Notes On Video

I’ve been waiting on the RED announcement, because I was a little concerned that it would confuse my interest in the Canon 5D Mark II. Finally, RED has announced their new plans for the DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) System . What they have done is designed a new product line that consists of different sensor blocks that work with interchangeable pieces. In theory, you will be able to buy the 5K model now, and upgrade to the 6K model next year. There’s some limitations (for example, the 3K uses a different lens mount to the 5K and 6K models.) If the marketing materials are to be believed , and from what I can see, the “cheapest” Scarlet - the 3K ($2,500) - features a C-Mount, not a Canon or Nikon mount, and isn’t expected until the Summer/Fall. If you want to use Canon or Nikon lenses, you have to get the 5K, which is $7,000. And that’s body only. You will need several other bits and pieces to get going. The other thing is that assembled together (see picture) it looks like q...

It’s a quiet news day, but the week could shape up to be more interesting. RED is supposed to make a big announcement on Thursday . Of course, they won’t actually be shipping anything; they’ll just be announcing new products that probably won’t turn up until sometime in the middle of next year, if that. The image – that shows what look like XLR audio inputs – is kind of interesting. But the really interesting thing is the ship date and the price. Meanwhile, MGM will be posting full-length movies on YouTube . I’m not sure I want to watch a whole movie at current YouTube resolution; maybe they’ll improve it for the movies. The other question; will we want to watch the ads? The only obstacles to Google and YouTube getting more studios to post full-lengt movies is Google's insistence on a particular ad format, say the sources. They declined to say which ad unit Google prefers. The other hurdle is that some studios are skeptical that users will accept all the ads that need to accompany ...