So, this comes on the same day as Canon’s C300. Finally we have full specs and pricing on the Red Scarlet X. I have to say I might be ready to jump ship! http://www.red.com/products/scarlet It certainly makes more exciting tech spec reading than the C300. 5K (pixels) sensor, Redcode 4K recording on to SSD’s, 60fps at full HD and a dynamic range of around 13.5 stops.
The price for a ready to go kit is $14k USD which is extremely good for a super 35mm camera with 5K (H-pixels). The use of the Canon EOS mount makes life cheap and simple though the use of L series Canon glass, although a PL mount is also available. The only possible fly in the ointment for me may be a lack of Genlock, which means I can’t use a pair of them for 3D.
Delivery is said to start in December, lets wait and see on that. It’s certainly an exciting time to be a cinematographer with so many interesting choices available. I just wish I could afford one of each.
Alister, according to recent posts on reduser.net, Scarlet will have pretty much all of the Epic’s features in terms of accessories and basic feature sets. Genlock and shutter sync are included through the use of the 3 BNC to 00 sync cable available at their store; http://www.red.com/store/cables/prod…emo-sync-cable
http://www.red.com/system/products/d…png?1314230400
“Provides timecode / genlock / trigger in functionality via camera SYNC port.”
With their new Dragon chip set to replace Mysterium early next year I’m wondering if – given Red’s notorious delivery history that it might be a good thing to just wait for Scarlet 2.0 to let the improvements settle in. I, like you, am very happy with my F3’s and Hurricane Rig, but the possibility of 4K – HD is very tempting.
Thanks Bruce. That’s good to know. I think I will wait a while, I have one friend that is a well known DoP that has had a serious reliability issue with an Epic leading to corrupt files that wasn’t discovered until the project had finished shooting. Now problems can happen with any camera, but they just appear to happen more with early release Red cameras than others. I’m also a little concerned over power and heat with Epic/Scarlet. 4k is very attractive, but I’m only just starting to reach the limits of what the F3 can do, which is amazing. I think Alexa’s popularity shows that resolution isn’t everything. EI S-Log on the F3 should bring the F3 to within a whisker of the Alexa’s performance.
Allister,
I always appreciate you POV on things. Well thought out, tested and documented. Bravo.
Scarlet X and F3 have delivered a question from me. Collectively they are about the same price. For broadcast of high quality, run and gun with cinema quality results within a budget, plus plenty of room for color adjustment 4:2:2 is minimum. Better resolution always a help.
Was planning on getting a gaggle of F3’s for a show. Primes are nice but the new zoom a bit slow. Then there was Scarlet X. Hmmm. Maybe a better option. Larger files could be harder to work with but not that much of a problem. Red lens seem to get a mixed review, but zooms are faster.
What are your feelings on this looking at the Red Epic history as a baseline vs F3 since we cant test Scarlet yet. Would you go Scarlet X or F3 any why?
Rick
Well I already have 2 F3’s and I like them a lot. I have no intention of replacing them with Scarlets at this time. The workflows are very different. Scarlet needs processing before it can be used, F3 does not. Most of my projects benefit from having a simple, straight forward workflow and having to de-bayer and pre-process footage before I can use it does not fit with what I do most of the time.
If I was primarily shooting narrative work or movies then it might be very different. If I had the time to do the pre-processing then the extra resolution is very attractive for future proofing etc. AT the moment most of my final output is 1080P HD, so higher resolution is not at the top of my priority list. Low noise and clean images, as delivered by the F3 is at this moment in time, for my normal projects more attractive.
What do you recommend for a cost effective zoom on the F3, the primes look good… but a 10-50 or zoom would be good if it were fairly fast. Specs on new sony zoom look slow.
rk