The story
Founded by James Jannard in 2005, in Irvine.1
Red Digital Cinema was founded by Jim Jannard, who previously founded Oakley, Inc.. As a self-described "camera fanatic" owning over 1,000 models, Jannard started the company with the intent to deliver a (relatively) affordable 4K digital cinema camera. Jannard dates the idea to a time when he bought a Sony HDR-FX1 video camera and learned that the files had to be converted with software from Lumiere HD and were not viewable on Mac OS. Lumiere HD's owner Frederic Lumiere collaborated with Jannard on developing an alternative and introduced him to Ted Schilowitz who became Red's first employee.
The early team members engaged in undisclosed research on how to make a digital camera feasible for Hollywood productions. Part of the process involved using 4K resolution instead of 2K, which was most common at the time. Another technical hurdle was to achieve the focusing quality of DSLR cameras without sacrificing frame rate. Part of Red's solution to this problem was developing a sensor with a physical size comparable to that of analog film. At the 2006 NAB Show, Jannard announced that Red would build a 4K digital cinema camera, called the Red One, and began taking pre-orders.
In March 2007, director Peter Jackson completed a camera test of two prototype Red One cameras, which became the 12-minute World War I film Crossing the Line. On seeing the short film, director Steven Soderbergh told Jannard: "I am all in. I have to shoot with this." Soderbergh took two prototype Red Ones into the jungle to shoot his film Che. A short documentary, Che and the Digital Revolution, was made about the Red camera technology that was used in the film's production. The Red One first shipped in August 2007. One of the first television programs to shoot with it was the medical drama ER.
In 2010, Red acquired the historic Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, and renamed it "Red Studios Hollywood". By 2011, it had over 400 employees. 2011 was also the year in which Panavision, Arri, and Aaton announced that they would no longer be producing analog cameras. Red Digital Cinema and the Red One were widely credited with accelerating this transition in the industry. Schilowitz responded by saying "It was never our goal to kill film. Instead, we wanted to evolve it."
In 2010, 5 of the top 100 grossing domestic films that were shot on digital video used Red cameras as their primary system. Their share increased to over 25% by 2016, but has declined since then.
On August 19, 2013, Jim Jannard announced his retirement from Red, leaving Jarred Land as president.
On March 7, 2024, Red Digital Cinema accepted a takeover of the company by Japanese camera equipment manufacturer Nikon Corporation for an undisclosed amount; this may be part of a growing interest of Nikon to expand into the digital cinema camera market. On April 12, 2024, Nikon announced that it had acquired 100% of the outstanding membership interests of Red Digital Cinema. Keiji Oishi, of Nikon's imaging business unit, assumed the role of CEO and Tommy Rios, the executive vice president of Red Digital Cinema, became co-CEO. Red's former president, Jarred Land, and James Jannard, Red's founder, remain as close advisors to the company.
On April 15, 2024, the Chief Design Officer of Red announced that he resigned to focus on his own venture Global Dynamic United (GDU), which mainly produces accessories for Red cameras.
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On May 9, 2024, Nikon Corporation released their financial results report of the year ended March 31, 2024 and disclosed the amount paid, reported as "the deal of the century" in the camera industry: 13.1 billion yen, approximately $87 million US dollars (the currency exchange rate on April 8, 2024).
From Wikipedia’s article on Red Digital Cinema, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4