What have famous film-makers been saying about the RED ONE camera?

“It looks like film. However, if you finish and screen at 4K, the result is like shooting in 65mm, like the old epics used to do. It’s pretty exciting, and will have a major impact on indie filming – but we could see no reason why you couldn’t use these cameras for any type of movie. I’m seriously considering using RED for The Lovely Bones.”

Peter Jackson, director, Lord Of The Rings & King Kong

“I have had the opportunity to test the RED ONE camera over the past few weeks, including a direct comparison to the same film I shoot on 24. All I can say is that I am totally amazed. Revolutionary might not be a strong enough word to describe what RED is doing.”

Rodney Charters, Cinematographer, 24

“We're shooting RED side by side film. We scanned the film 4k and took both into the Baselight, compared them and then did a filmout of both. When we screened side by side, we literally could not tell the difference. In fact, most people picked the RED ONE footage as film because of a greater dynamic range in the highlights than in the 5218 [a low grain, high sensitivity Kodak film stock]. It's not enough to say it is the best digital image out there. The fact is, finally, we can intercut digital with film. It looked remarkably better than the filmed images. I thought I would never be able to say that”

Jon Farhat, VFX Supervisor, Wanted

“Shooting with RED is like hearing The Beatles for the first time. RED sees the way I see. Someday I hope to find out exactly how Jim and his team made something so technologically advanced seem so organic, so beautifully attuned to that most natural of phenomena, light.”

Steven Soderbergh, director, Solaris, Ocean's 11 & Traffic

Watch interviews with Soderbergh and others here.

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What is 4K?

4K refers to the size of the sensor in the RED ONE camera - it measures 4096 by 2304 pixels (i.e. approximately 4000 pixels from left to right, or 4K ). By way of comparison  the sensor in, say, a Sony F900 (HDCAM High Definition video) measures 1920 x 1080 pixels.

With a sensor this size the image detail and colour depth are greatly increased. The stunning images produced by a RED ONE can only be fully appreciated when seen projected at at least 2K (2048 by 1152 pixels), ideally on a digital projector.

Format comparison:

Digital camera comparison:

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Why do I need 4K when I'm delivering to television?

Even if you intend delivering for television – whether it's High Definition or Standard Definition – shooting 4K has the following benefits:

• Oversampling: The more detail you start with, the better the finished image. You get a crisper, richer picture when the image is resized downwards. 35mm film looks better on a TV screen than 16mm – even when they are both displayed at standard TV resolution (720 x 576 pixels).
• Room to move: additional resolution means you can zoom in, stabilize and reframe with no discernible loss of quality.
• Future Proof: have the highest quality original footage to preserve the longevity of your work. You can enter a film festival on HDCAM... and deliver a 4K to 35mm print when the Sales Agent pays for it.

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Who manufactures the RED camera?

Jim Jannard, the founder of the sunglasses company Oakley, is both a billionaire and a camera fanatic. He owns over 100 cameras – film, video and stills – and correctly identified the big gap in the market between high end stills digital stills cameras like the Nikon D3 and ultra expensive, bulky “Digital Cinema” cameras like the Panavision Genesis.

Using his financial muscle and manufacturing expertise he embarked on a mission to make a Digital Cinema camera that could equal 35mm film, with the goal of bringing it to market as quickly as possible. The development process has been unusually open, the design changing several times to reflect the input of potential owner-operators.

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What lenses does the RED camera take?

The RED ONE has a standard P/L mount and a Super 35mm sized sensor – so will take the lenses used to shoot Super 35mm film in Hollywood productions – lenses like the Cooke S4 series or Zeiss's Master Primes series.

4K London's rental house partners offer a full range of RED ONE compatible prime lenses and zooms (made by Cooke, Zeiss, Arri, Angenieux and Canon).

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How does the RED sensor compare to other Digital Cinema cameras?

Short answer: It's better.

Red's secret weapon is their proprietary Mysterium!" CMOS sensor, which delivers an image quality unseen before in a digital movie camera. The sensor's unprecedented 12 megapixel image delivers 4K footage comparable to 35mm film and is far superior to existing High Definition video cameras.

The RED ONE delivers smooth tones with an impressive signal to noise ratio of just 66 decibels, and a dynamic range of over 11 stops (again on a par with 35mm film – but at a fraction of the cost).

