RED's Digital Still and Motion Camera System now official

After a morning of drip-fed images, RED just went official with its DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) System. The system starts with your choice of the professional Scarlet or "master professional" EPIC brains which can then be bunged into about 2,251,799,813,685,248 possible camera configurations, RED only half-jokingly chides. The brains are built upon Mysterium-X and Mysterium Monstro sensors which start at 2/3-inch and end at a whopping 6x17-cm -- when a new sensor comes out you just upgrade the brain. Scarlet will launch in 4 choices ranging from $2,500 (and possibly less) to $12,000 with a variety of lens mounts (yes, Canon and Nikon) capable of shooting 3K @120fps on up to 6K @30fps. Epic will offer similar mounts with capabilities spanning 5K @100fps ($28k) to 9K @50fps ($45k) -- a 28K system hitting 25fps is expected in 2010 for $55k. Still image resolutions will range from 4.9 megapixels to a freakish 261 megapixels. The first Scarlet systems could come as early as Spring of 2009 while EPIC should arrive by summer. Of course, the brain is just the beginning of the costs. RED also introduced a 3D camera configuration today in true, "one more thing" fashion. See all the details in the gallery below, 3D camera after the break.

Gallery: RED's Digital Still and Motion Camera System now official

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

[Lars Steenhoff @ Nov 13th 2008 5:14AM]

That's really realy great
congratulations RED team!

[Saint Dumb Ox @ Nov 13th 2008 9:11AM]

I'm sold. This finally puts real movie tools into the hands of the common man. Now the only difference between a home movie and a Hollywood movie is the size of the sensor. The modual idea is brilliant.

[Jimmy Hoffa @ Nov 13th 2008 11:07AM]

"Now the only difference between a home movie and a Hollywood movie is the size of the sensor."

Er. . . . and the quality of the acting/directing/cinematography/script/composer/effects team?

[Mycroft @ Nov 13th 2008 12:25PM]

Frankly, I am scared what porn would look like at 261 megapixels and in 3D.

[Nick @ Nov 13th 2008 11:48AM]

Youre absolutely right! It falls directly into the hands of the common man!

...As long as the common man has the common bank account to afford such a socialistic price tag, right comrade?
:)
I jest, I'm well aware of how phenomenal this announcement is, I've been drooling over the tease shots the past few weeks and months... I'm a still photographer, I have nothing to do with video, and I would do nearly anything to get my hands on a 261mp digiback.
You could print photos the size of stadiums... I'm having trouble controlling my salivary glands.

[badweasel @ Nov 13th 2008 1:53PM]

I posted a summary of this announcement along with a my thoughts. I also modified their spec table to add prices and release dates so you can see on one page how much this going to cost you:

http://www.michaelsmith.tv/2008/11/13/red-announcement-holy-crap-this-is-great/

[OneLove @ Nov 13th 2008 12:19PM]

Is that being sold at ikea?

[Timerider @ Nov 13th 2008 12:46PM]

@Saint Dumb Ox
"I'm sold. This finally puts real movie tools into the hands of the common man."

The common man with several thousand dollars to spend on high-end camera equipment. My uncle was a photographer and I doubt even this was in his price range.

[Cunthor @ Nov 13th 2008 5:14AM]

"...The brains are built upon Mysterium-X and Mysterium Monstro..."

Does it come in Captain Fantastic flavour?

[andymac @ Nov 13th 2008 5:14AM]

me likey

[Dee @ Nov 13th 2008 5:15AM]

HOLY CRAP!

[NHAnimator @ Nov 13th 2008 8:14AM]

Second that.

[linuxamp @ Nov 13th 2008 8:24AM]

It's as if millions of wallets suddenly cried out in terror...

[a ham sandwich @ Nov 13th 2008 9:39AM]

and were suddenly silenced................by the sheer awesomeness of what RED is able to pump out. my god.

[StreetStealth @ Nov 13th 2008 1:36PM]

Is that what the gear rental shop says now that your primary unit can buy a cam for what they were charging to rent one?

