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Nikon buys high-end cinema camera company RED
Nikon has purchased RED for an undisclosed sum and plans to move into the cinema camera market.
RED's V-Raptor cameras can now upload 8K RAW footage directly to Adobe's Frame.io
RED's V-Raptor camera systems can now directly upload 8K RAW footage to the cloud thanks to Adobe.
Adobe announces the first cameras to support Frame.io direct RAW uploads
Adobe has unveiled the first cameras to support its Frame.io Camera to Cloud system.
RED's latest 8K pro camera has a new sensor that shoots 120FPS RAW video
RED has unveiled the V-Raptor ST, a monster pro camera that can record 8K 16-bit RAW video at 120 frames per second.
A Jony Ive-designed Leica camera prototype is going up for auction
The final prototype version of a Leica M camera designed by Jony Ive is going up for auction in June.
RED's 6K Komodo camera costs $6K
Indie filmmakers and everybody else who wants a relatively inexpensive cinema camera can now purchase RED’s new model called Komodo 6K. True to its name, the model can capture 6K at 40 fps, 6K Wide Shot at 50 fps and 4K at 60 fps — plus, it’s the brand’s first camera with phase-detect autofocus. Komodo measures 4 inches on all sides and weighs only 2.1 pounds.
SNL's Brad Pitt cold open was shot with RED's prototype 6K camera
Given the janky, improvised look of many TV shows during the COVID-19 lockdown, you may have noticed that SNL’s cold open last week, featuring Brad Pitt as Dr. Anthony Fauci, looked quite professional. As it turns out, that’s because it wasn’t shot on a smartphone or laptop webcam, but with a prototype version of RED’s upcoming 6K Komodo camera.
RED teases the phase-detect autofocus on its cheaper 6K Komodo camera
Last year RED teased the 6K Komodo camera expected to cost around $5,000 that could help it attract lower-budget documentary and indie filmmakers. We haven’t heard much about it since, but RED’s CEO Jarred Land just showed it off on Instagram, demonstrating the touchscreen, phase-detect autofocus system and more.
RED's Hydrogen One phone makes a cameo in the 'F9' trailer
Now that the nearly four-minute-long F9: The Fast Saga trailer is here, fans of the long-running series can enjoy some surprise resurrections (spoiler alert: watch the trailer before scrolling to the end of this post), but the strangest appearance belongs to a smartphone. For reasons that may (or may not) be explained when the movie hits theaters May 22nd, multiple characters are driving around with the RED's Hydrogen One phone strapped to the dashboards of their cars.
Apple tried and failed to break RED's stranglehold on RAW video
RED has claimed victory in the latest battle over its patent on RAW video, this time against a mighty plaintiff: Apple. The dispute started earlier this year, when Apple set out to overturn RED's patent on RedCode RAW in a possible effort to avoid paying royalties on its ProRes RAW codec. A patent court ruled that Apple "has not shown a reasonable likelihood that it would prevail" with claims that RED's original 2007 patent was obvious and shouldn't have been issued in the first place.
RED founder retires, and the Hydrogen phone project is over
At the age of 70, RED founder Jim Jannard has announced he's retiring, saying that between his age and a few health issues "it is now time." As he steps away from the company, he also announced its Hydrogen phone project will end after producing just one device. When the Hydrogen One arrived late last year it brought some technology, like "4V" for its display and image capture that was innovative, but didn't live up to its $1,295 price. Earlier this year RED announced plans to "radically" change the program and build a device to have wider appeal across pros and regular users. That's all done now, although the Hydrogen One will continue to receive software updates, and RED Digital Cinema is still operating with Jarred Land as its president. You'll just have to find your next moonshot phone from a camera company somewhere else.
RED teases mysterious, compact Komodo camera
RED is countering the tales of its smartphone camera woes with something more exciting... if also cryptic. Company chief Jarred Land has teased an upcoming Komodo camera that doesn't appear to fit into the company's usual categories. While the lone image doesn't show much more than a compact body with an interchangeable lens mount, Land is happy to tell you what Komodo isn't.
RED blames Chinese manufacturer for its phone's terrible camera
RED's much-hyped, camera-centric smartphone, the Hydrogen One, received some pretty damning reviews when it launched last year: the screen was poor quality, its headline photo features were disappointing and its camera software was rough around the edges. But according to RED founder Jim Jannard, it wasn't their fault. In a post on H4Vuser.net, Jannard blamed the company's unnamed Chinese ODM (original design manufacturer) for the Hydrogen One's shonky performance.
