RED Scarlet – hints to interchangeable lenses – Nov 3rd event

by Sebastian WöberSeptember 29^th, 2011

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The long anticipated “Scarlet” camera by RED digital cinema finally seems to be coming to life. A camera we first heard about 3 years ago that was announced as a 120fps capable 3K resolution cinema camera. In the meantime the specs have changed several times.

When first announced the camera was expected to be sold in 2009 for $3000.
We’ve been waiting ever since.

Jim Jannard, ceo of RED has announced to release the changes they’ve done to the Scarlet and also publish shipping info on November 3rd, which coincides with the Canon Hollywood event, also to be held on Nov 3rd where many believe a low cost 4K cinema camera is to be announced.

It looked like the Scarlet was set to be designed with a fixed lens, a downer for many filmmakers who enjoy the speed, shallow depth of field and quality of interchangeable prime lenses.
A look at the RED online store reveals what could very well hint to a Scarlet camera that does allow detachable lenses. The screenshot above shows a 85mm RED pro prime lens that is marked for compability with the Scarlet camera.

The same info can also be found on all other lenses in the RED online store.

One can easily suggest this “leak” hints to a fact, but the truth is that leaks and rumors are what drives marketing today, so we want to injest it all with a grain of salt and read between the lines.
What I think the Nov 3rd announcement by RED means for us is that it is very likely that the Canon event is as important as many believe and is in some sort of competition with the RED Scarlet. I think one can expect RED to know much more about that Canon event than most of us meaning that what motivates the arrival of the Scarlet doesn’t just come from a lucky guess but rather the pressure that is building up in light of the arrival of a real competing Canon camera.

Thanks to Rodolphe who shared his findings with us.