James Cameron bought 50 RED EPIC-Ms

[mikkowilson]

50 isn't that many cameras for a big high end production.

Production time is so expensive that you always want spare cameras around.

And gear does fail; and you can't afford to have downtown because of a tech issue like that.

Shooting 3D, that's only 25 rigs. An advanced action sequence can use many cameras; especially one-time effects.

Plus with many units shooting, each with a few spares around. You'd burn up 25 pretty quick on a project where money is no object.


REDs won't work for Motion-Capture cameras. Even when shooting at full speed in lower resolution, the Epic tops out at 120fps IIRC. Mo-Cap camera systems run at thousands of frames per second; and are very very carefully synchronized as a whole system (only one camera is firing at a time in sync with it's Infra-Red LEDs to prevent false readings from the other cameras). They take special hardware from the sensor on out.


Not really sure what James is doing with the EPICs though, as they aren't the cameras used in the Cameron-Pace fusion camera system. I would assume that at this stage it was a technology test.

Cameron-Pace also just took delivery of the very first of a new version of the Arri Alexa; which is a serious camera that, honestly, kick's the RED's butt. Arri has been making movie cameras for decades. They are basically *the* name for film cameras; and the Alexa is one of the top digital cinema cameras in the world.

But the Fusion system on A1 used Sony cameras, not Arri (or RED).

But when you have all the money you could shake a stick at, and the respect of every one else in the industry; you can play with as many toys as you want.

- Mikko