Upstart digital cinema company RED, which has been the bane of many established camera companies for several years now, has filed suit against Arri, a leading camera manufacturer. They allege that Arri employed one Michael Bravin, a former employee of camera kit maker Band Pro, who hacked the email account of his former employee and stole confidential information relating to RED — and astroturfed for Arri on the official forums to boot. They also take exception to some claims Arri made in advertising disparaging RED’s cameras.

You can read the specifics below in the court filing, but the gist is that Bravin continually accessed the email of Amnon Band, founder of Band Pro, and was aware of acquisition talks in 2009 and 2010. He was hired by Arri in 2010 and allegedly provided them details of business and R&D at RED. He also posted on RedUser about how great Arri’s new camera, the Alexa, is. And there’s no question that it’s a great camera — but he posted under a fake name, and there were other circumstances. It’s questionably legal (and questionably illegal), but they are taking him to task for it anyway.

RED also says Arri made some claims in advertising regarding how their camera, sensor, and format were superior to others. Again, generally what advertising is for — but there is a little bit of untruth mixed in there, apparently. I like this little zinger:

In advertising specifically targeting RED customers, ARRI identifies films that have been shot on the Alexa. Among others, it lists the movie “I Hate You, Dad.” In actuality, this movie was shot on RED.

Burn! Who doesn’t like a little camera drama?

RED is seeking unspecified damages, but if the allegations turn out to be true, shelling out some cash would be the least of Arri’s worries. Photographers and cinematographers are very brand-loyal in general, but if they don’t feel they can trust that brand, they’ll leave like rats from a sinking ship. No indication of when the trial will be.

For more than three years, upstart camera maker RED has been teasing the Scarlet, a compact camera in the same class as their more powerful, but bulkier, RED One and Epic cameras. We actually saw one at CES this year, but they’ve completely redone the design and capabilities. They were going to publish all this information on their website, but they’re apparently under attack so we’re doing this live.

It used to do 3K and have a fixed 8x zoom. Now it’s essentially the same type of camera as the Epic (that is to say, a sort of chunky “brain” onto which you can fix lenses and so on), just for a much lower price.

The brain:

Fully accoutred:

The Scarlet X, as it’s now called, will sell for $9750 and will be shipping as early as November 17th – the date they said they’d ship earlier, at least after they revised the shipping estimate a dozen times or so. So what can it do?

Well, it does 4K, for one thing. That’s 4096×2160, at up to 25FPS, or quad HD at 30. This is at compression rates that are superior to what they’ve been shooting movies on for years, yet at a data rate that’s still eight times what Canon’s new C300 system shoots at. That’s 50 megabytes per second, or 400mbit/s for those keeping track. The full sensor size is 5120×2700 for stills.

It’ll also do 3K at 48fps, 2K at 60fps, and 1K at 120fps, which is fairly low-resolution but retains the color depth and so on. It’s a Super 35-sized sensor and they’re using leftover chips from Epic brains, which cost almost three times as much. In fact, if you shoot the same type of footage with the same lenses using the Scarlet and the Epic, the images should be “identical.” Here are some datarate specs for those who like that sort of thing:

Aesthetically, it’s similar to the rest, since it’s compatible with all the accessories, but it’s “battleship grey,” as RED founder Jim Jannard described it, and it doesn’t have “ribs,” because “she’s a girl, she’s smooth.”

It’s shipping November 17th, but only if you’re willing to shell out an extra $1500 for the titanium PL mount. The new aluminum Canon mount they’re putting on it will be available starting on December 1st. That $9750 price gets you the brain and an SSD; Jannard said that a fully-functional camera, with LCD, lens, rails, and handles will set you back around $13k.

In typical RED fashion, the company’s founder Jim Jannard has posted vaguely on the Reduser.net forums regarding an upcoming product. No renders this time, though, just some laudatory quotes from industry people who have seen the device. And what is it? A 4K laser projector, and apparently a very good one.

Actual details as scarce, but we know it is not based on TI’s DLP technology and that it produces an image that can be used for passive 3D — i.e. with polarized light. It’s for “theater and home,” though at RED prices it would probably be more accurate to say theater and exquisitely-appointed mansion.

Stephen Pizzo of Element Technica and 3eality Technica describes it:

Comparing it to traditional professional systems is completely inadequate. I have never witnessed 3D that was as bright or brighter as the best 2D projections until now. It generated the best color, best dynamic range and best images I have ever seen in 3D or even 2D.

