the lens. Might those ports be outputs?

[z0phi3l @ Apr 14th 2008 4:14PM]

It's also HDMI not HMDI :P

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Apr 14th 2008 1:53PM]

Jim Jannard is a marketing genius.

I'm not even saying the products aren't good or anything. Just that he manages to get a lot of mileage from things that other companies couldn't even get away with. Cheeky product names (red ray!), waffling on specs, high prices.

[ttyRazor @ Apr 14th 2008 4:07PM]

I wouldn't call it waffling, they've been very open about the fact that early specs are just goals and may not match the final product. And it's very hard to compare them on price since they're targeted at much higher end cameras than pro-sumer DV.

[loosely_coupled @ Apr 15th 2008 12:41AM]

Highprices? Are you a fucking moron? Do you have ANY experience at all with high-end cams? Yeah, I thought so...

[Denver_80203 @ Apr 14th 2008 2:14PM]

"You can preview your shot on the 4.8-inch LCD"

*4.8 LCD not included

but hey what do you expect for $3k?

[FilmCaptain @ Apr 14th 2008 2:25PM]

This is still outstanding.

One thing some of you should not is that unlike the Red ONE and EPIC, this one doesn't look like it has on board audio. Not bad for those of us used to working on projects where sound is recorded separately anyway, but something to keep in mind in terms of additional package cost if you were hoping to have audio, too.

I could be wrong, just not seeing the ports for it.

That said, I want one.

[DirkBelig @ Apr 14th 2008 2:42PM]

I'm going to keep my thoughts about this brief...

WANT!!!!!!!!!!

[Johan S @ Apr 14th 2008 3:16PM]

Anyone know what the dynamic range of this is?

[Dirk Belligerent @ Apr 14th 2008 3:24PM]

No. Specs are subject to change and it's not due for a year at least. They're just announcing that it's coming to get the masses salivating at it's potential wonder. It's working.

[rzanerutledge @ Apr 14th 2008 3:30PM]

I'm a big fan of RED, but I don't think a 2/3 sensor is going to give you "huge background blur" depth-of-field, Eugenia. Sure, it's better than the 1/3 CCDs in the "pocket-sized" cameras out there today; it puts the image quality on par with the Panasonics/Canons/Sonys that are $4K-8K, i.e "pro" bigger cameras...but even those don't really have much DOF.

It really takes the 35mm-sized sensor and a lens to get the depth-of-field that you want and that rivals film. I just don't think a 2/3" sensor is going to cut it.

(That said, the scarlet still looks pretty amazing, spec-wise, if it is less than $3K and that small. (Though very hard to tell the ergonomics/size from the proto-design.) The 3K and the Red "raw" capture, etc. is all worth a lot in my book for quality imagery. I was just hoping it would target the 35mm-lens-adapter crowd and really give us the deep DOF. There'd have to be something more magical that a 2/3" sensor spec to do that, in my mind. The existing 2/3" pro cameras out there just don't come close without a lens adapter and a true 35mm lens.)

[dreamscape86 @ Apr 14th 2008 6:21PM]

I'd have to beg to differ. I've seen a lot of footage shot on 2/3" CCDs and it *definately* makes a huge difference over the 1/3" chips that make up the consumer and prosumer markets. Yes, a 2/3" chip will not give you 35mm DOF, but it *will* give you almost exactly the same as 16mm, which I'm guessing is exactly the target market for this camera. I.e:

EPIC = IMAX
Red = S35
Scarlet = 16mm

Along with the accompanying userbases for each of those.

(Yes, I realize that the EPIC 5K sensor still does not have nearly the detail of 70mm film, but it's an interesting comparison anyway.)

[badweasel @ Apr 15th 2008 3:23PM]

I saw the body mock up at NAB. It's larger than it looks. Far from fitting in any POCKET. And it's just a 3D print of it, so the buttons and what not are just an idea of what it will be like. Also no one knew (or would say) anything spec wise other than what's on the web site.

Having said that I'd drop 3 grand on it in a new york minute. I wish it was out now. I've been eyeing the new Sony but 6 grand is a bit much. Not sure what I'm going to do for a camera while I wait for the Scarlet.

Also.. Since red is taking back Red One's in trade for Epic's, I wonder if they'll sell the used One's at a bargain.