Yes, I’ve still relatively recently purchased my own HV30 camera, and it’s doing a wonderful job with what I’m using it for (I’m actually anxious to start some more demanding productions to really put it through its paces). But lately, my camera aspirations have turned to RED.  Specifically our oft-discussed budget camera from RED, the Scarlet.

The thing about the Scarlet was that it was going to be a 3K HD camera aimed at the independent filmmakers specifically.  The ones that can’t exactly shell out the $20,000 for the RED One, or the additional $30,000 for its lens packages.

The Scarlet may well be a lot more interesting than that.  Over the last several months RED has been showing off prototype renders, and specifications, and promises of a product in 2009.  However, almost a month ago, RED chief Jim Jannard made a post to the Scarlet User Forums announcing that almost everything about the Scarlet has changed.  They had apparently gone back and re-factored their design decisions  “because the market has changed and we have discovered a lot of things in the process. We have a new vision.”

This is exciting and scary.  In later posts Jannard reassures contributors that the timeframe isn’t pushed back, that they’re catching this at the last minute.  He also assures that this is the right decision for RED, and ostensibly those of us who are still salivating over the camera.  But the original price point of the camera was at about $3,000 — not a cheap camera by modest expectations, certainly compared to the HV30; but incredibly powerful in comparison to the indy film workhorse the Panasonic DVX-100 (of which my collaborator Trey personally owns two, by the way).  So even if the price goes up, it’s unfortunate, but ultimately worth it.

The question is what caused this refactor?  Lately the biggest splash in high def video acquisition on a budget has been the latest Digital SLR cameras from Nikon and Canon.  The Nikon D90, as well as the Canon 5D Mark II, both feature huge sensor sizes and the capacity to shoot high definition video.  These are not without caveats, however, since both Nikon and Canon imposed certain limitations in their hardware — the Canon only shoots 30 frames per second, and the Nikon camera has no microphone inputs.  Both cameras suffer from inherent “issues” with their CMOS sensors refresh ratethat never affects a still camera, but makes video the proverbial “Jello-cam”.

All this being said, though, I’m looking forward to it.  The competition between RED, Nikon, Canon, and others mean that the shape of photography and filmmaking are coalescing, and as both Trey and myself are always predicting, it’s going to be an amazing outcome.