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.
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.