Heath McKnight posted a review and analysis of the new RED EPIC-X digital movie camera at the Digital Facility blog. The people at RED were the first to really break into the high-end movie production field with the RED ONE, a digital camera that rivaled the resolution of the industry standard Panavision 35mm film camera, and accepted the same lenses as the Panavision (which enabled cinematographers to capture more of the traditional film effects they wanted), at what was estimated as a cost 1/50th of that of a single Panavision film camera, without lenses (Panavisions weren't available for sale, only rental).
The specs on RED's latest camera, the EPIC-X, simply blow away both the RED ONE and Panavision. The EPIC-X captures images at a 5K resolution (higher than the current industry standard for digitizing older 70 mm films), can capture up to 120 frames per second at full resolution (film standard is 24), and has one of the best dynamic ranges of any camera, film or digital. It's also half the weight of the RED ONE, and records images on SSD drives that can be popped out of the camera and into an editing station. These features also suggest that the EPIC-X offers filmmakers a new degree of flexibility in how the capture scenes. With the associated RED STATION, you can make non-destructive tweaks down to individual frames, and output files in virtually every format and standard. Basically, the new RED equipment seems to exceed just about every industry standard for film production, at a mere fraction of the cost.
All this leads to McKnight's summation - "The RED EPIC-X is truly a celluloid killer, and it's being used on everything from mega-blockbusters like the upcoming Hobbit and Spider-Man films, to independent filmmakers and video producers."
Between advances in digital film equipment and the rising cost of traditional film stock, I expect more and more of the movie production industry to go fully digital. As that happens, look for more and more movie distributors and theaters to shift to digital formats as well.
Source - RED EPIC-XL Jeremy Wiles and Creative Lab, Digital Facility
All this leads to McKnight's summation - "The RED EPIC-X is truly a celluloid killer, and it's being used on everything from mega-blockbusters like the upcoming Hobbit and Spider-Man films, to independent filmmakers and video producers."
Between advances in digital film equipment and the rising cost of traditional film stock, I expect more and more of the movie production industry to go fully digital. As that happens, look for more and more movie distributors and theaters to shift to digital formats as well.
Source - RED EPIC-XL Jeremy Wiles and Creative Lab, Digital Facility