custom made 18 missing parts possible?

[Cüneyt Kaya]

is it possible to custom make these missing 18 parts?
i would gladly pay 10 k more and get the epic now.the situation in japan is terrible, and sadly it wont get any better
in the next months.
this is just an idea and i dont know if its possible, so i ask.
please dont tell me to buy epic M instead, because you cant just buy an epic M.

 

[Shane Betts]

Actually, not a bad idea in theory. Although I have a feeling, given the origin of the parts, that they may be electronic rather than mechanical in nature. Not for the first time I'm wondering why Epic M's can be manufactured and not vanilla Epics. Just what is so different about Epic M from the other Epics that these 18 parts are seemingly not needed?

 

[Erik Franzén]

Actually, not a bad idea in theory. Although I have a feeling, given the origin of the parts, that they may be electronic rather than mechanical in nature. Not for the first time I'm wondering why Epic M's can be manufactured and not vanilla Epics. Just what is so different about Epic M from the other Epics that these 18 parts are seemingly not needed?

If I understood correctly, Jim has said that these parts are being bought at a high expense...

1. [...] We have purchased, at great expense, parts to make EPIC-Ms... and are ramping up production again on this model.

[...]

Jim

...which would seem to indicate that whilst it is possible to produce EPIC-Ms like this in a decent quantity it would be hard, if not to say implausible, to do so with the entire supply chain.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Going off what Ted said at NAB in the RC Podcast, some of the key parts come from northern Japan where there is nothing left. So they are working on finding new source(s) for the parts now. I don't know what more we can ask or hope for.

Most of the big electronics manufacturers are feeling this too. As an example, Nikon won't have all their production lines fully operational again until September. And that's rumored to be an optimistic timeframe. Their production lines in Sendai only suffered "minimal damage". At least they still have factory buildings.

For now, there are parts to build some more Epic-M cameras, but it seems that there are finite quantities there too.

 

[Peter Arnold]

If those parts could be made quickly anywhere in the world, I'm sure that Mr. Jannard would just quickly hop into his private jet and pick them up in person.

Peter

 

[Sven Seynaeve]

Get a little more worried if I hear this. If they really need this parts and it's imposible to get them elsewhere, we could all once again become unlucky for some time

 

[Rob Castiglione]

Yes, who knows. It could be quite a while. I am trying to concentrate on enjoying shooting with my Red Camera as much as possible. .

 

[AndrewThomas]

As noted a little ways up, the issue seems to be more so not that parts are unavailable (as evidenced by Epic-M production), but that the Epic-X will cost less partly because of volume pricing on components. It isn't JUST the cast vs. machined bodies that is causing the price difference between an X and M brain, but also that Red had sourced lower quantity/higher cost parts for Epic-M to get them out the door. The X can't cost what Red is advertising without getting these volume priced orders and right now the only places that can make the volume and hit the price Red needs are these Japanese firms that were devastated by the tsunami.