New, cheaper S35 versions of RED V-Raptors now available

The long mooted S35 versions of the RED V-Raptor and V-Raptor XL are available to pre-order as of now and offer a significant saving over the original versions.

After a few months where everyone knew they were coming, but nobody knew exactly when, the S35 versions of the RED V-Raptor and V-Raptor XL are available to pre-order now with an expected delivery date of late March. And they’re a good bit cheaper than their VV counterparts too, saving you $7k and $5k respectively.

The camera is essentially the same as before, just with the 8K Super 35 sponsor swapped in for the original VV one; it has the same 16.5+ stops of dynamic range, fast cinema-quality sensor scan time, and impressive low-light performance. It’s still a fairly significant swap though, as several markets, such as wildlife, broadcast, and traditional motion picture productions, still show a marked preference for S35 lenses.    

Large Format, the argument goes is great, but sometimes you need to be shooting in a slightly more compact format. S35 provides all the aesthetic with added portability.

So, reasons RED, for wildlife that gives productions access to zoom lenses such as the Canon 50-1000mm which has the size and weight and flexibility for a wide range of environments; for live event coverage it allows productions to highlight shallower depth of field, slow motion playback, or higher resolution supporting a wide range of popular lens choices; and for cinematographers it allows them to use S35 and RED at the full 35 megapixels of 8K rather than the previous ‘mere' 20 megapixels available with the V-RAPTOR 8K VV at 6K Super35mm.

Various different production packs are available to help people start shooting straight out of the box, but the body only base price is $17,995 for the V-Raptor 8K S35 and $34,995 for the V-Raptor XL 8K S35.