And Mark Pederson of OffHollywood concurs:

You have to see it to believe it. I have NEVER seen better projection – from any projector – at any price point. I can’t stop thinking about it. It was beyond stunning.

If it sounds too good to be true, keep two things in mind: one, RED has a history of leapfrogging the rest of the industry, and two, this thing is going to be expensive as hell. Sony’s 4K projector, the announcement of which prompted Jannard to hint at the existence of their own, hasn’t been priced yet, but it’s expected to be between $20,000 and $30,000. RED tends to undercut the professional pricing but still put itself well out of reach of enthusiasts. I’m going to guess the RED projector will be $12,000-15,000, but I could be off by miles.

We’ll probably know for sure on November 3rd, the date RED has scheduled for announcing their updated Scarlet compact HD camera. Jannard said the projector will be coming “sooner rather than later,” which makes sense because there just isn’t as much QA and debugging as there is for a camera.

Red Scarlet Fixed Lens Camera – First video of a working Scarlet ! from Tonaci Tran on Vimeo.

While at a 3D HD workshop in Santa Fe, young Tonaci Tran was lucky enough to have RED’s Jim Jannard drop by with a working fixed-lens Scarlet, AKA the Epic Light. Jim handed it over for his inspection, and the result is the video you see here. It looks extremely manageable; people are going to be dying to get their hands on these for hand-held and mobile camera work.

Tran reports on his Vimeo page:

Let me tell you folks, it is real and is working. The Scarlet I was holding had the 5inch lcd touchscreen. The lens gear ring which can be set to zoom, iris or focus is buttery smooth. QUALITY. The electronic zoom works like a charm. I used the up-down rocker on the camera to zoom in on a Jeep in the parking lot (though I was “Mr. Shakey” due to the sheer excitement of finally getting to hold the Red Scarlet.) Justin O’Neill and I got to see it for a mere brief moment and off it went back to the vault. This should be comforting to those who may fear that RED wouldn’t have time for the Scarlet with all the Epic buzz going on. This gives me more confidence that the Red Scarlet is definitely around the corner. I have been really lucky to have held both the Epic and Scarlet. The Scarlet is lighter in weight than the Epic even with the fixed lens. This is due to the Scarlet body being more narrow. The weight felt very good and the camera felt rugged. Touch screen controls were functional.

Sounds bomb to me. Of course, it’s way out of my price range, and even if it weren’t, I wouldn’t know quite what to do with it. I’m not a professional videographer, I’m just a guy. The T2i is more than sufficient for my purposes. Now if I could only afford one of those…

[via Electronista]

It’s now the “Epic Light,” which reflects that it’s really just a compact and differently-spec’ed version of their new digital cinema camera. Just thought you should know.

RED’s founder, Jim Jannard, announced the news in the reduser.net forums as usual, and followed it up with the news that the long-awaited Epic cameras would have limited availability in December for a standalone $58,000 each, a refreshing departure from the labyrinthine upgrade options of the past.

The cost of the cameras, plus lenses and accessories to outfit them, probably exceeds $2 million, but what deal might have been cut with Jackson isn’t clear. Personally, I’m thinking he got a major bargain, considering Jannard has said The Hobbit is his favorite book, and Jackson has done much to advance RED’s business before now.

[thanks, Mike]

Walking among the cars this weekend in Monterey I spotted an odd rig with two Red cameras attached to something that looked like a range hood. It turns out it was a 3D camera set-up from 21st Century 3D and records full HD at various depths and in a package that rides on a dolly.

Their BX3 has two cameras placed at 90-degree angles to each other. One camera takes the scene as it appears while another one shoots a one-way mirror at a slightly different angle to get the 3D effect. It’s obviously not for the average consumer – the Reds alone are $17,000 or so each – but was great to spot this thing in the wild.

Excuse the wind noise on the video. Sadly, I didn’t know I was picking it up until it was too late.

Keep in mind that the Scarlet is not a camera for you and me; its cost is estimated to be at least $3000, and “optional” accessories like tripod, EVF, and so on, drive up the cost even further. But also keep in mind that this chunky DSLR-sized package shoots bigger and cleaner video than $100,000 rigs being used in Hollywood today. The Scarlet may just be the new standard in handheld digital cinema — now that its existence can’t be questioned.

[Thanks, Mike]

The base station provides the power for the units on top, via those SATA power cables. The stackable units will support either CF cards or bare 2.5″ hard drives. No support for 3.5″, unfortunately, owing to the fact that these things need to support SSDs, which come in 2.5″ form factors only at the moment. Why is that? Anyway. There are also a ton of interfaces: eSATA, dual FireWire 800, and USB (2.0, I assume). Take your pick.

