<And when the day arrives, can I come and pick her up?

[Zakaree Sandberg]

you can use your red as a sex toy in a live act in TJ for all we care. its yours.. do what u will

 

[Keith Nealy]

Used in RAW format, of course.

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

naturally

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

As the lucky holder of serial #19 I have been considering offering folks interested in the camera a testing opportunity for a reasonable price. Camera tests are SOP for many shooters and it could be a nice way to generate a little revenue to help pay off the rig.

I am located in San Diego where shooting outdoors is rarely a problem. I have an eCinema DCM23 monitor and a Sony Pearl SXRD based 1080P projector for image evaluation. What kind of testing of the rig (I am planning to get pretty much every accessory available) do you think people would want to do? What seems like a fair price?

I wonder if I need to check with Ted about this? Anyone think I would be stepping on toes? I would be clear in my advertising that I am NOT an official RED facility. How I choose to use my camera would seem to be my own business. Thoughts...

After you pay and get your camera, you can do anything legal you want with it - it's your camera.

I don't know how many people will actually PAY to test a RED camera - I never pay to test any equipment, but I do have lots of relationships with vendors, and my company does lots of beta testing - etc. so I don't actually know what the "norm" is - and I guess RED is so outside the "norm" at this point -

My 2-cents, if there is a demand - serve it - I'm just not sure people in the industry will pay to test a camera -

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I wouldn't think people would pay you any meaningful amount of money to test or demo your RED. Now, I'm sure you'll have no trouble renting it out for actual use. Likewise, I'm sure lots of people would gladly stop by and play with your camera. If you gave them half a day to really explore the camera and try all sorts of options with accessories and whatnot, they might feel inclined to buy you a beer, maybe even lunch.

I say rent it out. ...if you don't mind the extra wear and tear and risk involved.

 

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

I'll pay you $20 to check it out.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Test failed

Test failed

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I'll just have to pay it off the old fashioned way :gun: .

 

[Darwin]

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I'll just have to pay it off the old fashioned way :gun: .

With number "19" I would think there are alot of ways to pay it off fast!

 

[Finner]

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I'll just have to pay it off the old fashioned way :gun: .

The old fashioned way? Your going to become a hooker?

 

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

No kidding dude, color me jealous!

Actually to be honest one of the main reasons I'm jealous of early reservation holders is not so much that they have the camera to rent out earlier and make more money on, because that's just money, or even just because they get their cameras earlier to use (which is obviously very cool), it's more because years from now they will be able to say they were one of the first people to use the RED, and they supported an early technology by reserving before it was even fully clear the project would be as good as advertised, etc.

I would have perhaps been one of those early reservation holders if I had come into the industry sooner, but I wasn't even in this until April and I ordered my RED about a month later, so for me I hadn't even heard of the RED until late April. I thought about it for maybe ten days before I placed my order.

So hats off to the early reservation holders, they are pioneers.

 

[Marque]

Some hands on time

Some hands on time

It might be nice for the reservation holders to get a more hands on demo perhaps even if its NY, LA, and say London. As much as this is a professional product since the number of people who have gotten thier hands on it is so few.... perhaps a getting to know the camera party might be nice...bring your "R" and tease the press outside the door...

~Marque
Barnstormer Corp.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Makes you go hmmmm

Makes you go hmmmm

Thanks for the compliment Finner, I figured I was too old to make any bank hooking these days... Of course I'm not the one whose avatar is wearing a thong :clown2: .

Rental houses maybe happy to offer free testing to paying clientele, but if you are buying your own camera you are not their renter.

In the role of Director, PM, AD or DP pre-production just might include: realistic assessments of lighting requirements, zooms vs primes, makeup tests for a format with no history, etc using material that you shot yourself, that you could copy onto a hard drive and take home for a host of post-production pipeline tests. I could go on, but I think I've made my point.

Maybe I'm just paranoid but if I had a later rez number and a big show coming up I would consider such testing simple due diligence. I believe most people will consider the cost of testing cheap insurance.

 

[Stephen Williams]

Maybe I'm just paranoid but if I had a later rez number and a big show coming up I would consider such testing simple due diligence. I believe most people will consider the cost of testing cheap insurance.

Hi Blair,

People will always test equipment before deciding what to use for a production, usually rental house's will be happy to oblige, if not it's time to find a new rental house!

It's also important to test the actual lenses & camera you will use on the production.

Stephen

 

[laguun]

Hi Blair,
People will always test equipment before deciding what to use for a production, usually rental house's will be happy to oblige, if not it's time to find a new rental house!

Depends.

Usually, if there is $$.$$$-$$$.$$$ budget for a rental contract for a feature, ~5-15% of the days are free for testing and rehersal.

Also, if someone is simply interested in testing new gear, that is welcome by any solid rental facility to let these potential customers use the gear.

However, there are exceptions to that rule.

- sought after, brand new equipment as well as "classic" gear.
If someone, as example wants to test a Digital Betacam DVW500 or HDCAM HDWM2000 VCR - he will see a pretty low chance of getting a free test and the supplier will inquire for what purpose the test is planned.

Items in shortage - which applies certainly for Red in the early days, weels, even months - are usually offered by rental houses as laguun (or ludwig) for training - for a fee, not free, as the gear usually is already booked and there a few days available at all and you typically have much more clients that want to learn & test than cameras/lenses at all etc.

Easy example: there will be probably ~20-30 reds end 2007 in Germany, but hundreds, if not thousands of people who want to test.

That usually changes later on, when all rental houses can offer the device and supply in the market reaches demand.

In that case, when there is no rental house at hands in your nation, it is a good idea to contact freelancers who own the gear.


- Large scale productions and all rental houses are booked.
Events (as the soccer worldchampionship) or A+-Budgets often decrease the availability, especially of gear to a minimum. You will certainly get a free test ride on that particular device later on, however it is necessary to plan in a good overhead in time or international supply - simply as a class of devices is ffully booked in a region or even nation.

-rarity items and unusual gear.
underwater housings/wes/sppacecams, propietary motion control, stereoscopic lenses etc are often only available from a sole supplier at all. if that rental house is booked/unwilling to agree on a test, often there is no other way than to pay.

It's also important to test the actual lenses & camera you will use on the production.
Stephen

I agree - and also the actual lens AND camera together. A tested lens and a tested camera alone isn´t enough - both together form an units which can have specific failures/advantages only present in the combination.