Red Raven Is A Lightweight, Nearly $6,000 Drone-Ready 4K Camera

Red Digital Cinema is a big name in the professional camera market, and the company’s cameras have been used in films like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and the upcoming Matt Damon-helmed flick, The Martian. But not every producer can afford Red’s mega-expensive cameras to shoot films that will end up grossing hundred of millions of dollars at the box office.

So the company has announced the Raven, which is a much more affordable camera that while still out of reach for most consumers, is within reason for indie filmmakers. The 3.5-pound Raven uses an 8.8 MP Red Dragon image sensor, which is based on the same sensor that you’ll find in the $29,000 Epic camera. The Raven is capable of recording 4,096 x 2,160 (4K) video at up to 120 fps, or 2048 x 1080 (2K) at up to 240 fps. ProRes 2048 x 1080 is also supports at up to 60 fps.

While the Raven won’t set you back the cost of the average new car sold in the United States — like the Epic — it is still pricey at $5,950. And that’s just for the body only. If you want to use the Raven on your drone, you’ll need to fork over an eye-watering $9,750 for the “Jetpack” package. Yet another package, which is aimed at documentary and TV producers, costs $9,950.

“Whether shooting for documentaries, online content creation, indie filmmaking, or with drones and gimbals—Red Raven’s durable, lightweight construction is ideal for any situation,” said Red in a statement. “Red Raven’s announcement reflects Red’s ongoing commitment to the belief that cinema-quality creative tools should not be in the hands of a few—they should be available to all professional shooters.”

Red is currently taking pre-orders of the Raven and it will ship in February 2016.