The RED Scarlet, if you don’t know, is a compact professional camera being released by RED as a more portable alternative to the more full-featured modular system that’s been brewing for so long. Key word here is professional! Many are under the impression that this is their consumer offering, but RED is not a consumer-oriented company. The Scarlet may be cheaper and more compact, but it is still an extremely serious camera and creates footage that a layperson would have trouble editing. That said, this thing looks pretty bad-ass, and I might have to go halvesies on it with a certain RED owner who’s on a trip to Poland right now. Yeah, you know who you are.
We heard about some of this stuff about a month ago, but these specifics are good to have.
It’s being offered with a fixed 8x zoom or an regular interchangeable mount; the spec sheet actually doesn’t note the F values of the lens, which suggests it’s not finalized. I’d guess it’ll be T/2.8 or thereabouts. There are a lot of specs and modes listed in the announcement which you can read there, but the price is quoted at $4750 at the moment for the fixed lens and $2750 for the brain only. The fixed lens version comes with an LCD, battery, and other accessories however, so for a filmmaker on a budget it might be a good unit. Plus, everything about it is compatible with the Epic modules, so you’re not wasting money on two different systems if you’re going for both.
There are other devices outlined as well — a new pro Redmote, the Red Ray Professional, and others. Head on over to the announcement thread to get the whole story.
Mmm… I’m liking the look of those new primes.