4K NAB WAR - SUMMARY

[Tony de Vries]

$13,200 – RED Scarlet: 16-bit 4K RAW

To be fair, you need to invest a lot more for a complete system.

[Jay A. Kelley]

$13,200 – RED Scarlet: 16-bit 4K RAW

To be fair, you need to invest a lot more for a complete system.

Agreed... We did an overview video for red102.com for those who were considering buying an Epic or Scarlet.. We put together a bare bones setup and figured the cost.. I cannot remember the exact amount for the life of me, but perhaps a member who saw it recently can chime in.

Jay

[PatrickFaith]

$10,000 – Sony FS700: 12-bit 4K RAW
$13,200 – RED Scarlet: 16-bit 4K RAW
$25,000 – RED One MX: 12-bit 4.5K RAW
$30,000 – Canon C500: 10-bit 4K RAW
$38,000 – RED Epic-X: 16-bit 5K RAW
$60,000 – Arri Alexa – 12-bit 3K RAW
$65,000 – Sony F65 – 16-bit 4K RAW

To me, RAW is critical in learning the craft and the camera's to learn the fundamentals of photography/cinema (i.e. which requires understanding RAW) are all way too expensive. My super-8 mm taught me so much, it was the "starting" RAW of the day, with a clear path to 16mm and beyond.

Thanks for compiling the list, allows a clear perspective on the problem.

[Bill Anderson]

"No Film school" left out the Black Magic Cinema Camera: 2.5K Raw @ $2800 (includes a full DaVinci Resolve, and UltraScope). It isn't "4K", then again it isn't 1080.

[adam r]

Till now this is the best summary of NAB 2012
4k camera availability, and is courtesy of nofilmschool.

...

For all of the RAW cameras (except RED), you’re going to have to
add $5,000-$10,000 (or more) for RAW recording ability.

Please add/comment and put this in perspective for all who
were at NAB or followed it via the Net.

Yusuf Thakur
VFX,Dubai.
www.vfxme.com

Do you mean $5000 to $10000 for in camera SSD's, and also HDD's to back them up on to?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

To be fair, you need to invest a lot more for a complete system.

While that is true, it applies to all the cameras on this list. And that is where the discussion becomes very muddy as each users' needs vary as well as the configuration options to build a "complete" system. FWIW, you can be ready to shoot, except for a lens, for under $15,500 with the Scarlet-X -- That gets you delivered to your door the camera with AL Canon mount, side SSD, 5" touch LCD, 64GB SSD, 2 RedVolts and charger, RED SSD mini reader. The $13,200 listed for the Scarlet-X is for the brain with side SSD and the Ti PL mount. You can shave $1500 off that by electing the AL Canon mount instead.

The biggest thing going against some of these other cameras is the need for the expensive and bulky external recorders.

[Patrick Grossien]

The only way to compare price is with the smallest ready to shoot configuration with equal amount of media and battery power measured by recording time. without any surplus gear. That's the only way to really figure out what the deal is with all the cameras. 13.200 for scarlet makes no sense at all but neither does comparing with any of the collections because of the media you get with it, which you never get with any of the other cameras. also would you need to include the pro I/O to compare it? would you need the touchscreen and the bomb or would either one be sufficient? it goes on and on... there's just too many variables.

[Patrick Grossien]

You can shave $1500 off that by electing the AL Canon mount instead.

... 1,300 ;) the price for the canon al mount is $700 now, not $500 anymore.

sorry for being a smart ass ;)

[Tom Lowe]

Yes, EPIC/Scarlet are 16bit.

REDCODE RAW is 16 bit?

[Will Keir]

I didn't realize that either. Are there post solutions to cc in 16bit color?

and I thought 10-12 bit was incredible. Any CCs able to chime in here?