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Red Resources
The development of the Red Camera has been characterised by a spirit of open, on-line collaboration between Redusers around the world. There’s also been a fair amount of miss-information and confusion. If you’re a Red groupy then you’re probably already immersed in Reduser.net, but there are plenty of other good sources of information, discussion and debate.
We’ve done a little sifting and listed some of the highlights from the various evolving resources. Let us know if there’s anything you think we should add (or remove).
The Red Camera
The Red One Camera was a revolutionary video camera that took the film and television industry by storm in 2007. The camera uses a 35mm-size sensor and records at four times the definition of conventional HD cameras. It uses an all-digital workflow, recording RAW media to an on-board hard disc or compact flash card. The camera is designed to be modular and adaptable. It has been used by some of the world's best film-makers, cameramen and directors, to shoot corporate films, hollywood features, independent cinema, experimental art, documentaries, commercials and music videos. A second generation of camera, the Epic and Scarlet, have been released in 2011, taking the technology a stage further.
Red. Home of the revolution - Red's own site - a good place to start, explore or buy. All Red's free issue software can be downloaded from the support section. www.red.com
The Red Story. A short history of the Red Camera Company, courtesy of Wikipedia. Red Wiki
Forums and Podcasts
The Red Camera has stirred up a mix of enthusiasm and controversy. There is a great deal of on-line debate about its relative merits and also a lot of useful on-line resources through which Redusers are working together to find news ways of making the most of the cameras, sharing their discoveries and creations.
Reduser. The beating heart of the Red Family, contains everything from the totally irrelevant to some of the most useful, insightful and effective collaborative problem solving. Reduser
Recon. A special corner of Reduser devoted to words of wisdom and Red news from Jim Jannard, founder of the Red Camera Company. Recon
Creative Cow Red Forum. A little harder to untangle, but again a good resource for information and opinion exchange on all matters Red. Creative Cow Red Forum
Cinematography.com. Hot debate about Red, including a healthy dose of skepticism. Cinematography Forum
Redusers on Vimeo. A great place to see sample footage, showreels and tests - ranging from the mundane to the superb. Redusers on Vimeo
Red Centre Podcast. This regular Aussie Podcast is an amazing source of Red information; includes gear guides, interviews, discussion and Red news. Fantastic, fascinating and funny. Red Centre
Comparing 35mm, HD and 4K
Endless comparisons have been made between 35mm film, High Definition Video and Red's revolutionary 4k format. They are essentially different formats and each have their own merits. However, it's still interesting to make the comparison and many do.
Size Matters. Mammoth HD's simple interactive format comparison chart, gives you a clear idea of the relative sizes of HD formats. Link
Large Format Sensors. US equipment supplier Able Cine have produced a very useful chart comparing the relative size of sensors on most modern cameras. Link
Workflow & Post Production
In the early days Red's advanced camera technology was held back by the clunky workflow; too much data was clogging up the workflow pipeline. Thankfully things have changed. Red workflow is constantly evolving as more and more software producers start take the format seriously and enable post production packages that work with Red's R3D format. The latest development is Avid integration of the R3D format into Media Composer 6, an exciting and very promising development.
Avid. Avid's own site offers a useful overview of the best approach to off and on-line editing using Red material and Avid products. From simple transcoding for Media Composer to high-end grading and compositing with Avid DS systems. Avid and Red
Final Cut Pro. Red has worked closely with Final Cut to produce an effective workflow. FC3 makes things even easier and Color can now work directly from the 4K master R3D files, enabling grading at the highest possible quality. FCP3 and Red
Autodesk - Smoke, Inferno and Flame. Autodesk have released a comprehensive whitepaper exploring the most effective ways of working with Red footage and their fleet of high-end post producton tools. You can download it here - Autodesk and Red
Baselight. Baselight was an early adopter of Red's RAW R3D format, making this a very effective digital grading tool for Red material. Their latest addition is Baselight Transfer, specially designed to incorporate Red footage into a high-end workflow - Baselight Transfer and Red
Recording Sound
The Red One can record upto 4 channels of uncompressed audio synched to picture. The camera has four mini XLR inputs, which can be fitted with adaptors to accept standard XLR leads. The camera is also fitted with timecode connections to support externally synched audio.