Looks sweet, but like all RED gear, you’ll be paying quite a bit. Each base station and every drive unit costs $250 — not a fortune, but a significant amount. They’re also shipping mighty soon: April 14th if all goes well. Discussion at Red User.

Nothing too exciting to speak of technically; the specs are the same as the other headphones in the Solo series. The HD designation simply means an integrated remote for volume and track control and a microphone for calls. And according to the RED blog, “at least $5 from every purchase being contributed to the Global Fund.” So you can feel good about dropping $229.00 on a pair of cans.

If you want them within the next three weeks, you’ll have to head over to HSN. But starting March 1st, they’ll be more widely available.

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.

Here is the revised spec list. Of note are the internal motion sensor (good for recording metadata for adding effects later), GPS sensor, and a touchscreen electronic viewfinder (good for adjusting settings, but it also supports… touch focus tracking? -that’s not what I think it is, is it?):

New MYSTERIUM-X 5K sensor
5K (2:1) at 1-100fps
4K (2:1) at 1-125fps
Quad HD at 1-120fps
3K (2:1) at 1-160fps
2K (2:1) at 1-250fps
1080P (scaled from full frame) at 1-60fps
Increased Dynamic Range, reduced noise
Time Lapse, Frame Ramping
REDCODE 250
ISO 200-8000
New FLUT Color Science

Completely Modular System, each Module individually upgradeable
Independent Stills and Motion Modes (both record full resolution REDCODE RAW)
5 Axis Adjustable Sensor Plate
Multiple Recording Media Options (Compact Flash, 1.8” SSD, RED Drives, RED RAM)
Wireless REDMOTE control
Touchscreen LCD control option
Bomb-EVF, RED-EVF and RED-LCD compatible
Multiple User Control Buttons
Interchangeable Lens mounts including focus and iris control of electronic RED, Canon and Nikon lenses (along with Zoom data)
“Touch Focus Tracking” with electronic lens mounts and RED Touchscreen LCDs
LDS and /i Data enabled PL Mount
Rollover Battery Power
Independent LUTs on Monitor Outputs
Independent Frame Guides and Menu overlays on Monitor Outputs
Monitor Ports support both LCD and EVF
True Shutter Sync In/Out and Strobe Sync Out
720P, 1080P and 2K monitoring support
Gigagbit Network interface and 802.11 Wireless interface
3 Axis internal motion sensor, built in GPS receiver
Enhanced Metadata
Full size connectors on Pro I/O Module. AES Digital Audio input, single and dual link HD-SDI
Support for RED, most Arri 19mm, Studio 15mm, 15mm Lite, Panavision and NATO accessories

Dimensions- Approx. 4”x4”x5.5”
Weight (Brain only)- Approx. 6 lbs (2.72kg)

Jim also posted an actual picture of a brain with grips attached still-camera-style, with a Canon EF mount. Whether they’ll actually be able to take a bite out of established still camera makers is questionable, but we’ll see.

The Scarlet also gets an update, a response to serious encroachments by cameras like the 7D. Much better audio capability, increased bitrates and color accuracy, 1080p at 60FPS, and a touchscreen LCD among other things. No word on pricing or how these changes might affect it, but it’s still going to be a professional camera, not a consumer or even prosumer one, so expect it to be at least $3000.

Read the whole thread here; they’re still updating and adding pictures (they’ve added two since I started this post).

But unless they’ve got something pretty serious up their sleeves, RED’s Scarlet is still a threat to them, especially in the independent filmmakers market. After all, when you can have 3K digital RAW footage with serious color depth in a package the size of two cans of Sprite, the semi-pro Canon cameras start looking kind of plain. But really, it’s all wild speculation since the actual capabilities and price points haven’t been announced for the Scarlet, and Canon’s ace in the hole, if they have one, is similarly obscure.

The Canon fanboys are going off here, and the RED-heads are going off here. Go forth and flame. (Jannard responds here)

The opportunity to see a group of local freelancers and entrepreneurs coming together to make such an incredibly professional product was extremely valuable — technology has democratized and accelerated the independent film and music community to a degree I hadn’t realized. I was brought on because I had access to some special locations (most of the aerial and forest shots are near some family property in the San Juans) and so I could shoot a little behind-the-scenes video of the production. Go ahead and check out that video below.

The above contains video shot by me as well as production stills by both myself and the director, Matt Daniels of ThinkLab. Matt edited it, since I was taking forever.

