Possible DSLR Technology in RED?? Please..

[kprince]

I have a Canon 5D and I have to say the "servo" focus assist is nothing short of amazing.
Couldn't this be passed on to a video camera?
I mean I can select one of several focus points in my composition and follow it at almost any speed (granted my shutter speed is up to par) and grab a shot with razor sharp accuracy.
I guess it's like having a focus puller that's on speed and always dead on.
I know it's the lens doing all the "pulling" but I have a 400 dollar Tamron lens and it's doing a damn fine job at resolving nearly 13mp.
Other Canon DSLR's can shoot 8fps, that's pretty close to looking like a Charlie Chaplin film, but damn sharp.
Seem's to me that storage is the issue here, or is it?

Please please please have an OPTICAL viewfinder.

 

[MarcusX]

I would like to see a prism that can swing away like the mirror in SLR camera. With that you could choose to have a real optical viewfinder with some loss of light or an external monitor without any loss of light.

 

[dvpixl]

I've always wondered how an optical viewfinder would work on a digital camera?...i mean, doesn't that mean you wont know what you will get until you review it?

 

[John_Moore]

Ha, boy, does that ever sound like the 'film look'. Film it, then go look and see what you got. Film-look. Get it?

 

[mmm]

I've always wondered how an optical viewfinder would work on a digital camera?...i mean, doesn't that mean you wont know what you will get until you review it?

The Arri D-20 has an optical viewfinder.

To me the D-20 appears to be the closed thing to a 35mm camera without using film. The Genesis is somewhere between that and a F900.

Both those cameras are pretty big and heavy, so I'm not expecting the RED to be some palmcorder. I think it may be in danger of being a little over-hyped.

 

[joe 1008]

I disagree. I´m convinced that video-cams with big single-chips are evolving from the digital SLRs. Have a look at the new Panasonic LUMIX DMC-L1: It has a 4/3 sensor that provides a permanent live-image to the monitor, so there isn´t any optical viewfinder needed anymore. The next step would be to store that live-image to a memory-card. I couldn´t find any information about the resolution of that live-image - but would it be too much to assume that a 7k sensor could provide a 1k live-image? Anyway:
I bet we will see a digital SLR with HD-recording-fuction within 48 month.

 

[Stephen W]

I disagree. I´m convinced that video-cams with big single-chips are evolving from the digital SLRs. Have a look at the new Panasonic LUMIX DMC-L1: It has a 4/3 sensor that provides a permanent live-image to the monitor, so there isn´t any optical viewfinder needed anymore. The next step would be to store that live-image to a memory-card. I couldn´t find any information about the resolution of that live-image - but would it be too much to assume that a 7k sensor could provide a 1k live-image? Anyway:
I bet we will see a digital SLR with HD-recording-fuction within 48 month.

But how do you focus a 4k camera with no optical viewfinder? There isn't even (currently) a 4k monitor that you could use on-set for focusing (and if there were, the current "video villages" that accompany the Genesis and the like would look tiny).

 

[joe 1008]

The solution would be something like the focus assistant you have on the HVX or the JVC hd100. In both casese it´s said to be quite easy to focus - (I didn´t have the possibility to try them, yet) and nor the HVX nor the JVX hd100 have a HD monitor. So: a similiar system on a small 1K or 2K HDmonitor should work for 4K.
Anyway: I am not very interested at this point in the possibilies of 4K. I would be very content with, let´s say the resolution of the HVX, the DOF of 35mm, good lowlight performance and all that in a compact and lightweight body. Thats why I´m looking at the generations of digital SLR to come: Sooner or later they will provide that feature.

 

[Stephen W]

The solution would be something like the focus assistant you have on the HVX or the JVC hd100.

Mmmm, yeah. I can just see that going down oh-so-well with the Pros!

 

[toke lahti]

So: a similiar system on a small 1K or 2K HDmonitor should work for 4K.

Making external monitor mandatory for focusing, cancels a lot of document work from red.
And this viewfinder issue is extremely critical for red.
New cheap hd cameras have lcd's that don't even have full sd resolution.
More expensive hd cameras have crt-viewfinders that are in 1K range.
Electronic viewfinders that would have more resolution just don't exist.
"Zooming centerpart" solutions are not nice, they are used as a last resort.
They distract compositing and do not help if you need to focus somewhere else than in the center of the frame.

I think that even if red's imager does not need a physical shutter, there should be a rolling shutter in the body. Then you can have optical viewfinder if you want. And if you don't, you could just stop the shutter and use electronic screens and enjoy the shutter angles that are not possible with physical shutter.

Thats why I´m looking at the generations of digital SLR to come.

Dslr's have one problem: they need a shutter. That is needed to use those high quality imagers that they use. Even if the camera could shoot 24fps, the shutter would last about 2 hours of shooting and then you would have to buy a new camera. So, for movie work dslr would need a different type of imager or rolling shutter. I think that both of these alternatives are something that still photographers do not need, so it is quite unlikely that either of these will happen.
Compact still cameras lack of two things: picture quality and resolution from their lcd's, so they are not the solution either.

 

[joe 1008]

Toke: The more I learn about the difference of digital still cameras and digital video cameras the more I understand why actual still cameras do´nt deliver a high-quality-video-image, yet. But I´m simply an optimist and still convinced that there is´nt any absolut limit that divides those two tecnologies forever. The new Panasonic LUMIX DMC-L1 for example has a 4/3-Live-MOS-Sensor that provides a constant live-image to the viewfinder. They call it a digital dslr without an optical viewfinder - and obviously the sensor delivers a contant image to the monitor without the need of a shutter. Yet, there is´nt any information aviable if you can store that life-image as a movie - but why should´nt it be possible?