There seems to be a lot of interest in comparing the Scarlet with that old standby of no-budget Indie filmmaking, the HVX200. It’s a little screwy to compare a camera that’s already on the market with one that won’t be out for a year (or more; I love Red, but they don’t exactly have the greatest track record for delivery dates), but I suppose it’s useful to put things in perspective for folks who are familiar with the HVX.
Scarlet is clearly going to generate a better image than the HVX, which resolves, in testing, somewhat less than 600 vertical lines. If Scarlet’s measured resolution is around 75-80% of its sensor’s pixel dimensions (which is about what the Red One is; can’t think of why Scarlet should be different), it should resolve about twice that many vertical lines, meaning around four times as much detail overall.
Now add high-bitrate raw recording. Processing the Scarlet’s 3K raw recorded image down to 1080p is going to produce something hard to tell from a 4:4:4 image, vs. the HVX’s 4:2:2 recording. So, we’ve got super-sampled 4:4:4 1080p vs. subsampled 720p 4:2:2. (Yes, the HVX has a 1080p recording mode as well, but the chips resolve a bit less than 720p, so the only real benefit is fewer compression artifacts.) Plus, you get all the advantages of raw recording, that I’ve discussed extensively in the past.
Of course, Scarlet is single chip, and three chip cameras sometimes do better in low light. But keep in mind it has a 2/3″ sensor. That’s measured across the diagonal. If you double the diagonal, you quadruple the surface area, so Scarlet’s single sensor is larger than the HVX’s three sensors combined. And that nice large sensor gets you shallower depth of field as well.
The HVX will probably still have some advantages for workflow (though it’s not impossible that by the time Scarlet ships, working with 3K REDCODE RAW in FCP will be as easy as working with DVCPRO HD currently is). And it does have a more conventional form factor, which might make some folks more comfortable. But specifically for no-budget indie filmmakers, the Scarlet is clearly the better camera, hands down, no contest. And even if Panasonic does introduce an HVX replacement by then, it’ll probably still cost twice as much as the Scarlet.
You forgot that Scarlet will work with CF cards, much cheaper and much more available than P2 Cards.
Actually, the price of CF cards isn’t that different from the P2 prices. The new 16GB cards from Red are 550 dollars, 16GB P2 cards are 850 dollars. The new 32GB P2 cards from Panasonic are 1550 dollars, which isn’t that far from the Red price. Of course, you get much more video duration on a P2 card than on a Red card, given the difference in compression rate.
As for availability, well, you pretty much need to buy cards from Red, they’re the only ones guaranteed to be fast enough.
I’m not that impressed. The pixel density on a single bayer sensor means that the individual cell size will be smaller than the HVX which translates into noisier. (The cells are only 3.2 microns) It also translates into needing much better glass to realize that better resolution. You’ll have to spend a few grand to get that resolution, you can’t slap on any old lens on the 2/3″ scarlet. Couple the scarlet with middling glass and you’ll not get any better images off it than an EX1, maybe worse.
They should have used the same cell structure as all of their other cameras, 5.4 microns, This would yield a larger sensor for even better shallower DOF, better S/N, and more forgiving of glass.
Cell size can’t be taken independently of sensor resolution, because downscaling also eliminates noise.
As for how the 2/3″ Scarlet will stack up against the EX1 generally, well, the EX1 is a much more credible threat in terms of sensor specs than the HVX200, but where it falls apart, I think, is with the recording format…. 35 megabit long-GOP MPEG2 vs. 366 megabit (42 MB) Redcode. Over ten times the data rate and a more modern codec. And raw sensor data rather than a processed video image.
Ummm…been looking around finding details about the scarlet…I’m super excited about it. I think I will probably be getting the entry level kit with the 8x fixed lens. $3750 is awesome considering what you get. Depending on when I get this, I may have it in time to try and convince Full Sail to allow me to use it for my Final Project. It’s doubtful though as they really want us to know learn and master 35mm. It’s just a shame that they haven’t hopped on the RED bandwagon and at least purchased a few RED ONE’s to teach a class on.
Nate,
if you think red is better then film you need to think again. red is only a tool not a replacement for 35mm. If you want to shoot with a cmos wanna be film camera over the real thing your wasting your money at school. drop out, get a scarlet and become a big Hollywood director. because im sure there isn’t going to be 3billion kids just like you with the same camera putting out the same nonsense because you don’t know the basic’s of film making…high 5 to fashion bro…
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