We had two RED Ones to shoot with, which is rare to find anywhere, really. With careful lens selection, this allowed for some really great multi-angle shots without change in continuity or video quality. For instance, we had Marshall, the drummer of the band, wading in the water in extremely low light (torchlight). One camera was shooting handheld, up close with a wide angle, and the other was about 30 feet away, with a longer lens in a more stationary position. It allows the director and editor to work freely with the scene without worrying about continuity errors, and can also drastically cut down on the time a poor drummer has to be standing in freezing cold water at midnight.

Lastly, the all-digital process makes for such a streamlined workflow that, if we didn’t have to catch a ferry, we could have had a rough cut put together the next day — a huge benefit when you’re working directly with a client, as we were with the band. As one might imagine, this can lead to sloppy productions put together without the caution and care that comes with working in a valuable medium like film — and some people assume that because it’s possible, it’s expected. But that’s as far from the truth as the idea that a film medium guarantees a quality end result. Digital cinema tools simplify the workflow, but they don’t simplify the product.

The helicopter you see is owned and operated by AerialPan Imaging’s founder, Tabb Firchau. I subjected him to a brief interview:

So the camera on the heli is a Panasonic HVX, which accounts for the difference in texture and tone you see in the video. I noticed a similar effect while watching Planet Earth; the Varicams they used for much of the series weren’t able to be used under water, so they used some sort of smaller Sony (I believe) camera for those sequences. The video quality isn’t as high, but the Sony and HVX are far more light and compact than a Varicam or RED One — handy in those underground caverns, or when you need to fly it at 50MPH over water in an RC helicopter.

I was struck by the amount of specialized gear used by both Tabb and the RED operators (Mike Prevette on heli and DP Michael Ragen). Jury-rigged solutions for missing or broken parts, custom fast-charging battery packs, and the lenses… oh, the lenses. And of course, it was interesting seeing the familiar forest and beach we were tramping around on metamorphose into the evocative landscape of the video.

It’s amazing how democratized high quality stuff like this has come, with the advent of (relatively) affordable HD cameras like the RED and pro editing and effects software that can be brought with you to the field. Thanks, crew — it was a fun and interesting look at the soft underbelly of cinematic production.

Of course, it’s not necessarily the case that whoever made this video intended to equate the cameras in any way (the objective, aside from filming women in the dark, is unclear). But if they did, let’s look at this objectively.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5981422&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ff9933&fullscreen=1

Here we have three great cameras. One a micro four-thirds compact, one a full-frame pro DSLR, and one a professional digital cinema camera (two years old, for the record). You can take video under similar circumstances, but unless you’re prepared to put in the work to make each video look as good as it should, it’s a useless comparison. Putting a video on the web, even to a high-quality video site like Vimeo, is not the way to compare three cameras.

The 5D mk II records directly to h.264; this is a perfectly good codec for distributing video, as it is highly efficient, but the way the video data is stored and streamed makes it messy when editing and lossy in color correcting. The GH1 uses high-bitrate AVCHD but apparently wraps the 24p mode in 60i, which is something I’ve had to deal with and it’s a pain in the ass. Lastly, both cameras use a recombination method for producing the final image, illustrated here. This leads to strange artifacting and Moire effects.

The Red One (to say nothing of its upcoming replacements) records to a proprietary high-bitrate, high-color-depth RAW format, using as many pixels you want from the sensor and not recombining at all. This produces an enormous, highly detailed, and very flat-looking image which can be manipulated as much as a RAW image from your DSLR. It’s made for actually making movies, real movies, and is high-res enough that they can apply special effects directly, which normally require a higher resolution than the editing footage.

But when you take a few seconds of footage at a time, in situations with really bad lighting, and then resize the whole thing down to a web-streaming 720×480 file, you lose all the details that might have set any apart. I’d say that any differences you notice in this video are the result of chance or the lens.

I’m not advocating getting a Red over getting a 5D mk II or GH1, they’re three different cameras that happen to shoot video and beyond that they’re incomparable. I personally would love to have all three, and I’d value what they did in different circumstances. The 5D’s full-frame sensor makes it easier to use and set up in the dark than either a Red or GH1; the GH1′s compact size makes it an easy carry-around; both are much more convenient to use than a Red, which weighs a huge amount and requires thousands and thousands in extra gear to shoot right. And if I had to pick one, I’d get the 5D, since I’m primarily a still photographer and if I did need to shoot something serious, a careful cinematographer would be able to avoid the 5D’s weaknesses pretty well.

