Our New Red One Camera
Posted: Alex Detig	Tuesday, 12 July 2011 11:36

Details

1. About the RED camera

The RED camera was released in 2007 and satisfied a desperate need for a digital camera that can truly rival the look of 35mm film. It shoots in full 12-bit 4K resolution (frame size 4520 x 2540) at frame rates ranging from 23.98fps to 120fps. The physical frame size of the sensor is 24.4mm x 13.7mm, which is the same size as a Super35 film frame. The RED camera has a PL mount, which allows the use of the best cine lenses available in cinematography.

The RED camera also records 4-channel uncompressed, 24 bit, 48KHz audio.

2. Shooting 3 spec TV commercials with the RED camera

The RED camera we used was Build 18. We used a set of NIKON primes that contributed to an incredibly clean and beautiful look. These prime lenses also allowed us to shoot with an open aperture, which is important to me because I have a strong preference for a shallow depth of field. We shot at 24fps.

As a production monitor we used the 7-inch RED Production Monitor — a very high-resolution monitor that gave me a very faithful view of what the camera was actually shooting. On several occasions the monitor enabled me to determine that the subject’s eyes were not sufficiently sharp, which is exactly what I would expect of a reliable production monitor.

The RED camera records footage as proprietary R3D files on its on-board hard drive. This means that the length of takes is not limited by the need to reload the magazine with film. This undoubtedly saves time, but there is the occasional need to reboot the RED camera, which takes about 90 seconds. The camera also emits noise when the fan is operating in between takes; obviously this does not affect the actual shooting.

At the end of each day the DIT downloads the raw footage from the camera’s hard disc onto portable fixdrives. Copies of the raw footage are held on duplicate portable drives, in case one of them fails.

3. The look of RED camera footage

I love the look of RED camera footage. Even the raw uncorrected footage played back on the monitor between takes looks very beautiful. The depth of field was very shallow, especially when using longer focal lengths; this made the focus puller’s work very challenging, especially in a shot that involved the camera tracking forwards while the main subject was walking towards it, which made it very difficult for the focus puller to have a reliable frame of reference. It was a very tricky shot to keep in focus and it required many takes, but I got exactly what I wanted and it was totally worth it. We still finished on schedule in Japan, thanks to a first-rate crew, including a fabulous DOP Sascha.