RED, FujiFilm & Adobe to offer New Cloud Technology for camera Users

Adobe, a company that has steadily moved over to cloud-based versions of its products, is now offering new cloud uploading of photos and videos for users of Red and Fujifilm cameras.

Adobe first moved in this direction by acquiring the Camera to Cloud (C2C) services provider Frame.io in August of 2021. Earlier this year, Adobe then gave Frame its first integration with its Adobe products for users of numerous camera models.

This overall move was described by Frame as “the next generation of video collaboration” thanks to Frame’s cloud-based tool that lets teams of video professionals share media while tracking revisions among themselves and exchanging comments.

Now, for users of RED and Fujifilm cameras, Frame and Adobe have announced that they’re allowing instant, real-time video uploads to Frame.io cloud services for remote annotation, editing and workflows.

In the case of this service with RED and Fujifilm cameras, the cloud-based workflow support exists at the hardware level in select cameras from the two brands.

What today’s announcement revealed was that both of these companies have physically integrated C2C support into certain camera models they produce.

In the case of RED, its V-Raptor and V-Raptor XL models let their users upload 8K REDCODE RAW video files directly to Frame.io’s cloud directly from these cameras. This includes support for automatic uploads of 8K RAW R3D files, ProRes, Proxy files, WAV audio, custom LUTs, log files for each video segment and log files in general.

As for Fujifilm, its X-H2S is the first photo camera that can now send files straight to Frame.io’s C2C service. It does this by using an FT-XH file transfer attachment to pass high-res RAW images, ProRes video and proxy video to Frame’s cloud for user inspection and annotation.

According to Adobe’s Senior Director of Global Innovation Creative Product, Micheal Cioni, these and other Frame C2C services enhance Adobe and Frame’s goal of “increasing the speed of creative collaboration and the flexibility of their workflows,”

A basic requirement of these cloud-based workflows is that the cameras being used with them have access to high-bandwidth connections, but this still opens up many possibilities for collaborative video projects in numerous contexts according to Cioni:

“[the C2C cloud service] unlocks a whole new way of working. You can shoot anything—from a wedding to a sporting event or live concert—send your photos (or video) to someone on your team so they can retouch the asset and share it or post it without ever having to exchange a drive or camera card or any kind of physical media,”

Another benefit of the new service for users of these cameras is that it lets them automatically back up, protect and send their video or photo creations directly to editors and clients without having to exchange physical media.

Cioni also points out that,

“Productions that shoot on stages can deliver original camera files (OCF) directly to the post house as they’re captured. Virtual productions or complex visual effects can send OCF directly to the VFX house. ProRes files are automatically delivered to production offices and cutting rooms for immediate editing. And for productions that want the highest quality dailies, RAW video and audio files can be synced, color corrected, and transcoded in the cloud through our integration with Colorfront.”

Firmware updates for these features are expected to arrive in the spring of 2023. It’s worth noting that the bandwidth required for these transfers of high-res video and numerous RAW photos will require truly powerful internet connectivity and high bandwidth use for users who want to take advantage of them. They won’t be easily usable in many contexts.