Since RED's announcement of their world-beating (and certainly Canon-beating) SCARLET X, their website has been down sporadically, but I was able to grab the full specification sheet from their website during a moment of uptime. First of all, I want to say that yes, you can shoot a beautiful film on the new Canon C300 -- in fact, Vincent Laforet already did -- so, taken in historical context there is nothing wrong with Canon's new camera. A few years ago it would've been amazing. But it's not a few years ago, and in fact just a few hours after Canon launched their first foray into the professional motion picture arena, they were upstaged by a startup named RED (you could also argue that the Sony F3 is also a superior option). While the Canon will be better in certain areas -- low light performance, perhaps? -- the SCARLET X starts at half the price of the Canon. Yes, you'll need to add some accessories, but looking at these specs, I couldn't help but order one.
| SENSOR | 14 MEGAPIXEL MYSTERIUM-X™ |
|---|---|
| PIXEL ARRAY | 5120 (h) x 2700 (v) |
| DYNAMIC RANGE | 13.5 stops, up to 18 stops with HDRx™ 6 fps with 5K FF and HDRx On 12 fps with 4K HD and HDRx™ On |
| MAX IMAGE AREA | 5120 (h) x 2700 (v) |
| LENS COVERAGE | 27.7mm (h) x 14.6mm (v) = 31.4 mm (d) |
| LENS MOUNT | Al Canon EF (PL mount optional) |
| MAX DEPTH OF FIELD | Equivalent to S35mm (Motion) / APS-H (Still) lenses |
| ACQUISITION FORMATS | 5K FF REDCODE RAW (Full Frame) 4K HD REDCODE RAW 3K HD REDCODE RAW 1080p REDCODE RAW 1K REDCODE RAW |
| PROJECT FRAME RATES | 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 47.96, 48, 50, 59.97 |
| MONITOR/PROGRAM OUTPUT | HD-SDI and HDMI with Frame Guides and Look Around or Clean Feed 1080p 4:2:2, 720p 4:2:2 SMPTE Timecode, HANC Metadata, 24-bit 48Khz Audio |
| DIGITAL MEDIA | REDMAG (SSD) Module : (64, 128, 256GB Media) |
| REDCODE™ | 16-bit RAW Processing : Compression choices of 18:1 to 3:1 1-12 fps 5K FF 1-30 fps 4K HD 1-48 fps 3K HD 1-60 fps 1080p HD 1-120 fps 1K |
| AUDIO | 2 channel, uncompressed, 24 bit, 48KHz. Optional 4 channel, and AES / EBU digital audio. |
| MONITORING OPTIONS | RED LCD 5" Touchscreen Display BOMB EVF™ High Definition Viewfinder |
| REMOTE CONTROL | REDLINK Wireless, Ethernet, RS232, GPI Trigger |
| WEIGHT | 5lbs. Body only |
| CONSTRUCTION | Aluminum Alloy |
| COLOR | Battleship Gray Brain Body, Black Canon Mount and Side SSD, All DSMC Modules Black |
| TEMPERATURE RANGES | Operating Range: 0˚C to +40˚C (32˚F to 104˚F) Storage Range: -20˚C to +50˚C (-4˚F to 122˚F) |
Also, here are the barely readable resolution/datarates (larger image here), which are lowered from the $28,000 EPIC-X but wipe the floor with the Canon's 8-bit MPEG-2 codec (an 8-bit codec for $20k, really?!):
Camera specifications do not a good movie make, I know. But I'm sorry -- if you're not excited about this, you're not into cinematography. RED's Jim Jannard claimed this would be the most significant announcement in RED's history, and he wasn't kidding. And while I know the cameras will not ship with all features intact from day one (and RED says they'll probably be back-ordered until February), this camera has at least 2/3 of the EPIC-X's ability for less than 1/3 of the price. You can bet that the price of this made-in-USA camera was set more by Jim's desire to win the fight with Canon (and everyone else) than it was by a calculation of maximum profitability. It helps that he has deep pockets from Oakley, but still: to me the SCARLET-X represents RED making good on their initial startup promise (if they haven't already) of democratizing film production, ((Along with DSLRs, of course, which I wrote about long ago.)) and I'm excited to shoot Man-child on a SCARLET-X. So much so, in fact, that:
[twitter https://twitter.com/#!/ryanbkoo/status/132308237851697152]
Whew! What a night. Hopefully I won't wake up in the morning and feel like the SCARLET-X is one of those products on late night TV that you order drunk and regret it when it shows up a week later. Not that I do that. But I've seen it happen.
Link: RED SCARLET-X
