Huh. I guess the benefit is increasing the resolution while improving light sensitivity by removing the filter. For a couple of years, manufacturers tried to increase resolution size by packing more sensor elements (which end up as image pixels) on the same area, leading to a higher resolution. This ended up making each sensor element smaller, thus reducing light sensitivity.
So this is quite cool. I have to wonder, though, that even if you don't affect light sensitivity, if a higher resolution is going to be very useful. For instance, the glass you put in front of the sensor might affect sharpness in a way that 3x 18 MP won't look better than a Bayer pattern in front of 18 MP. Does anybody know how much light a Bayer filter eats?
It's a video camera that only shoots in black and white.
The reason you would want to shoot in black and white (rather than converting to B&W in post) is because it gives a sharper image, because it allows every pixel to be used for luminosity data rather than trying in interpolate. Read on [1][2] in the announcement thread for more details.
It's expensive because of the market it's aimed at, because it isn't hugely expensive for them. It doesn't cost much more than the colour version of that camera. Spending tens of thousands on bodies, and similar amounts on lenses is more or less the norm for very high end video. If it existed a couple of years ago, it might have been used to film The Artist.
It's a monochrome version of RED's digital cinema camera, the EPIC-M. The regular version of this camera retails for US$39500. The higher retail price is possibly due to the lower demand for a monochrome only version.
The EPIC-M is capable of shooting 4k video at up to 120fps or 2k video at 300fps, goes some way to explaining the high price (although from what I understand, this compares favourably with the price of 35mm film cinema cameras).
The rationale behind the introduction of a monochrome version is explained by the RED representative on page 2 of the linked thread:
'It is significant to people that live in the B&W world. It is a request that we have had many times over the years just never had the resources to make it a reality.. until now.
'Having a dedicated BW camera if you are shooting BW is leaps and bounds better than shooting in color then transferring to BW later. It is why they continue to make BW film. There is no color filters on each of the pixels so you get increased light to each pixel, and there is no debayer process, so you get a much "sharper" image... a better tonal transfer in gradients as there is no interpolation. '
It is also stated that David Fincher (the director of Se7en, Fight Club and The Social Network) is currently using these monochrome RED EPIC-Ms to shoot his new film.
It's a camera for movie purposes, and for motion picture quality equipment, this is real cheap. As in, a typical 90 minute to 120 minute film will normally budget $20000+ just for the film stock [1], not even counting the costs of the camera equipment ( Panavision rents their gear for a grand a day, and the other film camera makers tend to cost at least 70 grand). Add in the changes for a low-quantity product, like black and white cinematography, and you start seeing this as an absolute bargain.
