For a few years now consumers have been bombarded with claims of how glorious HD programming is, and how the “True” experience starts at 1080p. Surely the same sort of hype surrounded the introduction of color to black and white television programming; nothing could ever be better – right?

The advancements in film entertainment over the last several decades have been quite astounding. Within a single century we’ve gone from the first mechanical televisions systems (1907), to an astounding 30 lines of resolution (1927), to the first TV commercial (1930), to the introduction of cable television (1948), to the first color standard (1950), to the first practical remote control (1956), to the introduction of Dolby Surround to average consumers (1982), to the first real format war between VHS and Betamax (1986), and to the sale of the billionth television set (1996). Of course, let’s not forget the start of the digital revolution with the introduction of DVDs in 1996, and the current fuss over the best HD resolution. The advancements listed are only a minute fraction of all the discoveries and innovations that have befallen the industry over the years, and there seems to be no slowing down. So, what’s next?

Over the last year there has been steady push towards marketing the highest resolution and scan rate currently possible, namely 1080p; but who ever said that it had to stop there? The developers over at the Red Digital Cinema Camera Company (try saying that three times fast) certainly have no intention of stopping at a mere 1080 vertical lines of resolution. Hell, they’re striving for an astonishing 4520 lines of progressive scan with their current camera project. With his new camera, named the “Red One,” the company’s founder, Jim Jannard, hopes to offer a comparatively low-budget, high-resolution camera capable of recording resolutions up to 4520 x 2540 at 60fps.

Jim Jannard, the same guy who founded Oakley, was deeply disappointed with the quality and price of existing studiograde cameras and was convinced that he could do a better job himself, so he founded his own company to do just that. Not only is the Red One capable of delivering 12 megapixels worth of moving imagery, getting one (and probably more) won’t break the bank. Unlike other professional solutions, such as Sony’s HDC-F950 which goes of a lax $115,800, the Red One is available for mere $17,000.

Now, at this point you might be thinking, “Hey, this is great and all, but my TV doesn’t even do 1080p…” Well, don’t worry; mine doesn’t either. Anything higher than 1920 x 1080 probably won’t appear any time soon in commercial TV sets. The infrastructure simply doesn’t exist to broadcast such hi-fidelity content. Interestingly enough, there aren’t even any “True HD” broadcasts available. The HD programming being pumped into my set from Comcast right now consists mostly of 720p with a dash of 1080i, and all of it is high-compressed and full of artifacts. The only 1080p sources that are available today are a limited selection of overpriced HD DVDs and Blu-Ray discs – and, of course, there’s always the Playstation 3 with its meager selection of decent games that actually support it. Hopefully, though, the movie theater industry will realize the full potential for the extreme resolutions that the Red One is capable of and overhaul a few auditoriums.

More specs on the camera:

Sensor: 12 Megapixel Mysterium™

Physical Size: 24.4mm x 13.7mm (Super35mm)

Active Pixel Array: 4520 (h) x 2540 (v)

Full Pixel Array: 4900 (h) x 2580 (v)

Dynamic Range: > 66dB

Depth of Field: Equivalent to 35mm Cine Lenses (S16mm with windowed sensor)

Acquisition Formats: 2540p (4k+), 4K, 2K, 1080p, 1080i, 720p

Frame Rates:

Variable
1 – 60 fps	2540p, 4K, 2K,1080p, 720p
1 – 120 fps	2K, 720p (windowed sensor)
50 / 59.94fps	1080i, 720p

RAW output:

High speed serial interface
1 – 60 fps	2540p, 4K
1 – 120 fps	2K (windowed sensor)

Video Outputs:

Single and dual link HD-SDI
2K	4:4:4 RGB
1080p	4:4:4 RGB
1080p	4:2:2
1080i	4:2:2
720p	4:2:2

Digital Media Magazine:

FireWire 800/400, USB-2 and e-SATA interfaces
RED-DRIVE™	hard disk drive (40 – 160GB)
REDFLASH™	flash memory (32 – 128GB)

REDCODE codec:

Variable Bit Rate, Wavelet
RAW
10 bit	4:2:2	1080p / 1080i / 720p
10 bit log	4:4:4	2K

Audio: 4 channel uncompressed, 16 / 24 bit, 48KHz

Monitor: Flex mounted High Resolution LCD, High Resolution color EVF (optional)

Weight: Around 9 lbs (without lens, battery and external viewfinder)

Construction: Aluminum alloy