REDCINE Review

It's been about 4 days since the RED team released REDCINE to the masses and I have been spending quite a bit of time with the application since. I must say, being a beta tester for quite a few different software companies such as E-Onsoftware Vue 5 & 6 Infinate and XStream 3D application, and many others, I have never seen a more stable version 1.0 Application. If you are familiar with popular compositing applications like Apple's Shake or Autodesk Combustion than REDCINE will feel just like home. If not, don't worry, it is also simple enough for the novice user to jump right in and start putting the app to work.
Although REDCINE acts as more of an intermediate stage between editing and finishing tool, it has quite a nice set of tools to perform nice, quick color grades, fast. However, that may be the only quick thing about it right now. First tip, have a fast, new MacPro or MacBook Pro with a qualified graphics card (the faster the better!). Second, be sure to use the proxy 1/2 RES or 1/4 RES settings to allow your R3d files to play in Realtime. Switching to full resolution will be almost worthless in attempts to play your footage. I will say, I have tried for 4 straight days to get the application to crash on me unsuccessful I might add. Also, keep in mind, you are working with 4K footage on hardware that hasn't fully caught up with the demands of that kind of Resolution nor do you probably need to work at that resolution unless you have a distribution deal for IMAX, so switch to a resolution you are going to work in, ie 1080p, 720p, 480p and you will see your rendering times and playback speeds increase dramatically.
There are some nice features in REDCINE like the ability to copy a look and load it into any other clip you like. Another nice feature is the timeline, although quite basic, it allows you to see how consistent your look is between cuts. Your Library allows you to move, copy, paste footage anywhere you like in the timeline with controls to view your "LUTS" in the thumnails provided. Nice touch!
Personally, I would like to see dual monitor support. RED claims that REDCINE will automatically default to the highest resolution monitor you have connected to your computer, but this is not desired in every scenario. I would personally like to have the controls running on one of my monitors with the final output display on the other which the user could toggle between if they like. There is no EDL conform tool which many were hoping for as well as other features like Quicktime Proxies that still require you run another app from RED called "REDALERT" until it is enabled in REDCINE, most likely coming soon. There are a few other issues and bugs but lets give em a break, it's only a 1.0 Beta and it's free!
All in all, REDCINE doesn't dissapoint! It acts like a high end tool surviving on your laptop instead of in a high end DI suite. My only real complaint is wondering how long it is going to take the hardware companies such as APPLE to catch up to the incredible Resolution RED is able to produce. Once that happens, look out!