The Mysterium™ sensor captures images in 12-bit form, allowing far more colour detail than traditional 8-bit video cameras (68 billion possible colours as opposed to 16 million!) Once again this allows the RED ONE camera to get closer to the subtle nuances of colour we’re used to seeing with 35mm film.

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How sensitive is the RED ONE sensor?

The RED ONE has been rated between 320 and 500 ASA (measurements of film sensitivity). This is good enough to shoot in most interior situations with a very minimal lighting set up.

Relative to other digital cameras the RED ONE has a very low signal to noise ratio (66 decibels). In practice this means the camera can be easily “pushed” to rate at around 1000 ASA with very little noise visible in the shadows. You should have no problems shooting in candlelight, for example.

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How do I light and expose with the RED ONE?

The RED camera records RAW files in a very similar manner to a high end digital stills camera – RAW being the actual information as it hits the sensor before it has been converted to a video format. Video cameras typically translate the sensor data to another format (HDCAM, DVCAM etc) and so the “look” gets “baked into” the footage and cannot be easily changed.

With RAW files a great deal of the “look” can be created in post by the colourist.

The rule of thumb is: expose to avoid clipping your highlights AND your shadows if possible (using the on board histogram and clipping detectors). Light so the image is low contrast, and add contrast in post, for best results. The RED ONE's handling of highlights is far superior to traditional video cameras so there is more room for manoeuvre.

Testing the camera from shoot to final deliverable is an excellent idea. We are happy to pass on to clients the knowledge we are acquiring in our own extensive tests.

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How do I monitor the picture?

Your cameraman will use the RED Electronic Viewfinder, which is very similar to the acclaimed Accuscene viewfinder.

For the director etc the picture can be monitored on any High Definition video monitor. The camera has both HD-SDI and HDMI outputs.

4K London's on-set technical team will help with all monitoring solutions.

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How do I review my footage on set?

The RED ONE has on-camera playback for instant shot review. 4K London can also provide a well-specified MacBook Pro with a CF card reader and the latest edition of Final Cut Pro 6 installed. Footage can then be viewed at any time – your editor can even be cutting before the shoot has wrapped the location!

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What format does the RED ONE record in?

A new codec called Redcode RAW developed by post-production wizard Graeme Nattress. The format uses wavelet compression which provides a much cleaner, clearer image than MPEG 2, for example (the codec used to compress DVD images). RED are calling it “visually lossless” – they claim tests have shown it is impossible to distinguish between compressed and uncompressed footage.

100 gigabytes of hard drive space will store approximately 100 minutes of 4K Redcode Raw footage.

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Does the RED ONE record synch sound?

Yes. The RED ONE records four uncompressed channels of CD quality audio, synched to picture. It also supports common timecode formats for synching with external recorders such as DAT.

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How does the camera store its footage?

4K London currently offers two recording options: Compact Flash and Red Drive

• Compact Flash
  Compact Flash is robust and able to deal with harsh, high-vibration shooting conditions like helicopters and car-mounts  there are no moving parts . Presently the highest capacity Compact Flash cards are 8GB, giving you roughly 4-8 minutes of 4K footage, an equivalent run-time to a 400 foot roll of 35mm film. You simply swap out the card and copy the data to a hard drive, ready for editing (and back up all the rushes at the end of the day). Higher capacity cards will soon be available.

• RED Drive.
  The RED Drive is a 320 gigabyte on-camera hard drive that can store between 2 to 3 hours of 4K material (depending on frame rates) - that's roughly equivalent to 45 x 400ft rolls of 35mm film, meaning the time saved on reloading can be anywhere up to half an hour per day! Peter Jackson noted the time saving element while filming his 10 minute short Crossing The Line in just 2 days. However, moving parts mean the drive is less suitable for high vibration or motion shots – although Peter Jackson's short succesfully incorporated large-scale battle scenes and aerial photography.

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What size is the RED ONE?

The RED ONE camera body is 305 mm long, 161 mm tall and 132 mm wide, and weighs approximately 10 lbs without any accessories or lenses attached.

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How do I edit my rushes?

4K London can supply an edit suite equipped with the latest Apple-based system Final Cut Pro 6  it has evolved into a mature off-line editing platform and is now being used on many high end feature films. It has a single major advantage over other systems; it can edit RED footage natively . In other words: the footage is instantly available to your editor to start cutting immediately. No more ingest times!

Alternatively we can transcode your rushes to the format of your choice should you wish to use another editing system such as Avid, Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas.

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