Pirates of the Caribbean 4

[Eric Lange]

Well at least it doesn’t use bloody vacuum tubes.

I think there’s something inherently different when you are using solid state arrays of one sort or another;

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06...boylesmith.asp

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/n...er-optics-pio/

A Nobel prize well deserved.

CMOS especially, very different animal.

Digital means something and so does “Cinema/Cinematic Camera”;

It all becomes a mouth full so do we say, “Cinema capable, digital acquisition system”

[For a moment there I thought we were all in big “trub”]

[Ivan Kovax]

Well guys, if we want to play a definition game...

The root of the word VIDEO come from the word VIDERE in Latin which means "to see". So technically our eyes are the best provider of video footage of all (well except mine until I get LASIK :)

But seriously, I think Jim is right. From day one here in Japan I have been trying to define what clients call video such as to not lump red in with the rest of the cameras. People have a natural tendency to use previous understood terminology to describe new technology so I guess it was only natural for people to call red "video" or a camcorder, as much as I disliked this.

So I started explaining to them how the red one is 1/2 in between your DSLR and 35mm film. They got it then.

[Jannard]

So... let's recap.

RED is not a video camera by definition. So I guess we get to call it whatever we want. We say that The RED ONE and EPIC are digital cinema cameras (that is the primary target of use) that shoots high resolution (up to 5K Bayer Pattern) REDCODE RAW (variable compression RAW) to various types of media but primarily solid state. Pretty easy stuff.

I'm not sure why anyone would have a problem with this... and it doesn't really seem to smack of marketing other than the names of the cameras and REDCODE (which is our proprietary invention).

Added- I guess I forgot that we can also call them DSMC (digital stills and motion cameras)...

Jim

[David Mullen ASC]

The war of words can get a bit silly, when someone wants to insult Red by calling the Red One a "video" camera and someone wants to insult someone back by saying that they are an idiot for calling a Red One a "video" camera -- it just shows that both sides think there is something wrong with the word "video". In their case, you have to some degree, an agreement between them that video must be bad!

If you take one established definition of "video" -- "the electronic capture, storage, and even presentation of moving images, etc.", then the Red One, Epic, etc. are all "video" cameras. If you take the definition that recording to videotape has to be involved, then those cameras aren't video cameras, though technically one could take the 1080P out on the Epic (or 720P out on the Red One) and record it to videotape. The first definition of video is probably too broad today to be useful and the second one is also too narrow today to be useful.

Saying that if it gets used for digital cinema, it's no longer video is also a bit too broad because anything can get shown in a theater no matter what it's shot on.

So if saying that all electronic moving images are "video" is too broad a definition..

Anything recorded to tape is too narrow a definition...

Anything shown in a movie theater is not therefore video is also too forgiving, too broad (would be the same as saying that anything shown on television has to be video)...

Then what's the definition of "video"?

[Eric Lange]

Personally I wouldn’t let dictionaries or patent examiners define the terminology for ANY technical device, article, method or process!

[Kris Anderson]

Just read that the movie grossed over $360 million this weekend. Happy to have added my cash to that number because you know what? For all the opinions, is RED this, that or the other, Pirates 4 is entertaining people by the boat load, and that is all that it's about. Case closed.

For my 10 cents worth, what did it look like? It looked like a movie to me.

Justin, you're very entitled to your own opinions and I would always encourage someone to stand up for their beliefs. Perhaps, though, your opinions might be better served if you added experience and some... tact... so as not to make you come off looking the way you do. For me, a short reel of 3D models, probably done as some sort of class assignment, does not speak to an impressive body of work strong enough to support the weight of your suppositions and judgements.

[Eric Lange]

The intent is that it CAN deliver up to the most demanding standards required by cinematic applications, i.e. cinema CAPABLE; its digital (no denying that); so Digital Cinema Camera (the “capable” is redundant, given that the intent is completely understood).

So the comments that have come back are all about how filmic or beyond “Pirate’s” looks.

“pirates!, Pirates!, dum, de dum de dum…!” (remember?).

[Detlev Eller]

hmmm. ... i just think - IT LOOKS SO INCREDIBLY UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME like nothing ever before .... whatever that was called ... :-)

[Erich Ocean]

I would say that "video" cameras output one of the various TV signal specs -- NTSC, PAL, SECAM and nowadays the ATSC HD formats, and generally YUV. An Epic-M does have a "video" out on its HD-SDI port that can be configured to output a "video" signal. It can also be configured to output non-video signals, even though they are valid HD-SDI. Thus, an Epic-M can be used as a video camera, or not.

BUT The Epic-M's primary signal capture mode is REDCODE RAW, which is NOT a video format. Thus, I think it's fair to say that the Epic-M is not a "video" camera.

[Jannard]

How about RED is primarily a digital cinema camera that shoots RAW. However, it is also capable of shooting video out ports if you feel compelled to do that...

Why did this come up in the 1st place? I forgot. MM? Seems like the inference was that we were doing something wrong or sneaky... I take offense to that.

Jim