Ultra Hi-Def: New Oakley RED camera

From Gizmodo:

"Finally officially announced at NAB 2006 in Las Vegas today, the RED ONE camera is the latest greatest project from Oakley founder Jim Jannard, a serious photography and video buff who owns about a thousand different cameras himself. The RED ONE is designed to be a modular, upgradable system, so users can add hardware, software, storage, handling and monitoring accessories as they’re developed or needed; a wonderful idea in itself, but check out its other specs:

Typical high-end HD camcorders have 2.1M pixel sensors and record with 3:1:1 color subsampled video at up to 30fps. We deliver 11.4M pixels at up to 60fps and record RAW, or 2x over-sampled HD in 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 - your choice. That’s more than 5 times the amount of information available every second and a vastly superior recording quality. Don’t need all that data for your workflow? Dial it back, and keep all the other advantages of the Mysterium Super 35mm cine sized (24.4 x 13.7mm) sensor. You get the same breathtaking Depth of Field and selective focus as found in film cameras. Mysterium boasts a greater than 66db Signal to Noise Ratio thanks to its large 29 sq. micron pixels. And 11,480,800 pixels deliver resolution that can only be called Ultra High Definition.

On an Apple forum thread about the price of pro cameras just a few months ago, someone was guessing the RED would go for about $250k, but the RED site is saying $17,500 MSRP. They’re taking reservations now, $1k deposit and a maximum of five reservations per customer, but the fine print says they make no promises as to final list of specifications, availability or price, only that if you reserve the price will be set for you."