To buy a Scarlet or not to buy, that is the question…

[sam karr]

that's fine. If you can shoot with 1 64gb card and 2 batteries that last no time that's cool. I am just saying I have never been on a shoot where that would suffice. Remember, all just my opinion and I stated that right at the beginning.

i know. it's just an argument i found in dozens of threads. of course, all depends on your job. yours probably requires to have a lot of power and cards for a long time and anytime.
but a lot of indies have more time to work. and when there is tons of people saying scarlet is not viable if you don't add 10 or 15k it makes sense for some specific works but for others there is the renting solution. not everybody go in the wild for days to shoot. people working in studios, artists having time to shoot, indies that can accept one hour uploading in their computer while doing the setup for a scene, etc. just putting that in perspective

 

[Evan Starkey]

Half people with full egos Philip Bloom is NOT from what i can tell this guy is a teacher of the highest degree and his honest Critique should be commended.
Dont get me wrong im not his cheer leader or anything...... in fact dont ever come to tasmania Philip ill kill ya ....... its my island ok!

 

[Erik Franzén]

If you offload during the shoot 1-2 extra 64gb cards should work for you. Add another couple of batteries and you're golden!

I seriously don't get the whole "let's shoot for 10K!" demographic - did you seriously think that? It's just a floor price for god's sake! My opinion was always @ 25K for a good shooting package - basically, what just the MX brain costs; sounds like a good deal to me. Then again, I do have some lingering disappointment over no 120fps @ 2K and no 5K @ 24fps, but hey - the camera is great for what it is and I'll focus on the glass being half full

EDIT: Also, get off 'yer horses and stop hyper-ventilating - as I see it Bloom wrote a piece so that people could better educate themselves about what Scarlet-X is and what it isn't; something a whole lot of people need to know before committing themselves. So, let's just keep the discussion civil and level-headed okay?

 

[Madjid El ayari]

The things it is that if you really have the high desire to make a short , a commercial , ....... , and you have a very short budgect , this camera is even a great tool !

If you have a little money , You ll do it with the minimum the cam have to handle to work ! it ll take you more time , but you ll make it , with a real professional tool, wich has ful control over the image , not a half capacity tool , as a gh2 , 5d mark II, ...............

Red scarlet is something miraculous ! it change the history of the movie maker , the competition is going to be big .

edit : F3 low light compared to red : for low light situation you use high speed lenses you don t expect too much from the iso



Any way don t trust the guy who buy an epic and make some fake crop anamporphic



www.madjidelayari.com

 

[sam karr]

If you offload during the shoot 1-2 extra 64gb cards should work for you. Add another couple of batteries and you're golden!

I seriously don't get the whole "let's shoot for 10K!" demographic - did you seriously think that? It's just a floor price for god's sake! My opinion was always @ 25K for a good shooting package - basically, what just the MX brain costs; sounds like a good deal to me. Then again, I do have some lingering disappointment over no 120fps @ 2K and no 5K @ 24fps, but hey - the camera is great for what it is and I'll focus on the glass being half full

nobody think "let's shoot for 10k". everybody knows the package is 14k. for my part i will add some batteries and an extra card. but a lot of people are exagerating this point. any camera then needs extras: rods, tripod, computer, hard drives, case, etc. it's not just the scarlet. so many guys are comparing other naked cameras like f3, c300, etc, with a 25k scarlet package to make their point. it's just a question of fairness. not everybody needs 15 batteries and 6 128Go cards. and then again, renting batteries or cards is not expensive.

 

[jonathan homer vargas]

jim what do you think about this question

 

[jonathan homer vargas]

will be shot my first movie film with scarlet next year, if i work tv spot y can use aja kit pro mini or atomos samurai and hiperdeck $300

 

[jonathan homer vargas]

Philip Bloom are you will make the dvd training for epic and escarlet user?

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

Philip Bloom is an outstanding shooter and a straight shooter as well.

That said, he is a latecomer to the RED party, to an extent. He never went through the evolution of a RED ONE and is stepping right into the middle of the evolution of the EPIC.