Sound Devices. This US manufacturer of high quality sound recording equipment has done their own thorough tests on Red's sound capabilities - a very useful and rigorous guide to recording sound with a Red One. Red and Sound
Creative Cows - Discussion. Creative Cow has a specialist forum dedicated to audio and the Red Camera. A useful source of information. Audio Forum
Lenses and Lense Mounts
The Red Camera has a 35mm-size sensor and is built with a standard PL lense mount. It is designed to work with 35mm cine lenses but can be adapted to accept a wide range of lenses including Nikon and Canon stills lenses. The last two years have seen a sudden explosion of new lenses coming onto the market; Cooke, Red, Zeiss and Leica have all come out with new and exciting products aimed specifically at the expanding digital cinema market. For an overview of the current lense market take a look at CinemaLenses.com.
Salt Lense Tests. For a really good evaluation of the relative merits of the various Prime Lenses; including Red Pro Primes, Unique Primes, Ziess Compacts, Superspeeds and Ultra Primes, Optomos and Cookes, take a look at the Salt Test results on Reduser. Salt Lense Tests
Red Pro Primes. Released in mid 2009, Red's Pro Prime lenses offer superb value for money and are designed to meet the needs of the next generation of 5 and 6K Red cameras. To see some test footage visit - RPPs on Vimeo
Zeiss. The Superspeed Prime lenses are the industry workhorse and have made the film-to-Red transition very effectively. Ziess Master and Ultra Primes are also some of the best lenses on the market, while the new Compact Primes offer great value for money, cover the full FF35 sensor and are light and compact, if a little slow. For a brief rundown on the history of the various versions take a look at this site - Cinematechnic - or visit the Ziess site
Cooke. Cooke's S4 and S5 lenses are among the best lense on the market, and the most expensive. Their new Panchros are more affordable and offer similar optics but a bit less speed for a lot less money. Cooke do offer superb quality but at a price to match. Cooke
Angenieux. French lense manufacturers Angenieux make some of the best lenses. Their Optimo range of zoom lenses are probably the best performing zooms available; a 15-40mm, 28-76mm, 17-80mm and 24-290mm. Angenieux
Unique Optics. Another new range of 35mm cine lenses, ideal for the Red but somewhat untested in the market. Unique Optics
Leica. World-class lense makers Leica have come out with the new set of high-end primes, the Leica Summilux-C, super quality T 1.4 - you can't get better, or more expensive. World wide distribution through Bandpro.
Birger Canon Mount. Birger Engineering have worked closely with Red to develop a highly effective and controllable mount which lets you use all Canon lenses on the Red. Birger
Framerates; High Speed & Slow Motion
The Red Epic shoots progressive frames (with no video interlacing). In 4K mode it can shoot at 23.97P, 24P, 25P and upto 120fps. Slow motion / high speed is possible at upto 300 frames per second in 2K and Timelapse of speeds below 1 frame per second (using both the timelapse and varispeed modes).
Yoho Timelapse. Our own test footage was shot in Wales, testing out the camera's timelapse capabilities.
Wales in the wet season.
Drip - Slow Motion Test. The great Philip Bloom provides a useful on-line test of the Epic's 300 frame per second capacity.
300FPS
Data Management, Drives, Backup & Archiving
In the Red world 'Data' is king. The camera records to either CF cards or hard disc. The latest Red Mag SSD cards can hold 256Gb of data, around 200 minutes of 4K footage. The careful management, storage, transfer and backup of data is crucial to the success of Red projects.
Lacie. For on-set / on-location backups Lacie's 500Gb portable drives are ideal. We recommend that all data is backed up to two separate drives as soon as possible. Lacie
Iomega. Another good and reliable manufacturer of small drives for local backup and off-line editing. Iomega
GTech. For off-line editing and temporary data storage there's nothing better than a GTech drive. From 500Gb to 24Tb. GTech
LTO. Linear Tape Open has become the backup medium of choice, with a single tape holding upto 800Gb of data. LTO provides safe and cost effective data backup at every stage of the process. We offer an LTO4 backup and archiving service to all Redusers. LTO
Shot on Red
A huge amount of material has now been shot on the Red - here are some of our favourites.
Feature Films. A whole host of recent feature films, both Hollywood and Independent, have been shot on Red. Three excellent examples are Stephen Soderberg's Che - Trailer, Knowing - Trailer and District 9 - Trailer.
Music Videos. Red's filmic qualities, ease of use and rich grading possibilities all make it ideally suited to music videos. Take a look at the work of Director Nick Bartleet, who often makes use of our cameras and crew - Nick Bartleet at Pixelloft
Corporate Films. Red's cinematic quality can be used to provide a big step up to all sorts of productions. Honda's series 'The Power of Dreams' really shows how corporate film making can deliver fantastic results with the right vision and an excellent camera system. The Power of Dreams.