[giz @ Nov 13th 2008 5:18AM]

It does not only look like Lego - it is Lego.

[Ryan Trevisol @ Nov 13th 2008 7:42AM]

The exploded diagram is very helpful for putting it back together after you drop it. :)

[Benson @ Nov 14th 2008 2:32AM]

It's the AR-15 of digital cameras.

[Baxslash @ Nov 13th 2008 5:20AM]

WELL DAMN!!

No wonder those teasers were so good, and, think of the great shots :)

[ClydeSeal @ Nov 13th 2008 7:44PM]

yeah that must have been weird. taking a picture of the same camera your using to take the picture with. (they must have used mirors)

[DBrim @ Nov 13th 2008 5:22AM]

This is definitely a videographer's dream, but it's NOT a DSLR killer, as hyped. A FF DSLR costs $2500, and the "brain" with the FF DSLR sensor costs $12000. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.

[JM @ Nov 13th 2008 5:34AM]

No, probably not a DLSR killer per se, but can't think of any DSLRs out there that can hit 30+ frames per second at 24 MP per frame. There's definitely a market for this somewhere.

[Tim Spence @ Nov 13th 2008 5:37AM]

@ JM

Well, I'm gonna buy one to film my kid's birthday parties...

[DBrim @ Nov 13th 2008 8:53AM]

The best way that I think I can describe the DSLR market against these is this (and forgive me if it doesn't make sense to anybody else since I haven't really slept in two days):

DSLRs are still cameras with a convenient video feature (largest appeal: photographers)
These are video cameras with a convenient still camera feature (largest appeal: videographers)

I don't see how the markets will interact.

[Mike @ Nov 13th 2008 11:44AM]

Uh... I disagree.... These aren't just video cameras with a convenient still feature. This is brilliance.

First, these are neither video camera or still camera, they are "Camera." There is a modular platform with a digital image sensor. This platform can be configured to take either video or still images (even 3D video or still), but at the base level, it is neither. So there is no "convenience" factor, it is simply whatever it is configured to... It is Schrödinger's Cat... It is both...

Secondly, this doesn't kill DSLRs... It doesn't even Overkill DSLRs... In the face of this device, DSLRs don't exist, they aren't even a factor. It's like saying masturbating kills babies.

Name ONE DSLR, medium format DSLR or large format DSLR that can take a 261mp still! The still feature in this system is not for the average person, or even the above average person, but neither is the video feature.

This is for a certain clientèle, and in the hands of that clientèle, it will change things. But with the price of putting a full system together, and the price of the editing equipment that will be required to process the data coming from this system, you are sadly mistaken to say this brings professional video to the masses...

[Unknown @ Nov 13th 2008 3:22PM]

Right, but if you shoot still images, why would you pay the extra cash to be able to shoot video as well? There's no point.

If you're some kind of still image/actual image hybrid guy (Maybe this exists, I don't know) then yeah, this is mana. But if all you really shoot is stills, its a lot of extra money.

Saying it invalidates DSLRs sounds crazy to me because there are people who put a higher priority on the still image than the moving one.

[sam @ Nov 13th 2008 7:24PM]

@Unknown: I don't think it really costs more money to shoot video as well. Why do you think Canon and Nikon's latest DSLRs have (pretty credible, at least in the former case) movie modes? I'm guessing it's because they realised the sensor could pretty much do that already if they just added a bit of firmware and a cheap compression chip. Give it a few years and probably all DSLRs will offer movie modes without a price increase.

What costs more money - $55K, apparently - is to have a ridiculously large 200-megapixel (really?!) sensor that's even bigger than medium-format (quick google suggests the highest-resolution medium-format back are currently 60MP, but this is larger physically as well, so I guess it's plausible). Since this isn't coming out until 2010 it does have a bit of an advantage over current technology as well.

imo the thing that makes this definitely a video camera which can also take stills (rather than the other way around, or some kind of generic 'both' thing) is just the size; you can't possibly carry it around with you in the way normal photographers do. I'm sure there are some uses for it as a still camera though, in a studio setting? Or for the kind of insane birdwatcher who has those 500mm lenses? Cases where size doesn't matter.

