If you’re an aspiring or professional filmmaker, you’ve probably heard about RED’s line of 8K digital cinema cameras—more specifically, their groundbreaking Weapon 8K Vista Vision™ full frame cinema camera, which is their first 8K camera released in late 2015. If you haven’t, you might want to read on.
RED first made headlines in 2015 for their then-upcoming highest resolution camera due to its seemingly ambitious and overreaching specs, until it showcased its breathtaking results the same year. Subsequently, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2” made history in 2016 by being the first feature film shot with the RED Weapon 8K VV™ camera.
Many viewers noticed first-hand just how much more detail it offers for the big screen following the release of the Marvel movie, or at least how badass the movie ended up looking.
But apart from resolution, there’s actually a lot more to this high-end digital cinema camera than meets the eye.
Best-in-Class Cinematic Image Quality
In the behind-the-scenes feature of the movie, Director James Gunn and Director of Photography Henry Braham mention that they were specific about their camera choice and clearly wanted everything that RED’s Weapon 8K had to offer in order to bring their CG-heavy movie to life.
First of all, it was important that their cinema camera met the minimum requirements of cinema image quality and size for the big screen. The Weapon 8K’s sensor size offered more at 40.96×21.6mm, which is significantly wider than the usual full-frame 35mm (36x24mm).
Moreover, their Weapon 8K camera ensured impressive dynamic range, advanced color science for superior results no matter the lens, high speed shooting at 60fps, along with a powerful sensor that intends to further exceed the flexibility and beauty offered by the best cinema cameras.
Futuristic 8K Resolution
When Gunn announced that they would be using an 8K camera for their second installment of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” many questioned the need for an even higher resolution camera. After all, 4K cameras were highly regarded in cinema production and RED already had an existing 6K camera.
As it turns out, the world could use all the added resolution. Even for 4K cameras, you don’t always get the maximum amount of detail possible due to the naturally occurring process of debayering, during which surrounding pixels are interpolated, leaving you with only as much as 70-80% of the proposed resolution.
Therefore, an 8K camera still doesn’t get you a full 8K resolution, but RED’s 8K cameras offer more pixels than you actually need for the cleanest and most detailed multi-dimensional output that a cinema camera can offer to date.
The RED 8K camera helped bring forth the future in digital cinematography, and we don’t mean by further encouraging the need for computer-generated graphics. Instead, it finally allows moviemakers to take it a little easier on the CGI and record ultra-detailed, real-life imagery that goes well with the special graphics, all while adding some much-needed realism in a superhero flick.
Perfect for Complicated Camera Rigs
The Weapon 8K is highly capable of adapting to the demands of elaborate cinematography, especially that of an action movie. As Braham puts it, the Weapon 8K was “a large format camera, and yet it’s tiny.” It was compact and light enough for weird angles, hand-held closeups, and different kinds of rigs throughout the entire production.
One particular edge of the Weapon 8K is that it was easy to attach to spider rigs that allowed the camera to fly across wires for those immersive in-action scenes. And for a movie like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2,” which is made to be viewable on IMAX, the RED 8K camera was clearly the more convenient choice, compared to a heavy, bulky, and loud IMAX camera.
As you can imagine, working with the RED 8K camera was definitely easier than switching between different camera setups for different kinds of scenes.
Endless Creative Possibilities
The RED 8K’s highly detailed output has undoubtedly given moviemakers countless possibilities in reframing, visual effects, supersampling clips, and other post-production measures without having to reshoot an entire scene. However, RED Digital Cinema is just getting started.
Since making cinema production history with its innovative “little big camera,” RED has developed similarly counterintuitive camera “brains”–including their upgrade to the Weapon 8K VV™ called the Weapon 8K S35, which features their enlarged HELIUM 35.4 Megapixel CMOS sensor and 8K 2.4:1 resolution of up to 75 fps. You can find the full specs on the Weapon 8K page of their website.
Adorama now carries RED Digital Cinema products, including their amazing line of professional large format still and motion cameras.
