After hitting the magical render button during a late night editing session I began perusing the web to pass the time. I hit up the usual suspects: Gizmodo, Woot, Coding Horror… I spent some time on the CakePHP IRC and the Creative Cow forums…
Then I went to Red.com.
Red Epic - 5K digital film camera
I’ve followed Jim Jannard (creator of Oakley) and his market strategy for his camera line for the past four or five years. I haven’t had the chance to work with the camera or footage from it yet (I’m sure that day is coming fairly soon) but their initial offering (the Red One) was a game changer in some respects. The camera is completely modular in its design so it can be outfitted for any scenario; a newser’s ENG loadout, an Indie’s DP setup, a grunt’s anti tank missle launcher…
In addition to being able to make the camera into whatever the situation calls for the Red One is damn near resolution and frame rate independent. The camera can be set to record in DV, HD (720 or 1080), 2K and 4K with frame rates from 1-100 fps… all for under $20k… hmm… interesting.
The big deal this year at NAB for the guys at Red was the announcement of Scarlet and Epic along with the RedRay drive. Scarlet is a more affordalbe 3K model and Epic is a whopping 5K…
Being able to shoot something at twice standard film resolution for under $20,000 is very, very cool. But something befuddles me… Actually a few things befuddle me…
Red’s always marketed itself as a game changer - video/film forums across the net are filled with rantings from their engineers taking a “David vs. Goliath” stance. Sony and Panasonic (along with Panavision and Thomas) all have very expensive offerings for digital filmakers. The agressive pricing and feature set that Red offers is impressive and fills a serious gap in the market but my question is - how are they making money?
The question’s always been in the back of my mind but the visit to the site last night raised a big red waving flag. Current Red One owners can return their camera and get a $17,500 (full list price) discount on the new Red Epic. hmm…
Sounds like a great deal right? Well, lets connect the dots…
Red was supposed to be the big field leveler - a 4k camera in every indie director of photography’s hands… but when the product launched there were just not enough to go around. In a market like Dallas 2 years after it’s launch there are only 3 or 4 in town and several people cancelled their orders because of the rollout lags and holdups. So… looking at the forums it appears the cameras are made in small batches (presumably by hand). This would seem to raise the production cost of the camera considerably compared to mass production yet the camera is still being offered at an incredilbly low price point…
Now with the release of Epic you can turn in your depriciated Red One camera for basically a full refund. So… to keep up with demand for the Red One they’re refurbishing previous cameras?
Don’t get me wrong. I love what Red is doing… the idea that you can invest in their brand is very appealing. So many people have been burned by buying the “hot” format of the minute (read BetaSX, and probably P2) only to see their manufacturer switch directions altogether leaving them stuck in a bugetary black hole. I just wonder how long a company can deliver on a dream without making a dollar…
