When shooting with the RED One, one is always benefited in shooting at 4K, which offers the highest legacy resolution possible, as well as offering the user the option of choosing a lower resolution finish with all the DOF control of full sensor recording. When choosing 2K or 3K acquisition, the RED sensor is “windowed”, that is to say, a smaller area of the sensor is used, creating less selective focus, but having the advantage of allowing higher frame rates and longer recording times.

Shooting 2K “scaled” means that the 4K area of the sensor is sampled and downrezed, or scaled, to 2K to enable a 2K recording with 4K DOF (depth of field). Scaled capture is not available on the RED One. Because scaling is processor intensive, requiring full sensor scan and de-interpolation, there is no frame rate increase with scaled technology. The beauty of shooting 4K originals is the ability to scale in post to any res necessary, 3K, 2K, 1080P, 720P, all with 4K DOF.