Carbon Fiber Bodies?

[BrendanLeahy]

RED was noted for making custom carbon fiber bodies for "The Social Network", so I was wondering why they don't normally make and sell these? I hope I'm not alone when I say I'd love being super lightweight for shooting handheld!

 

[Nick Timmons]

Super easy to break, too!

 

[Mark Phelan]

With current technology, super-lightweight would stop at the lens mount. From there forward it's still a fancy rock.

 

[Jason Comparetto]

Super easy to break, too!

Carbon FIber is actually very difficult to break if its designed correctly. However, the parts of the Epic body that could currently be replaced by composite materials is very small, and the weight savings wouldn't be much at all. probably negligible. I think the only area they can continue to shrink is the electronics/boards, and there will be a point where the cost/benefit will become very astronomical. In other words, we would see Epic-Micro bodies being sold for $400,000

 

[Mike P.]

Super easy to break, too!

I think CF is stronger than alloys... it just shatters instead of bends at it's breaking point. Realistically, if you're apply enough force to break a CF chassis, then even if the outer-shell was made of diamond the internals would still get completely f-ed up anyway.

I do wonder how much lighter a CF version would be though. Something tells me it'd only shave off like 1lbs, but cost like 10x (as in, not worth it when DSMCs are already only ~5lbs.)

 

[Jason Comparetto]

There may be some properties of metals that are actually good for the body... such as heat dissipation. My understanding is that metals can transfer heat away from the source... where as composites would act as an insulator. so yes, perhaps if you truly made the "FRAME" (not the BODY) out of carbon fiber, maybe you could shave off quite a bit (not sure about 1 pound-- that's ALOT dude), but then you might have to add a pound worth of fans just to keep it cool.