This column is exactly why I believe RED should be holding out on technology until they get it reasonably bomb-proofed - early-ish RED ONE owners are used to the beta technology process - when my EPIC-M arrived with a dead audio board, I didn't flinch - it was one of 3 cameras on the job, we had secondary audio recording, etc, etc. I never had to stress, I just sent it back when the shoot ended, and RED fixed it.

RED has been squashing bugs and trouble-shooting problems left and right, and soon - very soon - the EPIC will become the same reliable workhorse that the RED ONE eventually evolved into - it took two years to perfect the ONE, the EPIC will be perfected much sooner.

But you have to keep the long view when you buy a beta camera - which they still are - and you have to trust RED...they have certainly, time after time, earned mine -

But I do worry about the fallout to RED from putting not-fully-cooked technology into wide release. New users will not necessarily be patient or understanding. Or back up their untried and untested bodies.

People complain that they are late delivering their products - but they will complain much louder if they are delivered and aren't totally functional or have bugs or need to be sent back for repairs on the eve of an important job. Etc. I bleed RED but I do worry about them putting out so many cameras that may still be a little fiddly into the hands of people who have been waiting for a long time - expectations for perfection will be high.

 

[John Bellari]

will be shot my first movie film with scarlet next year, if i work tv spot y can use aja kit pro mini or atomos samurai and hiperdeck $300

Please do us a favor and contact the manufacturers about this in writing and report back. You may have a different response about what really works right now...

 

[Enrique Blein]

There's one thing I don't completely understand. I read his article, but I guess I'm still not getting it... Why would he go on a job with a camera he doesn't trust? I mean, if you don't trust the camera, why in the world would you shoot a job with it...? Test it thoroughly first, if there's a problem, then don't use it anymore. But, don't go writing an article announcing that you went to shoot a job and the device failed. I mean, is there something I'm not understanding here?

He bought an Epic-M (+$58K), so he HAS to use it somehow. I have to say that his article has left me considering pulling the plug on my order. I was relying more on getting my money back through renting, I'm not sure anymore. I tried to convince myself I would work through the difficulties of the new specs but maybe I'm wrong...what a Sunday to be confused! I have to make my mind up soon, I'm 97 on the queue

 

[Max M.]

He bought an Epic-M (+$58K), so he HAS to use it somehow. I have to say that his article has left me considering pulling the plug on my order. I was relying more on getting my money back through renting, I'm not sure anymore. I tried to convince myself I would work through the difficulties of the new specs but maybe I'm wrong...what a Sunday to be confused! I have to make my mind up soon, I'm 97 on the queue

Well, the only way to get your money back through renting is if you have a full package of accesoires. People want a one stop shop, there not going to rent from you if you don't have good tripods, matte boxes, filters, follow focuses, monitors etc..don't now your situation, but that has big influence on the renting options of your scarlet. I think too many people think they will earn there money back through a basic scarlet package without enough media/batteries and accessories...

 

[Jesper Sichlau]

Buying a Scarlet is NOT going to make you a better filmmaker. It is NOT going to make your camerawork any better.

This might be a true statement. But the camera definately have the potential to make you become a better cameraman. The kind of effort you put into a iPhone filmshoot might not be as pleasing as when you to put the same kind of effort into a filmshoot with a camera like this. The result will potentially be better with a better tool - if you know how to use it right.

 

[Larry Kelly]

As it was said in earlier posts, people who are not prepared or capable of working within the Limitations of early Red Epic/Scarlet adoption are going to gripe. That doesn't mean that the camera is suddenly less capable or not reliable as long as the user does his or her homework and doesn't think that they can just prop it up and shoot it like an EX1 or a 5D. Both cameras require the appropriate accessories and testing in real world situations before a user can learn the idiosyncrasies of these camera systems. Again, that doesn't mean the camera is less capable than this or that other system. Learn the camera. Learn the user manual. Learn the workflow. Learn the limitations of the camera in it's current state then use it for it's strengths and as limitations fall away with new firmware updates, additions to your kit, etc. Yes there are bugs but at least Red can and will fix them and for no cost. Try to get that out of any other company or you end up with a joke like a c300

 

[Will Wernick]

it was in relation to my most recent shoot. it was a personal project so if it cocked up then only my own artistic plans down the drain, not pissing off a client. I now have my EPIC back from a total rebuilt and will test it thoroughly and shoot with it a lot until I am confident on taking it on a job with a client.

