White Paper 034 Addendum 32: Assessment of a RED ONE camera

Alan Roberts

Abstract

Data for this addendum is taken from short examinations of a RED ONE camera, (build 14, February 14 2008, and build 17 on October 22, 2008).

The camera is of unusual form, breaking many of the “rules” for video or film cameras. It has a single large cmos sensor (super 35mm film, 24mm x13.5mm, with pixels at 5 micron spacing), 4520x2540 with Bayer pattern photo-sites. The normal lens mount is PL, taking 35mm movie-style lenses; a replacement lens mount is available enabling B4 (2”/3 video) lenses to be used, but that permits illumination of only the central part of the sensor (i.e. there is no lens in the adaptor). The camera system is intended primarily for high-end cinema production rather than television. At 4k resolution, it will make pictures at up to 60fps, while at 2k it will (currently) go up to 75fps. Later versions ay well go to higher frame rates.

The camera has a video viewfinder and HDSDI outputs. During recording and live viewing, this is only at 1280x720, but it replays recordings at 1920x1080. The camera’s main output is on solid-state cards (only one slot in the camera), with considerable picture processing done in custom software (Redcine). The HDSDI feed is not of broadcast quality, so the only useable output from the camera is on the solid-state memory cards.

Since the camera records in a proprietary RAW format, with JPEG2000 compression, there are very few controls in the camera that affect the image. Most of the image control is done in post-production. Therefore, there was no attempt made to establish good settings for it, only to establish what it can do.

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