Red DSMC

Pros, Cons, and remaining questionsPublished November 13, 2008

Written by Joey

Photography introduced me to the 'new media' evolution. I currently do community management at Meraki in San Francisco, but this blog is about journalism, some UX design, and the occasional rant. more →

@joeybaker | joey@byjoeybaker.com

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The Red EPIC, configured as a still camera. (I think)

Well, someone finally did it. You can finally build your own camera. Cobble together all the parts you want with Red’s new Epic or Scarlet systems and you get a custom configured video/still camera. It’s a shame the thing is so darn expensive. As far as I can see: Pros

Dynamic range: 11+ or 13+ stops!!
FPS: 30+!!
Unless you go real low end, you’ll be getting really good resolution.
You can use Canon and Nikon Lenses!
If you’ve got the money to put into accessories: configure your ‘brain’ as a still camera one day and then a video camera, the next.

Cons

Price, you’re gonna have to spend a boatload to get a decent setup. ($7000 to use Nikon or Canon Lenses)
Judging from the configuration above, this is gonna feel like a medium format camera – the fast and light of a DSLR might be outa the question.
The earliest we’re gonna see anything is Spring 2009, and most likely won’t see the whole line until 2010.

Things I still wanna hear about

Storage: 24MP at 30FPS is gonna add up fast. Are we storing on harddrives, huge flash drives, what?
They claim this huge dynamic range: trust, but verify.
Will there be an optical viewfinder?
How much do accessories like the DSLR grip cost?
What about flash? There doesn’t seem to be a hotshoe.