RED Digital announced the Scarlet handheld specialty camera at the NAB 2008 conference this week (in Vegas of course), and it's a potentially red-hot build. Due to its high-quality, sexy-looking specs, they're already calling it, rather sheepishly, the 'Pocket Pro.' No joke required here, other than the fact that when its whole build is set up, the camera is most definitely not large enough to fit in anyone's pocket.
The Scarlet has a 2/3-inch Mysterium X sensor, 8X t2.8 Zoom lens, and can shoot up to 120 frames per second at a 3K (3000 pixel) resolution. That is high, though not as high as last year's RED One camera. Some of the other quality features include the 100 MB/second capture rate of RAW HD video, and a burst option at 180 fps. But the best feature is probably the simple recording into CompactFlash cards that you can keep switching around when they get full, so that you never have to stop shooting.
The NAB Show is a yearly gathering of video and broadcasting professionals that used to feature only the super high-end stuff for the consideration of showbiz insiders. Thankfully, pro cameras seem to be getting a little simpler and high-end consumers are likely to try them out instead of the top prosumer models, which explains the rather large show.
So if you've ever wanted to run off with a Scarlet in the middle of the night (while experiencing a mid-life crisis/renaissance in a comfortable but creepily austere Japanese hotel), this probably isn't quite the right one. But if you have $3,000 and a penchant for the latest portable pro camera, the Red Scarlet might be a better choice.
Photos: RED, and mikedcurtis
