Dollars to Datarates

NoFilmSchool has an insightful analysis of the perceived vs. actual price difference between the Canon C300 and the Red Scarlet X.

For all intents and purposes, both of these cameras are $16k (without lenses), and both of them are shipping in 2012.

From the Canon C300 FAQ

The Devil is in the details. Canon has posted a FAQ for the C300, and there are some interesting tidbits to be found therein.

• This is a brand new sensor, “designed from scratch by Canon, entirely for cine and video applications.”
• The native ISO of the camera is 850.
• Canon thinks that with their Canon-Log color space, the camera allows “800% overexposure… which translates to …an Exposure Latitude of 12 f-stops.” Graeme Nattress of Red disagrees.
• Graeme also points out that Canon is not obsessed with proper spelling.
• There’s a built-in waveform monitor overlay.
• And focus-asist peaking (which I learned here).
• No autofocus. Hilariously, Red promises that Scarlet X will autofocus your Canon lenses. File that under Red out-Canoning Canon tonight.
• There’s built-in vignette reduction for Canon lenses. EF-mount version only.
• Maximum ISO is 20,000, or 30dB of gain.
• You can specify shutter by angle.
• “The EOS C300 is equipped with three built-in, durable glass ND filters” Two stops, 4 stops, and 6 stops. Very nice.
• “When the Slow and Fast Motion setting is enabled, frame rate selections can be made in one frame per second increments…” So apparently you can shoot at funky frame rates.
• Everyone has been talking about how 60 fps recording is limited to 720p, but that’s not entirely true. The C300 also has 50i and 60i modes. So you could shoot 60i with a 1/120 shutter, and convert each field to a frame using the method I describe in The DV Rebel’s Guide for slow motion. Although this is likely to result in more flicker artifacts than simply shooting 720p60.
• A 32 GB CF card will hold 80 minutes of footage at 50Mb/s.
• The camera has two CF card slots. You can record across the two cards, or you can record redundantly to the two cards.
• A separate Wi-Fi unit will be offered that will allow any smart phone or tablet with a web browser to control basic camera functions.
• It has a fan.
• “Canon Log and Cinema Lock options allow motion picture users to get a very flat, low-contrast result that’s ready for extensive color grading during the editing process.” Nice.
• “Canon Log is a log gamma setting that retains maximum image information for post-production. It has high dynamic range and records the image with a flat image quality with subdued contrast and sharpness. This is ideal for color correction.”
• “Cinema Locked Mode… enables Canon Log Gamma, and effectively ‘locks out’ any other image adjustments. This is a no-nonsense way for cinematographers to ensure that all settings are optimized for post-production, without having to dig deep into menus to check and re-set parameters back to zero. It simplifies the whole process to ensure that no matter what, you are getting the most out of your camera for post-production.” Very nice.
• There’s a “View Assist feature” designed for those shooting in Canon Log who wish to monitor a more pleasingly contrasty image. “When it’s active, View Assist lets the user toggle back and forth from the flat look of an actual Canon Log file, and a generic, contrasty and saturated look that simulates typical results after color grading in post-production.” Again, very nice. There are some expensive cameras out there that require external hardware to accomplish this.

When you contemplate this camera’s seemingly high price point (reported to be anywhere from $16,000 to $20,000), you have to factor in all these little details. Many of these seem to me to bear the fingerprints of Canon’s Larry Thorpe, formerly of Sony, who was at the event today, knows more about cameras than anyone I’ve ever met, and was the first person I called back in 2008 when I began to sense that Canon might need help understanding the profound effect of the 5D Mark II on the filmmaking community.

There’s some very cool stuff here. And if it breaks, you can have it fixed or replaced at Canon’s new service center smack in the middle of Hollywood.

Red certainly seemed to sweep Canon’s leg today by pitching a Scarlet that out-specs the C300 at half the price, but I’m not content to leap to any conclusions without comparing these cameras—and the ecosystems that accompany them—at the atomic level. Allegiances are convenient. Analysis is difficult.

And Scotch is delicious. Goodnight.

Scarlet X

The Canon lens makes me think of those “Who wore it better?” celebrity fashion pieces.

As promised, Jim and Red revealed a new incarnation of Scarlet tonight, Scarlet X. Gone (for good it seems) is the fixed-lens, 2/3” sensor configuration. Instead, Scarlet X is basically an Epic, but with innards that didn’t quite pass muster for Epic’s heavy data throughput. The result? A camera that looks like an Epic, feels like an Epic, and shoots like an Epic—but with reduced resolution and frame rate capabilities. Specifically:

• 1–25 fps at 4K
• 30 fps at 4K “quad HD” (presumably 3840x2160?)
• 48 fps at 3K
• 60 fps at 2K
• 120 fps at 1K

Those are windowed resolutions, so they change your lens’s Angle of View as well as your pixel count.

Here’s how it’s priced. (Al means an aluminum Canon mount, as Epic X was slated to use; Ti means a titanium mount, which Epic M shipped with and now Epic X as well.) And you can order it now—if you can get through over at red.com.

There’s an FAQ post here with many details.

By all indications, Scarlet X does more than Canon’s C300, for less money. But things are rarely that simple.

Update on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 9:24PM by Stu

Engadget, who have been inexplicably covering all this very well (as if these cameras were “gadgets”), has a nice clear shot of the frame-rate/data-rate/resolution matrix.

Update on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 11:39PM by Stu

Even better.

Live Unicorn Coverage

Today promises to be a big day. At 3pm PST, Canon will make a product announcement at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. And although the slogan above is theirs, presumed to indicate a digital cinema offering of the kind we’ve been begging them to create, it could equally describe the state of the insular community of future-camera fanatics following Canon’s invitation. Jim Jannard of Red responded by declaring an event of his own later that same evening. At 6pm tonight, the details of Red’s long-awaited (and NAB-demoed) Scarlet will be revealed, possibly having been tweaked to better battle Canon’s offering, but not so much as to prevent Red from taking orders.

Then came the speculation. And the expectations. There’s a great summary of the Sturm und Drang over at FreshDV.

The venerable Mike Seymour will be covering both events and live-blogging them at fxguide. That’s where I’ll be watching.

Update on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 12:14AM by Stu

Oh, and something from Avid too. Reister here for a 1PM EST webby-streamy thing.

Discover what has professional editors talking and find out how to edit like you’ve never been able to before. Join Avid for an exclusive webcast—Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 1 pm ET (10 am PT).

Update on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 3:04PM by Stu

Fxguide is having server issues, but engadget is covering the event and surviving so far. You can also follow @fxguidelive on Twitter for updates.