To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade

The film industry is about to enter into a very strange time for camera technology.

Canon EOS 5D

Back in 2005, a new age had begun for the indie film scene: the Canon EOS 5D came into the market for a cost of about $3,000. It was the start of what we now call the DSLR revolution, a time where digital cameras began replacing professional 16mm and 35mm film cameras on the indie scene. Before that time, film students exclusively used actual film cameras or dv tape recorders. Suddenly, higher quality images were much more accessible to the average person. It only took a few more years before Hollywood caught on and the RED One was born circa 2007-2009. This was the first 4k resolution digital cinema camera that began replacing film cameras on studio sets. In 2010, the Arri Alexa entered into the high-end market. It’s been a decade since then. Arri and RED are still the most popular cameras for television and theatrical films. But that’s all about to change very soon. The first hint of this was around 2013 when the Black Magic Pocket Cinema camera came into the scene. It had a small s16 sized sensor, and only recorded in 1080p resolution, but it boasted a ton of dynamic range and raw image capability, and it was priced at only $1,000. It had its problems, and wasn’t a very popular system, but it offered a lot for the price.

BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera

Last year, when Black Magic finally released the new Pocket 4k and 6k cameras with all the quirks finally worked out, pricing them at $1,000 and $2,400 respectively, everything changed forever. RED Digital Cinema, which has been a company that’s always been caught between the indie and professional markets, was forced to respond with something comparable to the pocket 6k and at a lower price than they’ve ever offered.

That’s where the new RED Komodo camera comes in…

RED Digital Cinema has announced they’ll be releasing a brand new camera system sometime in 2020 (we speculate it will probably be around the end of the year). The RED Komodo will weigh in at only 2 pounds, its largest dimension being only 4 inches, while boasting a 6k global shutter sensor that is larger than a normal super 35 sensor. It will utilize hot-swappable Canon BP batteries and non-proprietary CFast memory cards. The kicker— It will be priced around $5-6,000. This is still much more expensive than the Black Magic Pocket 6k, but it showcases an incredible paradigm shift. Cameras are getting smaller, lighter, and all around better, but the cost of entry is only continuing to shrink. Perhaps industry politics will keep up the cost of higher-end cameras for quite a while longer, but things are definitely seeming to change in a big way.

RED Komodo Closeup - Image Credit: Jarred Land

Our RED Scarlet-W in action on a commercial shoot

This bodes the ultimate question for filmmakers such as ourselves: to upgrade or not to upgrade? Neuway Media has been shooting on two RED Digital Cinema cameras exclusively for the last 4 years: a RED Scarlet-W 5k and a RED Raven 4.5k. Both of these are incredible cameras. When we originally bought them in 2016, the full packages costed over $15,000+ each. However, their resale value is about half the cost today, barely more than a new Komodo.

The new Komodo would drastically improve our workflow simply because it’s smaller and lighter than any RED we’ve ever used, allowing us to run a film set as if we were shooting on a DSLR in 2005. So it’s tantalizing to say the least. Not all the specs have been fully released for the Komodo as of yet, so we’ll keep waiting and watching to see if this will be a camera worth investing in. It’s highly dependent on whether we get in early on the pre-order, and how long the shipping gets backordered. (In 2016, we waited 9 months to get our cameras after we purchased them!) But as for now, the Komodo is a very likely candidate for a future upgrade!

When it comes to camera technology, it’s always a battle to own the latest and greatest tools and it sometimes feels impossible to keep up with the times. We’ve been shooting on our current cameras for 4 years and they’re already being replaced by new offerings in the market. Obsolescence is impossible to overcome; however, there’s always the option to rent cameras instead of buying them outright. There’s an excellent argument to be made that this approach allows you to always use the latest gear on every shoot instead of sticking with one system for years at a time. On the other hand, it’s not only more convenient to own our own gear in-house, it also expedites our production workflow, allowing faster turnarounds and a more consistent end-product. As camera systems like the Komodo get cheaper and cheaper it will only get easier to continue owning our gear. One thing is for sure, the future of technology in the film industry is very exciting, and we can’t wait to see how the industry continues to evolve.

To learn more about the RED Komodo, check out this awesome write up by Cinema5D