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My Next Camera – The RED ONE – A Video Blog with Raw RED Footage for Download
UPDATED 2/26/10: Red ONE RAW R3D Footage now ready for download at the bottom of the page. I have been talking about buying a camera for months. I am selling a house to buy it. A $65,000 investment. I have been looking at the Sony PDW-F800 and was nearly certain that would be the right choice for me. It is a broadcast camera and I work in broadcast television. So it is an easy decision? Right?? But then I shot with the RED. Everything changed. The RED camera is unlike anything I have ever used. Two of the most amazing things I learned about the RED is that the sensor is 5000 degrees kelvin and the ISO is 320. To adjust the ISO and COLOR TEMP you are simply changing metadata. These corrections can be done on location, for proper looking visuals or done in post with enormous freedom. The only thing you must be aware of is clipping the whites. Once you clip a white, no metadata adjustment in the world will save your detail in post. In fact, the RED camera laughs at you because the white clip is a ghostly green in the blown out area!
I rented a Nikon RED mount for this camera so i could use my old Nikon manual glass. The mount was very tight and worked very well, but if I do this right, I will buy RED lenses with PL mounts. I will not use any old Nikons. I also learned that you must set the viewfinder to REDSPACE so that you can see the ISO change on the screen. I was shooting in RAW viewfinder mode very confused for the entire first day. Nothing changed in my screen when I added ISO! But, thanks to Twitter, I got the help I needed. The color is amazing. I love color grading and you could spend months just grading a single shot. Plus, this camera works very well in low light with great detail. Then there is high speed shooting. I was so excited to shoot “overcrank” 60p on my PMW-EX1 when I first got it. But the resolution was just 720p and 60 FPS was not enough frames for me. A phantom is too expensive, but the RED ONE shoots 2k at 120 FPS, still not enough for me but much better.
Over the last few days, I have figured out this camera to be comfortable with it. I had to return it to my friend two days ago. I already miss it. I shot non-stop for three days without stopping to eat and with minimal sleep. Since using it, I have already landed a paid gig with a major production company shooting stuff at 120 frames per second 2k! I have clients asking me to run the RED before I even own it. So, second week of March, I will rent a RED for the gig because I am not quite ready to be a RED user (isn’t that a website?). I am very lucky to be in a position to be able to afford a camera and a very expensive kit of cine lenses at this stage of my life. I knew it would happen eventually, because television is my life, but I never thought I would buy into digital cinema. But as we all know, with the explosion of shallow depth of field HD SLRs converging into broadcast television, there is a place for this type of camera system in my craft. I am buying a RED because it will put me on a path to creative television. No more shooting sports from a fixed location, with limited responsibilities. Commercials, promos, live events, documentaries, natural history, experimental work are all possible with a RED camera.
This RED can lead to the MX sensor, allowing me to shoot up to 250 FPS. Then the RED path will take me to EPIC and all of its offspring (scarlet). The only problem is getting the RED to fit my ergonomic obsession for perfection. The thing is a pig. Plus, I only see a few more solid years with a strong back, so it is now or never. It may be a pain shooting with the rig, but when you sit down in post and work with the raw R3D files, it all makes sense. Take a look at this video blog I shot on the first day really using the camera. I have no idea how to operate the camera properly, but the more hours I put into it, the more easy it becomes. The key is to take notes on settings and look at them in post with a keen eye for improvement.
Also on Vimeo here: http://www.vimeo.com/9568996 This video was de-saturated because I was shooting in RAW viewing mode and unaware that I was clipping video information. I hated the “green clip” on the white snow. I was not using a matte box and will do so in the future to help control this. Plus now I look at the histogram! Oh, and I need a follow focus and an AC. I am currently working on a skateboarding short titled, “Boston Skate” to be edited shortly. This past weekend, I used the RED, Sony PMW-EX1/Letus Ultimate and Canon 5dmk2 to shoot a quick documentary about five Boston Skaters. Stay tuned for that. Here are a few shots from REDCINE-X (free download click here) to show you how much you can grade RED ONE RAW R3D files. Again, I am stunned that ISO and color temperature are metadata and can be manipulated freely in post.
These files are straight off the RED hard drive as recorded by the RED ONE camera. All I did was change the name of the file. These are native RAW files at RC36.
