The Red One was announced in 2006 and released in 2007 as the first camera produced by Red Digital Cinema Camera Company. It has a 12 megapixel bayer pattern CMOS sensor, called the Mysterium. The sensor measures 24.4 mm x 13.7 mm, and has 4520 by 2540 active pixels, though the camera only records data from a 4096 by 2304 pixel area in normal operation. The Mysterium sensor has about the same active area as a 35mm film frame masked to the 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing the same depth of field to be produced in conjunction with lenses designed to cover the 35 mm film format.
The camera also allows the sensor to be used in a windowed mode in which the sensor can emulate the active area of a Super 16 film frame while capturing 2048 pixel resolution footage. This allows the camera to be used with Super 16 lenses.
Red has measured the sensor's signal to noise ratio at greater than 66 dB, and claims 11.3 stops of total dynamic range. However, the dynamic range reported from many cinematographers place the camera's dynamic range significantly lower, at about 8 stops. This difference is probably attributable to the use of different mechanisms for measuring dynamic range. Red rates the sensor at 320 ISO natively.
