First off, go familiarize yourself with Scarlet’s tech specs, if by some unlikely chance you haven’t yet.
I’m still trying to puzzle out the relationship between the Epic and the Red One (which Red will continue to sell after the Epic starts shipping). The Scarlet, though, Red’s new 3K (and $3K) “professional pocket camera”… I’m pretty sure I’ve got that all figured out.
Why no interchangeable lenses?
One issue that has been raised over on RedUser is why the Scarlet doesn’t have interchangeable lenses, perhaps using low-cost SLR lenses. This notion doesn’t make a great deal of sense.
I think there’s definitely a market for a reasonably priced indie filmmaker’s camera with a photo lens mount. But it requires a Super 35 sized sensor to be practical (the widest 35mm SLR lenses available aren’t nearly wide enough for a 2/3″ sensor sans adaptor) which is substantially larger than a 2/3″ sensor. If my math is right, the Red One’s sensor has about three times the surface area of the Scarlet’s sensor, and anyone who knows anything about chip fabrication knows that costs climb very steeply as chip size goes up.
In other words, that indie filmmaker’s camera with a photo lens mount? It’s a Red One with a Nikon or Canon EF mount, which you can buy today (or soon, with EF). Would it be nice if there were a substantially cheaper and smaller camera body that did everything the Red One did? Sure. And there probably will be… if you’re willing to wait a few years.
Seriously though, this thing is nuts
Scarlet has a 2/3″ sensor. That’s already pretty nuts for $3K. I’m not aware of anything with HD resolution and 2/3″ sensors for under $10K, though I admit I haven’t been paying as much attention to the HD camera market since we jumped on board with Red.
Scarlet also has a 3K bayer sensor and records fairly lightly compressed raw data. This means it’ll probably produce a better 1080p image than any sub-$10K camera. (At least with good light… three chip cameras might do better in low-light conditions.) Maybe any sub-$20K camera (with the obvious exception of the Red One). That’s freaking insane! Oh, and it records across a wider variety of frame rates than a $50K Varicam. For $3000! This thing is nuts!
Who wants one?
The relatively slow lens may make this camera impractical for e.g. event videographers and documentary folks, unless the new sensor has higher sensitivity, of course. Record times might also be an issue, though larger CF media may solve this problem before the camera is shipping.
As a camera that can go places a full Red One rig can’t easily go, Scarlet will certainly be a great second camera for Red One owners. Perhaps even more importantly in the long run, though, every film student and low-budget filmmaker in the country who can scrape together $3K (but not $35K for a shootable Red One package) is going to buy one. And incidentally, become familiar with Red workflow…. In other words, Scarlet is a sort of “gateway drug” for higher-end Red products. This is absolutely brilliant, and I predict it will have some significant negative consequences for Red’s competitors over the years to come.
I was kind of hoping for the Scarlet to have an approximately S16mm sized sensor and use S16 lenses, which would have been a great compromise. A 2/3″ sensor is about 8.8×6.6 mm, while a full aperture S16 frame is about 10.25 x 7.5. That’s 1.66 aspect, though, so a 16:9 sensor of the same width would be 10.25×5.75 or so. That’s not a whole lot bigger than the 2/3″ sensor they’re promising now, and would probably make the camera worth another 1000-2000 dollars. Getting S16 glass is quite cheap, many documentary filmmakers own some, and it’s cheap to rent.
Personally, I think that would have been an awesome option, especially since it would fit the Red model so well, with the Red One/Epic being 35mm replacements, and the Scarlet being a S16 replacement.
The issue with putting (probably) a PL mount on the Scarlet to let it work with Super 16 lenses is that such lenses are not cheap. Unless Red wanted to introduce its own line of cheap S16 lenses as well, there wouldn’t have been any widely available glass options for a PL-mount Scarlet. Yes, there is some interesting used S16 glass circulating… but there just isn’t enough of it out there compared with the volumes the Scarlet will probably sell in.
but it certainly good to have a OPTION. look at sony’s EX3. it comes with the standard fujion lens, but you can put a 35mm lens if you want or have to.
Hi there, One question : Why do people compare the Scarlet to the HVX200 ? Why not comparing it with the Sony’s EX1 or EX3 ? Will the Scarlet have a place considering that ? Will it have better image, sensibility, workflow and price ? Not sure… Time will tell, as usual
I just hope RED will sell this camera finished, not as a Beta like the RedOne still is 
Enter the Digital Age Short Film Competition for a chance to WIN the RED SCARLET over at the Red Digital Cinema Community sKarlets.com