Red Digital Camera

Red Digital Cameras, the ultra-high resolution camera, is challenging analog for the future of filmmaking. Founder Jim Jannard has a history of developing innovative products recently selling his Oakley brand to Ray-Ban for an estimated 2.1 billion. His new endeavor Red is pushing a digital video revolution.

Filmmakers have never fully bought into digital since the quality sharpened every object regardless of depth and produced flattened images. The narrative is removed when you don’t have the ability to isolate your subject with focus. The Red however gives us the ability to control depth-of-field and the extra advantage of saving in RAW format. Basically a DSLR on super steroids that could shoot up to 120 fps.

Wired.com

The Red One camera gives moviemakers the best of both worlds. It delivers the ease of use and editing flexibility provided by digital cinema cameras. At the same time, the Red’s resolution and color fidelity rival that of 35-millimeter film, and it allows the same kind of control over focus. Bonus: Like HD and 2K digital, it’s cheap.

Peter Jackson asked Jannard to use The Red to produce a 12 minute featurette title, Crossing the Line, a World War I film. The results were apparently outstanding, Steven Soderbergh after viewing Jackson’s short film wanted to test drive the camera as well and was also pleased with the results.

Jannard’s next challenge will be to create digital projection screens that could support his cameras’ 4,096 lines of horizontal resolution. Below is a sample film shot with the Red.

skate - shot on red - 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.