Today has been a big, big day for U.S camera company RED. I've been following closely the threads on the reduser site, in the build up to todays announcement and am as shocked as anybody at the scale of their plans for a camera system. It had been generally thought that there would be 2 camera systems, one low end for indie shooters and one higher end model for top end production. What they have planned for next year though, is a completely modular and scalable camera system, encompassing still, video, film and 3d production. The principle will be to change the " brain " at the center of the system to suit the productions needs. While this probably won't affect the vast majority of stills photographers just yet, for those shooting stills at the higher end or anyone involved in shooting both mediums, this development is promising.

With footage from the recently released Nikon d90 and Canons new 5DmkII now widely analized, it seems like the concept of still/motion picture cameras is already becoming accepted. The RED system, promises to leap frog the whole game. With the latest DSLRs being marketed as now reaching 24mp, RED have blown this figure through the roof, with a proposed 6X17 sensor for 2010 at 261 MP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A large panoramic sensor ( or brain ), which is capable of shooting motion. If this can be pulled off, then everybody who enjoys watching film will benefit, not just those behind the camera. Just to give some idea of what this is about, the 2/3 inch "tiny" sensor at the top, is considered more than adequate for 1080 HD production. Compare that to the Monstro at the bottom of the page and you'll have some idea of what I'm talking about. At 50,000 us dollars it's slightly out of reach for most panoramic photographers, but within the system as a rental item on high end production I can see this having a lot of uses.

I want to be in the cinema, when the first film shot with one of these is released. Ade