Red vs Cinealta

[Pawel Achtel]

I believe 3 Monkeys was shot with an F900R and Zeiss DigiPrimes. And you can see the sharpness and detail that amazing glass rendered!

It's always the glass, isn't it?

Also, I think they bypass'd the cameras internal deck (3:1:1 HDCAM) and used the HD-SDI out to an HDCAM-SR deck to record the camera's native 4:2:2 signal.

That would be 4:4:4 for HDCAM-SR, not 4:2:2.
The 3:1:1 of HDCAM is not necessarily inferior to 4:2:2, just different.

I fully agree about the glass and I would add lighting, critical focus and all the production qualities other than the camera that largely contribute to the final result. The drawback of HDCAM is that you have to nail the colours and gamma on set, whereas, if you record raw, you have much more latitude to "fix it in post".

 

[M Most]

That would be 4:4:4 for HDCAM-SR, not 4:2:2.

HDCam SR can record in either 4:2:2 (single link) or 4:4:4 (dual link). Since the F900R is single link 4:2:2 only, that would have been the mode that was used.

 

[Uli Plank]

We had a chance to work with both a bunch of REDs and a Sony 35 at "Hands on HD" under indentical conditions. To put it short (I could write a book on this…):

In a Sony you can do a lot of tweaking in camera to create a look or adapt to specific lighting situations – but you need a experienced technician to do this. Kind of "in-camera lab". The RED is leaving this all to post (and is easier to handle on location). Very different philosophy here.

The Sony is definitely better in DR and at low-light – but at the expense of some typical CCD problems like blooming (under extreme conditions only!).

An both cameras still have some bugs ;-)

Was there anything else worth to mention? Ah, yes, the price …