The Red One is undoubtably a ground breaking piece of kit, turning the whole digital high end video capture industry on it’s head and the manufacturer, Red Digital Cinema becoming a firm favorite with independent film producers. With outputs from 3k to 5k, we are talking HD that makes 1080p look like a YouTube clip from a web cam.
Founder of Oakley sunglasses and the co-founder of Red Digital Cinema, Jim Jannard dropped the news into a blog posting, stating that the company is looking to produce “a replacement for DSLR’s - or as they are calling it, a ‘Digital Still & Motion Camera’ - DSMC - With a supposed due date of late 2009.
Now, as I mentioned in my previous article, the harmonisation of these technologies is going to have quite a profound effect on the output of short films, including those found on YouTube after putting into the hands of the masses, a style of equipment that has only previously been available to professional outfits. The style being full control over everything, including a range of lenses.
However, Jannard believes their company has a significant advantage over the likes of Canon and Nikon, as they are working with purely new technologies.
In addition, "The strength of RED is in our sensor development program, REDCODE, and having no legacy platforms to deal with. That left us free to explore, develop and prepare to deliver a new platform. DSMC.”
This is great news for professional and amateur photographers alike, as we are undoubtably going to see a heavy battle for market share, which will in turn mean prices driven down and an acceleration in the development of the technologies employed.
Obviously there is no price information yet - Their video kit is pretty pricey - but with very good reason. I’d hazard a guess we will be talking Hasselblad territory rather than Canon - But hopefully I am wrong!
One thing that I am pretty certain of is that they will be employing their upgradability philosophy to the DSLR contenders, which will make their initial price a little insignificant as their overall lifetime price will likely be lower due to the ability to update components, rather than having to upgrade everything.
But - And I think this may be a big but... As any marketing dude in the pharmaceutical industry will tell you - ‘First to market is king’. The rest have to play catch up and try everything they can to take market share off you. But unlike the pharma industry, once you have invested in a platform, you would have to see something pretty special to persuade you to change brand - and in turn all your kit. And some pretty adverts and lifestyle references aren't really going to cut it in this market.
Having said that - I still think that this is going to be the beginning of a very exciting time, where we are going to see photographers producing great films and cinematographers producing great stills.
I am seriously looking forward to it.
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