QUOTE (jliechty @ Apr 15 2008, 11:21 PM)
I wonder how long it will be until RED releases a 24x36mm "Epic++" camera.
It will never happen. Not even the existing higher end digital movie systems have gone beyond the 35mm movie film format of about 13x24mm, for good reasons. That format is entrenched through vast collections of very expensive motion picture camera lenses, and a move against the dominant technological trend of size and weight reduction is particularly unlikely with movie cameras, with the movie world's interest in constant maximum f-stop lenses with big telephoto zoom ranges and long reach. These would become far heavier and more expensive if the focal lengths and aperture diameters were increased by a factor of about 1.5. Larger apertures sizes would be needed, because using a larger format with longer lenses of the same aperture size is rather pointless for movies: it simply forces the use of higher f-stops and higher ISO speeds, more or less neutralizing any advantage at the relatively low resolutions needed for moving pictures compared to still pictures.
For movies on film, there does exist a far tinier market for larger formats like 70mm (does any movie maker use that any more?) and IMAX, but I confidently predict that for digital, such prints will be made from high resolution 35mm format (13x24mm) sensors. In fact, some probably already are; surely the recent trend of IMAX versions of some blockbusters uses prints made from the standard "footage" ("gigabyteage"?) recorded on 35mm movie gear (film or digital), rather than having massive IMAX cameras working in parallel on the set.