What's 5K anyway? RED Cameras resolution comparison chart

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Monday, April 14th, 2008


So maybe you’re excited about Red’s sudden announcement of two new cameras earlier today (the 5K Epic and the 3K Scarlet) but you’re not really sure why. What are these “K”s everyone is talking about, and why would anyone care whether they had two, three, or a hundred?

Well, Red’s handy chart above should clear things up for you. You can see how basically it would take seven or eight of the newest 1080p hi-def TVs to show an entire 5K image, and even then it wouldn’t be the whole thing because Red shoots to a special raw format with more color depth than your TV can display. So there. Sorry the chart isn’t really in 5K but you know how PDFs can be.

Update: Yeah, here’s one that’s a little more readable.

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