The cameras YouTubers love
It's easy to forget that for some of the world's biggest YouTube creators, their rise to internet stardom all started with making videos on a webcam. That's exactly how people like Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) and Justine Ezarik (aka iJustine), who now have more than 8 and 5 million subscribers, respectively, began their careers as YouTubers almost a decade ago. But for both of them, gone are the days of using a webcam to create video content. As technologies such as full-frame mirrorless cameras, 4K and 8K have emerged, so too has Brownlee's and Ezarik's desire to up their production value -- especially since their channels focus on consumer electronics. In 2019, videos from Ezarik and Brownlee can rival quality from TV shows and films, thanks to their investment in cameras like Sony's A7III and RED's 8K-ready DSMC2 Brain. The latter is a $60,000 system, which shows just how serious Brownlee is about the videos he makes. And Ezarik and Brownlee aren't the only ones trying to push the envelope for YouTube creators. Jacques Slade, whose channel about sneakers and tech has more than 1 million subscribers, works with a camera setup that consists of three Sony A7 IIIs. Popular YouTuber Casey Neistat, meanwhile, switches among a Canon 6D Mark II DSLR and Sony's A7R II and A7S II full-frame mirrorless shooters. It's clear there isn't a one-camera-fits-all solution for YouTube creators; they each have their own preference based on the brands they like, their audience and what they're shooting on any given day. For example, when Brownlee isn't using his RED 8K camera because he needs a smaller and lighter shooter, he'll jump to the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. That's a long way from the webcam he started with on YouTube in 2009. To learn more about Brownlee's and others' choices, we spoke to some of the world's biggest YouTubers, who talked about the cameras they started with, what they're using now and what they recommend for newcomer creators.
RED finally ships the $1,600 titanium Hydrogen One
At long last, RED is shipping the titanium version of its Hydrogen One phone. It promised the variant when it announced the handset in 2017, and took pre-orders for that version at the full $1,595 cost. When RED delayed the titanium model last September, it sent those who pre-ordered it the aluminum version, and now those folks are receiving a titanium handset as well at no extra cost.
RED plans to 'radically' change Hydrogen phone program
If you bought RED's Hydrogen One hoping that its module system would improve its frankly lackluster camera technology, you might not want to hold your breath for an imminent upgrade. RED has pulled references to the conventional camera module from the Hydrogen One page, leaving its fate up in the air. Company founder Jim Jannard didn't go into detail as to why the module mention vanished, but indicated that RED was in the midst of "radically changing" the Hydrogen program to appeal to both pros and everyday users -- the camera system in particular is due for a shake-up.
Red teases 'Lithium,' a 3D camera for its Hydrogen One phone
At $1,300, RED's Hydrogen One smartphone was never really aimed at consumers, so now it's starting to reveal a strategy for its bread-and-butter pro cinematographer market. On Facebook, it showed off "Lithium," a 3D camera that essentially uses the Hydrogen One as a monitor and controller. "Big things in the works for next for next year: Lithium," said the caption, with no other information.
NVIDIA and RED bring 8K video editing to the masses
In case you needed another reminder that your 4K TV will soon be obsolete, RED and NVIDIA have unveiled software that will make 8K video editing feasible for more creators. The NVIDIA CUDA-powered REDCODE RAW SDK will enable apps that can play back 8,192 x 4,320 files from RED's Weapon and other cameras at 24 fps with no need for caching or proxies. Best of all, it can run on relatively cheap systems and NVIDIA's consumer gaming graphics cards.
NASA and the ESA release first 8K video from space
NASA and the European Space Agency have teamed up on a new video about astronauts in the International Space Station. But this one is a little different than the videos you've watched in the past because it's the first 8K ultra high definition video delivered by the agencies, shot with a Helium 8K camera from RED.
RED Hydrogen One review: Mediocre cameraphone, extraordinary price tag
The RED Hydrogen One is not really a smartphone, it's a camera that also happens to be a smartphone. This makes sense to me intuitively, because when I use smartphones for video projects, or to take photos on vacation, I use a separate phone as the camera. That's exactly what I did with a Galaxy S9 when I was testing the Moment Lens Anamorphic on a trip to Yosemite. If you conceptualize the Hydrogen as a phone that competes with Samsung, Apple, or Huawei, it just flatly doesn't make sense. But ask yourself this: if you were designing a pocket camera today, would you use the slow embedded chips that Sony, Canon, and Nikon use in their compact cameras? Or would you use a speedy Snapdragon chip, like the one Google is using in the Pixel 2 to deliver its category-leading computational photography?
