The Red One

the Red One Review:
Now that we are on Build 20, and Red digital has had plenty of time to sort out its own issues (at least those that can be remedied with new firmware), I feel as though I can finally give my honest review. Out of ten, I give this camera... drum roll please... an 8.5 out of 10. Lovers of the camera will think this is too low and haters will think it's too high. Both are right.

Negatives:
1. This camera is not made ergonomically. Red's accessories for building up the camera are ungainly and awkward. The soulder dovetail is painful and awkward. The only way to comfortably operate handheld on this thing is to buy the far superior Element Technica accessories. But even then, it's still ungainly and the weight distribution is very strange.

2. No slow motion in 4K. In order to shoot at higher frame rates, you have to take the resolution down to 3K or 2K.

3. Any shooting mode other than 4K HD 16:9 in REDCODE36 is not fully utilizing the censor. In fact in any other aspect ratio, you are not using the full censor, which brings us to our next problem.

4. When you shoot in 3K or 2K, part of the censor is covered and you lose 35mm depth of field. This means that if you want to shoot slow motion... you're shooting without the depth of field you want. They should find a way to have full censor 2K.

5. The data system is not perfect. Right now the best way to use this camera is to record to 16GB cards. The red drive is untrustworthy. Drop frames and failure are a constant risk when recording to a spinning drive. The 8GB cards are useless, you can't shoot 4K HD 16:9 in REDCODE 36 on them. That sucks. The 32GB cards are nonexistent. They don't make them. Of course if you ask any of the lovely tech people at red (and they are lovely and always easy to reach) they will say that 32GB cards will be out soon... well we're waiting.

6. Overheating! This thing overheats like crazy. I had a friend shooting in Kentucky during the summer. His camera crashed while in the middle of nowhere and he had to reinstall the build (aways have an SD card with whatever build you are on installed on it! Always!).

7. Audio! Ugh! The Red's audio inputs are mini-XLR, forcing you to buy their silly proprietary mini-XLR to XLR adapters. Also, the audio controls on board are terrible. If you have a mixing board you can get acceptable audio, but even then it isn't really ideal. The best way to do audio with the Red is to mount a mic on board for reference audio and get your real audio from something else. It is sad however that even my old Canon XL-2 records better audio than my fancy shmancy Red One.


Positives:

1. At the end of the day... the footage from this camera looks great.

2. The slow motion is smooth.

3. Customer support. Red's website is easy to use, and they make it very easy to download firmware, codecs, and programs like red alert and red cine (for footage management and on the fly color work). Also when you call Red, they are very helpful and it doesn't take too long to get a human being on the phone (sometimes in my nightmares I'm on hold with B and H, getting tossed around from department to department, shutter).

4. Did I mention, the footage is just gorgeous and since build 1 has gotten better in subtle but meaningful ways. I love shooting on it so much!

5. Lens adaptability. I frequently shoot with PL mount lenses, but... I do not own any. I own Nikon mount lenses, Zeiss primes and Nikon zooms. If you get the Nikon mount zeiss primes and buy some gear rings and step down rings (for easy use with a follow focus and matte box) these lenses will serve you very very well. Eventually I'm sure they will release a Canon lens adapter, and they should.

6. Easy to use interface. The interface is extremely intuitive, it can be picked up very very quickly.

7. 4K is preeetty!

8. Red is allowing Red One owners to trade in their camera body for a credit of $17,500 to put towards to $28,000 Red Epic body. This is amazing. Sure you still have to pay a pretty penny, but you don't have to start from scratch. You can pay $10,500 to upgrade to the next generation, which is already seeming to be much better than the Red One in terms of ergonomics, high speed frame rates in 4K. And of course, 5K resolution. Of course the larger epics take you into much larger formats (including 28K or so they say).


All in all, it's a great camera, it's my prized possession, I would let it sleep in my bed if my girlfriend would let me.