Thanks for all the insight Philip. I Have read your blog on and off for a while and love your stuff. The stories in your films touch me every time

 

[Philip Bloom]

Thanks for all the insight Philip. I Have read your blog on and off for a while and love your stuff. The stories in your films touch me every time

Thank you very much! That means a lot to me!

 

[Benoît-Joan Clariana-Roig]

Thanks for your article Philip.

I came to the same conclusions/maths right after the Scarlet announcement. It's good to get a confirmation from a pro.

According to that and my needs, Scarlet-X is not the cam I need.

I hope we'll see soon a new FS100 : a little sister of the F65. Sony cams are beasts in low light. Wait & see.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

Well, Philip is underlining some questions I raised (of course with resistance) in another thread about who this camera is for.
I still don't know, because the price point and the price point for all the necessary side equipment to get by one day of shooting makes it so expensive that the revolution of giving super quality to the "people" is a revolution that got missed out.

I don't discredit the camera, it is far better then Alexa and Canon, but Alexa is just overpriced and so is the Canon, Scarlet isn't overpriced, it's just too expensive for the "people" who had the money to buy the old scarlet concept of 3k for 3k. I still dream of camera that is "out of the box"-ready for under 10000 USD. It is that camera that will change the world of cinema, I am dead certain on that.

Sony cams are beasts in low light. Wait & see

I have worked with the Sony F3 and F35 and I have to say the skin tones suck in my opinion and there's little you can do when it is WYSIWYG

 

[Ryan Emanuel]

After reading the article, I looked at alternative options to achieve what I need. I'm doing web promotional videos and dynamic range is very significant to me, I think it accounts for a lot of a high end look. So my alternative is the f3. The camera is 13,000 after a rebate on bh, and slog is 3600, and a adequate external recorder is 2000. That brings me to 18600, without media, canon lens adaptor, or power, which might bring me to a even 20,000. For my scarlet package(15,000), I planned to buy additional media and power bringing me to 19,000. I figured if I could find solutions for the hangups of the scarlet then the cheaper camera that can deliver higher quality is obviously the better choice. I think those solutions exist or will exist in the near future. For dumping footage, you can use an esata/thunderbolt connection to a labtop with fast drives, 64 gig redmag downloads in 5 minutes. With that speed, you can operate with two 64 gig cards as long as you have good data management, don't plan to do that myself, but its a possible solution. Instead of final cut transcode time, You can edit in premiere or avid and work directly with r3ds. And these are just current solutions, a year from now the scarlet will be easier to use and will have a new sensor. If I got a f3, I don't think it would be a better camera a year from now. (And please no comments about whats coming out next year I'm buying a camera before january).

With respect to scarlet buyers biting off more than they can chew, I believe that the scarlet is similar to the 5d. There are shortcomings but people will persist through the hang ups for superior image quality. (Yes everybody doesn't need 4k, but everybody doesn't need dof either, but it didn't stop everybody from using it and making it standard). The creativity and ingenuity in solutions to the 5d's Moire, no audio monitoring, rolling shutter, and h.264 codec was quite remarkable, engineers and manufacturers were coming out of the wood works to solve problems and I think the scarlet will be no different. If red is selling as many scarlets as people are speculating in threads, I'm confident that similar industry support will provide solutions. I think the new thunderbolt solutions will solve a lot of problems in post.

 

[Philip Bloom]

I think it's a great camera. I was getting a lot of emails about my thoughts so I did the blog post to get the info there. It is not perfect but then again nor should it be. The Epic is $xx K dollars for a reason.