Red Digital Cinema has added support for Cooke Optics /i Technology. I'm not sure if that will be supported with the first batch of Red One cameras, but it should be in subsequent shipments. This tech allows lens information (focus distance, focal length, aperture, depth-of-field, hyperfocal distance, lens serial #, lens type, etc.) to be passed from the Cooke lens to the footage for each frame. Digital photographers who preview their shots in Adobe Bridge or Photoshop already know how useful that type of information is.

On a movie set, it makes the job of the Assistant Cameraperson (AC) a lot easier. Last quarter we all had to play the role of AC once. The week I was AC, I was scrambling the whole time to record all that information about each shot before each shot, trying to fit that in between slating, pulling focus, checking the gate, swapping lenses, moving the camera around the set, loading and downloading film--it was a neverending flood of activity. Not having to write down all the shot info down would save a lot of time (on a big-budget production, of course, there would be 2nd or even 3rd AC's and a even a person dedicated to loading and downloading film).

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