Over the past several months RED, has hyped up the second-coming of their big, bad cameras. The latest big, bad camera announcement was for the over-priced Scarlet and EPIC DSMC (digital still and motion camera).
That wasn’t enough though. RED is now hyping yet another announcement for December 3rd.
New announcement on Dec. 3rd. Everything has changed… just as we promised. :-)
Oh, and the “ground-breaking” Scarlet and EPIC cameras announced back on November 13th? RED says, “The 13th was insignificant…”
Maybe it’s just more video mumbo-jumbo and nothing for us still photographers to be concerned with. Or maybe, RED will enter the still image arena with a more reasonable price tag that actually means something to the overall market – and not just show off another high-priced modular system that doesn’t live up to the hype and purports to be available at some point in the future.
[RED via Crunchgear]
It’s such a shame that you guys don’t get the RED idea. Those systems are strong for production teams. You can use the same “brain” for both your still shots and video virtually without compromise. You can carry and share the same gear, drastically reducing overall cost and produce incredible, professional, results. This is NOT for your casual, average, high end wedding, life style or most art photographers. It’s for high end fashion, or professional photographer/videographer pairs that can now share high quality professional gear. It will change the Still photography and Motion picture __industry__, it just won’t affect us individuals because it’s beyond our price range.
Why does RED not live up to the hype? My friends at panavision seem to be worried how this will change the industry.
Seems to me they delivered.
In addition to still photography I also have an interest in the semi-pro and indie video community, where the Red One is a highly respected piece of equipment. Red is not just hype or vapor-ware, there is some pretty impressive art being made with Red products. Like Bryce said, the upcoming Scarlet/Epic is not for the typical amateur or even pro still photographer. It is for those passionate about both still and HD video mediums. When you look at comparable video equipment in the filmmaking industry, with cameras that usually cost more than the typical single family home (and thus are usually rented instead of purchased), Red is not remotely overpriced. In fact, they’re a steal. The setbacks in order to deliver a more complete product is most welcome.
It’s not that Red hasn’t shaken up the motion picture industry – they have. Prominent filmmakers like Peter Jackson are on board. But what they keep promising to do is change the photography industry, and they haven’t done that. The buzz says they’ll be making a Nikon/Canon killer, and those claims have fallen WAY short so far. Has anyone actually seen one of these “DSLR killers?” In my mind, they’re the “boy who cried wolf” of DSLRs now – their overhyped announcements are already losing credibility and interest.
It wouldn’t take much to reverse the trend…but they’ve got to actually produce something. And if it’s gonna be a DSLR killer like they claim, it needs to be priced competitively. Claiming they’re “not remotely overpriced” at tens of thousands of dollars may be true if you’re assembling a movie rig, but Red is purposely stirring up amateur photographers, but has yet to show them anything interesting. We’ll see on 12/3, I guess – but if it’s another Epic/Scarlet-type announcement, the DSLR crowd will hear only crickets. Again.
I actually hope Red pulls it off, because competition’s good for everyone. But I suspect they are simply targeting the wrong markets with their marketing. Prove me wrong, Red!