A new BBC1 adaptation is making a little bit of technology history this month as the first reported UK television drama production to use the Red One digital camera.

Three single dramas are being made, based on the Kurt Wallander Mysteries books.

Starring Kenneth Branagh, the£6m co-production between Yellow Bird, Left Bank Pictures and Branagh's own production company through BBC Scotland is three weeks into a 66-day shoot in Scandinavia.

The speed of the shoot - and the quality of the image required for a primetime BBC drama production that did not have the budget to use 35mm - led to the team deciding to plump for the new 4k resolution Red One technology.

Director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle who, in conjunction with director Philip Martin, decided to use the new technology said: “The bottom line is the quality of the image. Given that I'm working against the clock with a small crew I can get away with less on set and achieve more with further manipulation of the image in post. I can get enough quality with my minimal lighting but magnify it more significantly because there is much more definition, resolution and luminance.”

The Red One is a near 35mm film resolution digital cinema camera that has an 11.4 megapixel sensor. The average HD camcorder has a sensor at somewhere around the 2-mega-pixel mark.

The large amount of picture information captured is an aid to the grading process as the colourist and DoP have more detail to play with when trying to achieve a “look”. The digital workflow also allows graded rushes to be viewed on set, allowing the crew to turn around the production quickly.

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