Red vs arri camera, which one is better?
Author: Shashank Sharma
The cinema has been derived from cinematograph itself, where cinematograph refers to a motion-picture camera. Well, this gives us the real picture with the camera being the heart of the movie industry. With changing times our very own bulky, black and white camera has also evolved and different variants have found their place in the industry. How do movies now have such breathtaking visuals and scenes giving us goosebumps with their picturesque attributes? It’s all about the kind of camera used to capture and present those visuals to look appealing on the big screen. Let us take a look at the list of top cameras used in the movie industry today. These cameras have been used in the most popular movies of our time. Two major categories which we are going to compare today are Red and Arri. Both the cameras have been used in a number of major Hollywood feature films. So, as far as the image quality is concerned both of them capture great quality photos suitable for theatrical releases, tv series, content for Netflix or whatever mode you are opting for.
- The basic ideology behind each camera is its target area i.e. both have been designed for different markets. Each has its own, unique strength and thus the difference between them. One is suitable for a particular kind of shot and other might be bad at that shot but really good at some other kind of a shot. There are so many intricate details that make them different on that scale.
- Resolution – Red dragon has 6k and 8k, Arri I so far restricted to 2.8k with a 4k version going to be recently launched. So greater resolution offers more freedom in terms of the capability of cropping the image. You can pan and scan in the frame as well. In effect if you imagine shooting a 1080 x project, which most movies do, you can get through your 4 different camera angles through your 8k sensor or an 8k camera angle. For instance, if you are shooting the interview with two people in the shot and you need to capture each and every gesture, background, close up shots of the people, all can be easily done with an 8k camera angle. Otherwise you’ll have to do it with multiple shorter resolution cameras, one for each kind of a shot, which is not a wise choice. There’s also a downside of higher resolution, though. The problem arises when you have to get a projector compatible with 8k resolution pictures. Even 4k resolution monitors are rare, so that’s a kind of a drawback of having a higher resolution camera. With ARRI you can have richness of colour because the resolution is lesser and thus, the pixels are bigger in size. It also improves the low light performance of the camera.