RED Camera, HDX 900 Prep

Today I prepped a 3 day job--2 cameras, RED and a Panasonic HDX900. Standard RED Camera package with Arri ultra primes. The move to build 18 version 3.6.0 is exciting. I'd used 18 before, but most of the rental cameras are still on build 16 (being the most stable build). Sadly I cannot be specific about the changes between builds; and will note only the immediate improvements I saw. Among them, 4KHD was added to the resolution list- with this resolution setting there is no need to scale or crop your QuickTime proxy settings before editing. For example, the high resolution proxy is 1920x1080. So by applying your look in camera your offline editing can start immediately. This applies to 2k and 3k shooting as well. There are some additional metering functions; the most interesting of which is the raw histogram option in the view finder meter menu. Timecode out option will be big for sound. Lastly I'd like to point out the addition of user definable aspect ratios as well as exportable user settings. Check out the Red User pages for a full list of improvements.

Ran a few tests at the rental house. Everything downloaded and played fine. No sound issues. Have not taken it through a full post, but do not foresee any issues. Tomorrow is HDX900 only, fortunately I have cine style lenses. Nothing too exciting- informercials rarely are. RED Camera the following two days. Best part of this job is that we will be dumping QuickTimes to DVC Pro Deck to speed imput into their post production pipeline. Sadly this workflow does not does not take full advantage of all RED has to offer, so we will be doing a lot of painting in camera.

Yeah, the photo's not a red camera, but me and my Captain sure can prep.