42 comments to My Next Camera – The RED ONE – A Video Blog with Raw RED Footage for Download |
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Copyright © 2012 Tom Guilmette - All Rights Reserved |
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Tom… great stuff and love the walk through of settings for the Red. Keep em’ coming!
My mistake. I initially said that the F800 would probably payoff sooner but the RED ONE Looks amazing! It doesn’t get much more sharp than that. Great work.
Hi Tom, I just want to reiterate what PatC said: upgrading a RED One camera to the Mysterium-X sensor gets you the extra sensitivity but NOT the extra framerates. You will still be limited to 120fps @2k.
The 5k Epic will be able to do 250fps @2k, however. Even though the Mysterium-X sensor is capable of higher framerates, the guts of the RED One just aren’t fast enough to process all of that extra data.
Tom,
Thank you so much for sharing your footage. There are so many of that have been waiting to play around with it and compare it with their own.
thanks for the footy Tom.
Tom,
Thank you so much for sharing – I have been looking for interesting clips to work with in RedCine – Red One or Epic are on my list!
thanks for posting the footage.
what is the normal workflow with red footage?
Do you edit natively in premiere pro or do you change it to pro res or something. I would think it better to leave it in native format would be best.
Mike
Tom, I stumbled across your blog and even downloaded a bit of your footage to look at! Thanks for posting it! Just fyi, don’t know if you’re a FCP or Adobe guy (I use all Adobe stuff, have forever it seems), but Premiere CS4 can edit native .r3d files, without having to use RedCine-X at all. The same metadata-changing menu exists within Premiere after you install the Red plugin. Also, Premiere CS5 will be able to edit multiple layers of .r3d footage (http://blogs.adobe.com/davtechtable/2009/12/sneak_peek_adobe_mercury_playb.html) check out the video there, it’s pretty amazing stuff!
Anyway, sorry if I sound like an Adobe salesman, I’m truly not! I myself am patientlly awaiting the Scarlet cinema to come out, hopefully later this year yet!
Thanks again for posting all of this!
Great stuff Tom as always. Really cool camera. I am happy you are in a position to purchase one as you have the creativity to utilize a tool like this.
Tom, I think you need to ditch this whole idea and go for an F800. The RED just leaves too many unaswered questions for your workflow. Plus, I think the RED is going to cost you a lot more than 60k in the long run because you will continue to “kit” it out. Get the broadcast camera and keep your broadcast client base happy. Plus, its a little late to be jumping on the RED bandwagon. By the way, wheres this scarlett that you said you were getting when it is DEFINATELY RELEASED IN FALL 2009. I wish RED would write some checks that they could indeed cash. Hmmmmmm
Im so jealous! Great work bro!
The company I work for has a RED ONE, and we love it. IF you want a great camera today, go with the RED ONE, and plan on upgrading to a EPIC in the future (smaller, light, faster, better) with the thought or being able to re-use many of your RED ONE accessories. We also have a Nikon mount and tend to use our 28-70mm F/2.8 lens for some shooting, and it looks good. (We rent Zeiss Super Speeds when we need to, but the RED Primes are supposed to be really good as well.) Your editing options are many, and if your final product is HD instead of 4k, that makes it even easier.
i want a red epic, but it looks like i will be getting a sony f800 for now. i can make money with that xdcam right away. perhaps someday i will get into an epic when it is available for direct purchase.
How much is Red paying you for the advert, but thanks for the
raw footage.
p.
red paying me?! HA!
i cant even get the new RED MX sensor! i am way down on the totem pole for sure!
Hi
Please would you explain why you used Kelvin 5600
and iso 125 on the Ice Hocky Scene.
Thanks.
CR
iso and color temperature is metadata. it did not matter what i shot it at. the sensor is 5000 kelvin and the iso is native at 320. you can change it to whatever you want in post.
Look into a Birger mount.
i have. that is what i would buy if i went red and canon “L” glass.
Those are some lovely shots, terrific slomo. But they look a bit smoothcam to me. Is it because you chose to shoot with a 360deg shutter? Perhaps shutter speed of 240 at 120fps would give a more filmic temporal response. Check out some rants on red centre podcast, J Wingrove goes on about it for good reason.
Great work!
hey tom, the red one shots are awesome, i did what you said and did some editing of the wide winter lake for a video test and it looks awesome!
hey tom if you want to check out the demo vid i used with you red one shot the link is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx98d5IXF_s