Megan Fox by Greg Williams for Esquire HD from Greg Williams on Vimeo.

“We just got a terrific surprise at the Engadget CES trailer: Ted Schilowitz from RED popped in with a RED Scarlet and the Bomb EVF for a quick hands-on! Our video producer Chad Mumm basically attacked him, as did the rest of the crew — pretty much everyone surrounded him as he pulled the Scarlet out of its pack. Chad actually shot video and did a little interview — we’ll get that up ASAP, but check out the pics in the gallery below.”

www.engadget.com

HDW. So there it is for all you doubting Tom’s a Scarlet in the flesh hot off the drawing board…will it be enough to stem the major haemorrhage of digital still motion cameras being lost to Canon, time will tell.

Well once again the boys at RED DIGITAL CINEMA have done it again and set the cat among the pigeons for the amazing price of £5000 (UK conversion) you can own a RED SCARLET camera which will be a far better investment for everyone who likes the film look than tinkering with any HD SLR. This in my opinion spells the death nell for what has been an interesting but stupid phase in global HD development. If you add in the price of an HD SLR plus a couple of  Canon ‘L’ lenses you are past the £5000 mark !

“What I really want to comment on though is not the Epic-X but the announcement that they’re continuing work on the 2/3″ Scarlet. In this new era of small cameras with big sensors, I simply do not understand the interest in this product. True it’s going to do A LOT more than a Canon 5D/7D or even your typical video camera at that price point but what are you going to put on it? A Fujinon ENG Zoom? Any regular 35mm format lens is going to crop x2.5 so even a very wide 18mm will become moderately telephoto. I’m super enthused about this big sensor revolution we’re living in and if someone can give me a reason to get excited by a 2/3″ RED camera, I’d love to hear it.”

Ben Cain…HD Cinema

Ben you are correct while I was taken by the sexy pictures coming out of RED HQ I was forgetting the practical side of using prime lenses on all this equipment but I think RED are banking on this so you will be forced to buy their prime lenses…at a price.

You may be able to afford the price for a basic “Scarlet” but don’t expect to add to it unless you have some deep pockets or maybe you want to shoot wildlife and the 2.5x crop will be more than suitable for your needs. PS. Lets hope RED unlike the video manufacturers give us a decent WA like an equivalent to a 24mm as part of their 8x standard lens.

Writer/director Noah Kadner provides training and workflow presentations for moviemakers at all levels. He has worked at Apple, testing future versions of Final Cut Studio as part of a special internal production team. Noah hosts and produces Call Box, a series of digital filmmaker training courses on DVD; he works as a forum administrator for 2-pop.com, CreativeCow.net and DVXuser.com, and is an Apple Certified Trainer. He also writes for publications such as 3D World and American Cinematographer. Noah was an early adopter of RED and has owned two RED cameras since October 2007.

Excerpt from Noah Kadner’s book…

“Configuring a RED ONE camera package can be a challenging prospect because of the sheer variety of choices. Hundreds of accessories are available from a number of manufacturers, including RED, such as batteries, mounting hardware, onboard monitors, an electronic viewfinder (EVF), and two sizes of camera-mountable LCD monitors. RED also offers its own branded set of prime and zoom lenses designed for the camera. The camera is also compatible with many preexisting 35mm optics and accessories as well as new products designed by third-party manufacturers especially for the camera system.

So, what do you really need in a RED package—and what’s nice to have if you can afford it? In this chapter, we’ll look at the major categories of equipment and accessories and I’ll offer my own personal recommendations. Then you’ll learn about assembling RED packages at specific price points and for specific purposes.”

The RED ONE is an amazing piece of kit but you need a PHD in Mecanno to build the thing and an engineering degree to make it happen so if you are contemplating using a RED ONE for your next production make sure your cameraman has read this book at least 10 times !

Peachpit Press Book form $49.49    Adobe Reader $39.59

http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321617681

If the fusion of video cameras and dSLRs hadn’t blurred enough before, Esquire shot their June issue cover of Megan Fox in video—a purported first in the magazine world.

Rather than click and endless series of stills, photographer Greg Williams shot the cover with the 4K Red ONE video camera. Fox essentially acted out a scene for 10 minutes, the best moment of which will appear on the June 2009 cover. (Not to be wasteful of Megan Fox footage, the video will also be uploaded to Esquire’s site, of course.)

It’s fascinating that as digital cameras evolve, so will the roles of photographers, models and publications. I can’t see traditional photography ever dying, but whether photos will always be captured in photographs is another question.

The diagram on the right shows you the sensor sizes so it’s not surprising that the Red ONE 4 K video camera filming in 1080p captures Megan Fox for an A4 cover shoot.

Personally it’s a gimmick, let’s not kid ourselves we all know video runs at (UK 25fps) (USA 29fps), so if you shoot enough FPS with a large sensor running at 1080p you are using a glorified digital stills camera running at 29fps. Nothing special, apart from the cost of hiring a Red ONE for a morning.

It’s the coin flip on the digital SLR having the ability to film in HD…so what. Camera manufacturers are becoming obsessed with the “MUST DO EVERYTHING” these days, personally I still prefer a DSLR for taking photographs and a camcorder for filming live action. If I ever get round to upgrading my Lumix G1 to the GH1 I may rethink my last statement.