Camera manufacturer's NAB pre-announcements

[Damien Molineaux]

Red has started with new pics of and from Epic prototypes...

Tomorrow we should hear from Arri and Alexa's onboard recording module.

Aaton is not to be forgotten, check out this discreet announcement on their website : http://www.aaton.com/gallery/album01/DSC3490_top_view_001
The digital back for the Penelope seems to be coming together. I'm curious to hear more... from all the manufacturers. More competition : better & more affordable products.

I think we can thank Red for having given the industry a big kick in the arse, and getting them to step on it. I don't think these products would be where they are at now without them.

I also know Red is staying ahead of the game with regards to price/performance...

Cheers,
Damien
a.k.a earthling

 

[Mitch Gross]

Trust me, there are more on the way ...

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

I have said this many times: It's not about the equipment.. It's about the BUSINESS model.

Epic is modular. Which means you can buy what you want, and not what you don't. Later, when it's time to upgrade, your existing accessories will still be working.

This is what will separate Epic down the road.

Come to think of it.. Even now: We're getting Epics, but our Batteries still work (No uncommon) our LCDs still work, our RED Drives still work, our EVFs still work.

This is a big deal.

Jay

Jay

 

[shashbugu]

I have said this many times: It's not about the equipment.. It's about the BUSINESS model.

Epic is modular. Which means you can buy what you want, and not what you don't. Later, when it's time to upgrade, your existing accessories will still be working.

This is what will separate Epic down the road.

Come to think of it.. Even now: We're getting Epics, but our Batteries still work (No uncommon) our LCDs still work, our RED Drives still work, our EVFs still work.

This is a big deal.

Jay

Jay

Very well said Jay I cant agree with you more. All my life I have never had a life changing product and been able to make a suggestion to the CEO of the company that manufacturers it. That alone makes the RED camera even more revolutionary.

 

[Damien Molineaux]

I have said this many times: It's not about the equipment.. It's about the BUSINESS model.

...
Jay

Indeed, but this is also the idea behind the Penelope, maybe pushed even further : works with all film accessories AND you can shoot both digital and film. When a new sensor comes out, change the digital back. Works with off the shelf hard drives. Maybe have a digital back for outdoor daylight and another for indoor tungsten ?

Good stuff coming. Curious to hear about what other cameras and products will be revealed.

Cheers,
Damien

 

[Mitch Gross]

There are other possibly interesting business models that may work for some owners. Such as a "everything camera" that did many, many different functions. A person might be willing to spend more for this.

RED's model is a very interesting one and fills a huge niche, but it is no the only viable one.

 

[Rob Ruffo]

Much as I love Red, there is value in a camera that demands only one decision and research process, and give you only one item plus batteries and media to haul around the world and keep track of.

This is why ENG cams still have their place - simple plug and play.

 

[Damien Molineaux]

I don't mean to dismiss Red and all the "formidable" announcements they have already made, indeed one wonders waht else they will announce for NAB. I'm just happy to see other companies try to compete, and I lke to be able to find as much information as possible in one place (ie. Reduser). So forgive be for writing about other cameras here, I'm still a big Red fan, but I find Aaton's approach particularly interesting, more so than Arri's if I may say. Here's a little more info about the Penelope Delta (that's the Penelope with a digital mag). It offers both some form of, apparently uncompressed, raw recording and DNxHD, all onboard on standard SSDs. More info here : http://www.thefilmbook.com/top/aaton-penelope-delta-thefilmbook.php

Cheers,
Damien

 

[david farland]

Damien,
Any idea of price for basic working digitial model?
D

 

[Shane Betts]

I've always loved Aaton cameras and the Penelope looks gorgeous. It'll be interesting to see the price point of the whole kit. Epic's modular approach and minimum size configuration still gets my vote at this point.

I wonder who'll be first to come up with an onboard transcoder with the choice of Avid or FCP support? That could make a huge difference when selling your camera to a production. My guess begins with R, not A but time will tell.

 

[Greg Huson]

I wonder who'll be first to come up with an onboard transcoder with the choice of Avid or FCP support? That could make a huge difference when selling your camera to a production. My guess begins with R, not A but time will tell.

Unless I read it wrong, the AATON is recording both some kind of RAW and DNXHD at the same time, so it's Avid-ready (your onboard transcoder.)

Pay attention in the next few days, though- I suspect the next week will bring all kinds of workflow changes that may make some of this concern irrelevant.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

I leave for NAB tomorrow!

Woohoo

 

[Raphael Varandas]

See you guys at nab

 

[Mitch Gross]

Penelope-∆ has several recording options. The DeltaPack is 4x 2.5" SSDs raided together. It can record Uncompressed RAW or DNxHD of any flavor. Other codecs may be available by the time the camera is released. On an SDHC card the camera can record simultaneous DNxHD 36 proxies. The camera also has 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 HD outputs as well.

The price will be about the same as the top o the line Alexa, but there's n onboard Uncompressed RAW recorder for the ARRI camera at that price.

 

[Ido Karilla]

I wonder who'll be first to come up with an onboard transcoder with the choice of Avid or FCP support? That could make a huge difference when selling your camera to a production. My guess begins with R, not A but time will tell.

With Red's Proxy module and Avids's new announcmet of R3d and QT (H.264 and prores) support...... it looks Red has all the options.

 

[Raphael Varandas]

true...