Here's the First Test Footage from RED V-Raptor 8K

RED made some waves earlier today when it announced its new V-Raptor camera, capable of shooting 8K RAW at up to 120fps (as well as 2K at 600 frames per second).

RED followed the announcement later in the day with some information and Q&A in a livestream (which you can watch here). The livestream revealed such answers to questions like, "What does the V stand for?" ("veloci," of course), and much much more, and gave some insight into the new camera system and how it fits into the rest of the lineup.

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RED also unveiled some fresh new test footage from cinematographer Phil Holland (the above video) for all of us to commence pixel-peeping to our heart's desire (yay, slow-motion waves).

Beyond the addition of autofocus and the higher frame rates mentioned in our earlier article, I'll try to distill some of the key info that I found interesting discussed in the livestream.

The V-Raptor size compared to the KomodoCredit: RED

A large portion of the talk was centered around the differences between the V-Raptor and the KOMODO. Seeing as how the camera fits in a bit of a price median point between the KOMODO and some of their other prominent releases (currently set at $24,500, which is miles cheaper than the RED RANGER MONSTRO set at around $60K).

The point was made pretty clear—this camera exists more on the high-end side than the KOMODO side, and the price was intentionally set aggressively. When asked if there would be a trade-in program available, as has been the case at times with RED in the past, the answer from president of RED Jarred Land was, "As is, the Raptor price is cheaper than it should be." He then explained that the resources and things that make a lot of those avenues available come with a bit of a higher price and more overhead.

They do view the KOMODO as a good companion camera to this one, as well as the Monstro. They also mentioned that the REDCODE for this system has been revamped. In this camera, the REDCODE MQ (medium quality) is actually identical in terms of quality to the REDCODE HQ from their previous cameras. This means that the REDCODE HQ for the Raptor will be of great utility for VFX teams and capturing high-end plates.

The V-Raptor dynamic range compared to the MONSTROCredit: RED

They also shared the above graph when talking about the dynamic range of the camera. Which, via YouTube compression, was kind of made useless. The image was shared to illustrate how similar you can expect the dynamic range of this camera to behave to the Monstro. They mentioned that it has much better shadow reproduction than the Monstro as well, which can already be seen in the aforementioned test footage.

Another notable addition to the conversation was that they do plan to add Apple ProRes support to this camera in the future.

It has a very useful "pre-record" feature when shooting in the higher frame rates (much like you'd see on a high-speed camera) so that it's always rolling and you can snag the footage you need for a specific moment in time. It's perfect for sports and nature shooting.

The camera has phantom power in body.

It uses lots and lots of battery power, so you'll want to use V-Mount or Gold Mount batteries. Speaking of which, there are a series of accessories planned for the camera that will allow the use of Gold Mount batteries and other fun stuff like that.

You'll be able to swap mounts (with the default mount being the new RF mount, which might be somewhat controversial), including a brief mention of a mount system with a built-in electronic Variable ND filter.

They also spoke briefly about OLPF support and the color science, mainly by showing that they've paid close attention to magenta shift, and any color cast that might be present. With a side-by-side image, they showed that this camera has a truly clean-looking image as far as color cast is concerned. Thus, OLPF use might not be as much of a need for this system.

For now, that's about it. Are you excited? Let us know in the comments.