With NAB 2018 right around the corner, it’s only a matter of time before we’re inundated with all the latest camera and gear announcements coming out of the show. I’ll be at the show on the first day to check out the latest announcements and will report everything back on the blog, so be sure to stay tuned!
In the meantime, I’d like to speculate on what announcements RED might make at the show: Affordable 8K cinema camera.
News broke back in February that Foxconn, the Chinese company best known for making iPhones and MacBooks, would be teaming up with RED to create a cost-effective cinema camera that would have a much smaller body than any similar cinema camera and be able to capture 8K footage today.
This is a sentence from Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou─
“We will build a camera that can shoot professional-quality video at 8K resolution, but at one-third the price and one-third the size of current cameras.”
Little is known about the camera at the moment, but we can certainly make some educated guesses based on what we know about Foxconn and RED.
The most interesting thing to me is the mention of the size of the camera. Current RED cameras are already quite small, especially compared to more standard cinema cameras like the Arri Alexa. But is the camera only 1/3 the size of RED? That would be small. Smaller than a single-lens camera…
This makes sense to me, as RED has recently been trying to enter the prosumer world with their Hydrogen smartphone (which will likely be released this summer) and the Raven, which is now sold through Apple.
I can only assume this new camera product is aimed at the same crowd: semi-professional or avid filmmakers who can’t afford a full RED setup but want RED quality in a smaller, more affordable package.
Regarding pricing, I’m more optimistic about this camera than others since the rumors started circulating. Understandably, many people accustomed to RED’s pricing structure and modular system believe that this camera may actually cost quite a bit once fully assembled. But personally, I wouldn’t rush into making such an assumption.
At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. But if RED went to the trouble to create an “affordable” cinema camera and partnered with Foxconn, a company known for its consumer products, why would they simply make a slightly cheaper RED camera? We already have Scarlet and Raven…and from the sounds of it, this camera is going to do something completely new.
What I believe (or at least hope) is that this new camera will be closer to RED’s smartphone (Hydrogen) than the Raven or Scarlet… at least in terms of its market positioning.
If the goal was to create a movie camera for the masses (one you could buy on the shelf at Best Buy), this camera would probably be a hit. Should such a thing actually exist, the closest competitors would be digital SLR cameras (especially in terms of cost and size), but of course no digital SLR camera will be able to shoot 8K anytime soon.
BTW – I don’t really care about 8K, but having RED quality in a camera of the same size/high end mirrorless camera? That’s awesome.
In an ideal world, I imagine this camera to be built somewhere between a smartphone, a digital SLR, and a compact camera. Oh, and it works out of the box, no peripherals required.
This means it has a built-in monitor, integrated battery solution, and accepts common media like CFast cards. It doesn’t require a full set of peripherals or accessories to get up and running, but if installed, will have all the right outputs/functions to use with the accessories.
Here’s my best guess at where RED and Foxconn might go…
Obviously, this is all speculation. Maybe this camera will be something completely different and I might be off target. But based on what we know about the camera so far (pricing and size), RED’s recent direction (more consumer-friendly products like Hydrogen), and its partnership with Foxconn (known for making products for the masses), I think this is a good guess.
Whether my assumption is correct or not, I hope we hear something about this at NAB 2018 next week. It’s impossible to know how far along this product is in RED’s development process, and maybe it’s too early for us to hear anything at all. But if we do, and it breaks new ground in a prosumer market that’s still largely dominated by digital SLRs, that could be exciting.
Stay tuned next week for more NAB announcements, news and videos!
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