[Alex @ Nov 14th 2008 12:49PM]

@Unknown:

"Right, but if you shoot still images, why would you pay the extra cash to be able to shoot video as well? There's no point."

The point is that you no longer shoot still images. You just shoot video and then go pick the still images you want. Nobody gets credit for "catching the right moment" anymore because you'll always catch it. It's a concept bound to cause some controversy, IMHO.

[Andrew @ Nov 15th 2008 1:58PM]

2 JM: " can't think of any DSLRs out there that can hit 30+ frames per second at 24 MP per frame"

5D mark II?

[titanium man @ Nov 13th 2008 5:24AM]

I wonder what Sony, Canon and Nikon are thinking right now?

[Ayman @ Nov 13th 2008 5:27AM]

I think they are thinking Repectively
Will it blend
Does it Play Crises
First :P

or all are thinking making a packet with LEGO

[DBrim @ Nov 13th 2008 5:30AM]

Probably something along the lines of:

"Sweet, more people to buy our lenses." (for Canon and Nikon, at least)

SLR bodies aren't threatened by this announcement.

[Jesse S @ Nov 13th 2008 5:43AM]

Canon and Nikon are probably happy. If I were a photographer with money to burn, I would spring on this. I would get a 5D Mk. II and the Scarlet...One for more on-location stuff, the other for more studio stuff. I'm too tired right now to go into everything that I would do, but it would be cool.

[linuxamp @ Nov 13th 2008 8:27AM]

I'd say some of this might be going through their heads:

1) Oh SHIT!
2) Now why didn't we think of that?
3) Is RED hiring?
4) ooh, what does this button do?

[Wwhat @ Nov 13th 2008 2:41PM]

You know the LEGO companies now failed to win their last attempt at protecting their business, seems the patent on LEGO has run out and already a canadian company is making lego blocks, and basically anybody can now the courts have decided.
So no pacts needed, and this is just-in-time-technology I guess.

[michas_pi @ Nov 13th 2008 5:26AM]

Shitwaffles.

That is one bitchin' camera.

[Anghell @ Nov 13th 2008 5:26AM]

It's a monstrosity.
Pretty cool though

[gad get @ Nov 13th 2008 5:39AM]

You mean, "it can be a monstrosity. Or not."

[ctbear @ Nov 13th 2008 10:55AM]

Just strap it to your shoulder and you'll be pew pew pewing like the Predator in no time.

[Ayman @ Nov 13th 2008 5:28AM]

Is it like a transformers, Lego, Centurians,

[dee @ Nov 13th 2008 5:32AM]

So when are they gonna offer a lens zoom controller handle so people can use this thing ENG style?

[Ayman @ Nov 13th 2008 5:34AM]

i just realized that its like those games you start with a puny gadget and as you go along you get add-on's to make it more powerful

so if walk across the street i would find one floating on the side walk

[dee @ Nov 13th 2008 5:35AM]

Yeah but 261 Megapixels?

Hasselblad will be pissed.

[gad get @ Nov 13th 2008 5:43AM]

Seriously, what's next? Half-gigapixel? Gigapixel?

[linuxamp @ Nov 13th 2008 8:32AM]

@gad get
262 megapixels

[Ron @ Nov 13th 2008 9:04AM]

If the thing talks to you with a slightly feminine male voice, HasselHOFF will be pissed.

[maveric101 @ Nov 13th 2008 11:15AM]

@gad get
gigapixel cameras already exist

[Alareth @ Nov 14th 2008 11:22PM]

@ maveric101

The Gigapxl camera isn't digital, it's film.

http://www.gigapxl.org/

[gad get @ Nov 13th 2008 5:42AM]

I just wish they'd come out with a "semi-professional" line. That way I might almost be able to afford a system. (If I really really wanted to.)

[kb2zuz @ Nov 13th 2008 11:25AM]

the Scarlet 2/3" line IS their Semi-Professional line.