So that’s about 500 more words than needed to be said on this, but these comparisons persist after so long that I feel I have to just engrave it on the internet that they’re not admissible evidence, and the whole idea of a comparison is silly anyway.

A few weeks back I hopped onto my first Virgin America flight with Aircell’s Gogo service on-board. It wasn’t the first time I’ve reviewed Gogo and if you recall I was on the first commercial Gogo flight with American Air. The plan was to interview James Weatherson, Virgin America’s inflight entertainment engineer, while I was up in the air, but there was a scheduling mix up and the interview never went down. So we opted to do it the old fashioned way. Below is my brief conversation with James about Red and where it’s headed.

CrunchGear: Other than some content changes, I haven’t seen a whole lot of new stuff for Red. What can we expect to see this year from VX?

James Weatherson: Actually, we’re now right in the middle of a Red software upgrade that will allow us to create an even more robust entertainment content platform at every seat. Our platform is actually pretty new and ambitious for a system at 37,000 feet in-flight, so the upgrades that will go live this Summer are mainly focused on improving functionality, reliability and the speed of the Linux-based system. We’re aiming to increase the speed of the system and usability, as well as allow us to further build out the content platform. So we’re planning more video games, movies and other content in the latter half of 2009 thanks to these upgrades. And we’re also making some changes that came as suggestions from guests who emailed us in-flight via the Red feedback in-box, like being able to listen to your music play-list and play video games at the same time and giving business travelers receipts for their food – so when they swipe their credit card at their seat, they’re emailed a receipt. You’ll be able to do that as of June. The former is a relief for me, as the sound effects on DOOM for some reason get super annoying when you reach hour three of a transcon flight.

CG: Are the shopping and book services going live this year?

JW: Yep, once we get these software upgrades in place we plan to go live with the Shop platform in late 2009, with the Read section to follow. Stay tuned.

CG: I heard a nasty rumor that VX was thinking of getting rid of the touch-screens because the majority of passengers don’t know how to use a touch-screen. Any truth to that?

JW: No, we don’t plan to go retro on you on Red. Most of our guests are pretty tech-savvy and a lot of them have an iphone or other touchscreen PDA on them when they fly, so they work the system just fine. We do actually mention the importance of a “soft touch” in both our in-flight guide (attached) about the Red system and our flight teams also mention it when they explain how the system works. It has not really been a problem, but the interface just works better with light tapping, as opposed to thumping – just like an itouch or iphone. However, we are disabling the touch-screen on the games only, as the remotes just work better – that change goes live with our Summer upgrades in June.

CG: Maybe VX should make a video for people to watch that shows them how to use the touch-screen. I know I can’t stand people who sit behind me and punch the screen. What do you think?

JW: I like the video idea! We’ve got a depiction of that in our in-flight guide (PDF), and the caricature is of our head of web marketing, Jen Larson, because it is her pet peeve. If we do a video, we got to think of an appropriate spokesperson who could demonstrate that almost anyone can use Red. Maybe a Miss USA contestant?

CG: Anything else we can look forward to that you can talk about?

JW: We’re focusing pretty aggressively on our fleet-wide WiFi roll-out. We’ll be the first and only airline to have it on every single flight by this Memorial Day (it is now on 24 of 28 planes). And we just became the first airline to offer absinthe in-flight. Although, on second thought: the image of guests twittering at 37,000 ft while drinking absinthe is somewhat disturbing.

[thanks for the tip, Mike]

I like the little bump with fins, it appears to be a heatsink. The picture with a RED One on the right was made by forum member David Farland, and shows a bit of the comparative size and lens mount height.

[PSGallery=3n982n1y52]

Just a little camera porn to get you through the day!

[Thanks for the tip, Mike]

Rumor smashed! Wait, no, the other one… confirmed. Sorry! Anyhow, Microsoft has inadvertently (?) revealed the existence of the red Xbox 360 that we mentioned the other day. It’s an Elite, and it will be exclusive to EB Games. Well, that’s what’s going to happen in New Zealand; what happens in god old USA, who knows.

The shocking revelation comes from a Halo Wares-related e-mail that was sent to New Zealand retailers. The relevant portion:

Xbox 360 Halo Wars Standard Edition, $99.95 RRP. This Halo Wars offer does not apply to the Red Xbox 360 Elite console which is exclusive to EB games.

So there you have it, confirmation. From what I understand, President Obama is planning to throw a party at the White House in order to celebrate the system’s release.