Red Scarlett Specs?

Question

what is its compression ratio

codec used in compression

and some strengths and weaknesses

Answer 1

Hehe, excellent excellent question. I will have fun answering (I'm a huge Red fan, if you didn't notice).

The Red Scarlet rivals most camcorders that cost tens of thousands of $$ more. It's a Professional digital cinema camera for the prosumer video camera price point. The biggest feature: it can shoot 3K RAW. It's an entirely new codec pioneered by RED that utilizes RAW technology found on many DSLR photo cameras. RED used this RAW technology to create one of the most uncompressed formats we have ever seen. Now, 3K cannot be considered HD. For that matter, it's considerably better than HD, as HD is 1920x1080 at the very highest (very few HD cameras can even do this). 3k, on the other hand, is 3072 x 1728, which is about 6MP per frame; amazing for a video camera considering HD is at most 2MegaPixels. So in essence, revolutionary clarity very well suited, possibly even better than movie theater quality.

After post production, the resolution will clock in at about 2.1K (approx. 72% of 3K), but consider this; that's still more pixels that the Sony F35--and guess how much it costs? Also, Movie productions are usually compressed to about 2K during the Digital Scanning process from 35mm to digital. So you'll have 2.1K UNCOMPRESSED RAW footage at your fingertips; higher quality than most movies.

Resolution isn't the only thing important to RED however. The Scarlet can shoot up to 120frames per second in full 3K resolution. All other cameras under $15,000 can do a max of 60fps, if that. Scarlet also offers a "180fps Burst" mode, which allows for 180fps shooting for 5 seconds at a time. At first, that sounds stupid, but when you think of it, that's approximately 40 seconds of slow motion.

Next, is Image sensor. The Scarlet incorporates a 2/3" Mysterium X sensor. All other cameras under $10,000 only have 1/3" sensors, except for the Sony EX1, which has  1/2" sensors, which is slightly better than 1/3" ones, but not as good as 2/3" ones, which is only available on pro ENG camcorders--and the Scarlet of course!! But what does a large sensor do? Simply put, a large image sensor gives you a narrow depth of field, similar to that seen in big blockbuster motion pictures. Narrow DOF is coveted in the world of digital cinema, and a 2/3" sensor, like that on Scarlet, gives you the approximate equivalence to the DOF of a 16mm film camera.

Other features: Scarlet will have pro manual controls. True manual controls. When asked how the manual iris and focus controls would compare to highly regarded models like Sony's EX1 or the Panasonic HVX, RED owner Jim Jannard responded, "I hope you don't mind if iris and focus work better than the EX1 or HVX"

The Scarlet will also have 2 channels of balanced audio and professional audio connectors. They haven't decided to go mini-XLR or standard sized XLR terminals, but that really doesn't matter.

The Scarlet lens will be built-in (sorry but no interchangeable lenses) with 8x zoom. It will be a T2.8 lens I believe.

    It can record 3K raw to dual CF cards, and Jim also mentioned the possibilty of external hard drive options, similar to the RED One.

Codec used in compression? You'll have 2.1K uncompressed in post, granted you have a good editing system, so the extent of compression is entirely up to you. I doubt you'll need to ouput in full 2.1K res, but you can compress it to 1080p, 720p or SD in post, like anything else. In post, you'll have the advantage of editing right from the source; Red creates Quicktime reference files during the shoot, so there's no compression. If the Scarlet workflow is similar to that of the Red One, you can edit with Quicktime Proxies in a quarter or a half resolution with great ease for your rough cut, then finish in full res.

Weaknesses? Well considering it's Resolution, Frame Rate, and Image sensor is unmatched by any camera within it's vicinity, whatever downside there is, it's probably not too bad.

The most problematic to me? Post production. Definately. REDCODE RAW footage works hand in hand with Apple Macintosh systems, but don't operate so smoothly on PC based sysytems. I expect they'll improve it; they already have, a bit. Scarlet will also require a pretty nifty program to run it (Final Cut Studio is preffered; Avid and Adobe are ok too). You need a pretty darn powerful computer to edit Scarlet footage; like a Mac Pro or a Macbook Pro. Maybe iMac, but I don't know...

Another weakness: Memory. 3K RAW has one downside; it takes up a #@$% load of space, so you'll probably want to purchase a nice External Hard Drive with RAID protection, like that manufactured by G-tech.

The biggest downside of all: you have to wait until 2009 to buy a Scarlet :(  cuz they're not available yet

I sincerely apologize for my endless rant-- I got carried away. Big time.

Well, it has truly been a pleasure, even if it isn't reading through all this....Anyways, feel free to contact me if you want to have a RedChat :)

My best,