Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Announcing WEAPON DRAGON 6k Magnesium

Jon Nash said:
Whats the weight of the brain , SSD module and 1 x revolt please ? Will I be able to give my neck a rest with the Weapon ? I make a living from sticking my Dragon on my head and jumping out of planes with it. The Side handle configuration of my current dragon works great for this. Will my RED Volts on a weapon be secure when I'm traveling towards earth at 150MPH and then experiencing sudden deceleration as I open my chute? I read some where on a thread that the security of Red Volts could pose a problem on the Weapon in this particular use??
Click to expand...
Sounds like this is one area that's ripe for picking by an entity willing to step up with RED and take advantage of the Weapon being open to third-party modules. A skydive/high-performance module might be of interest to more than a few Weapon owners.
 
Rob Anderson said:
Sounds like this is one area that's ripe for picking by an entity willing to step up with RED and take advantage of the Weapon being open to third-party modules. A skydive/high-performance module might be of interest to more than a few Weapon owners.
Click to expand...

You know what the third-party module is that will be most popular? Yep, one that takes full-size Redmags. Yes technology progresses, but Red could have stuffed the new faster SSD into the same shells and connectors as the old Redmags. But they didn't, they went for a new form factor. Excuse me, were there a bunch of people complaining that the old Redmags were too big and heavy, and screaming for a smaller lighter media package...?!

We're smart, we can live with different media having different perfomances; look how we managed with CF cards vs. Red Drive vs. Red Ram vs. Redmags on the Red One. I will be a HELL of a lot more likely to pull the trigger on Weapon if someone makes that module. I can live with my red 512GB mags not performing up to the specs of 1TB mini mags, a LOT better than I can live with them not working at all...

Mike
 
Jonas Klittmark said:
So effectively the upgrade comes out to $14k for current Epic Dragon-X owners. Assuming you can put the $5k credit to good use. That's getting closer to being interesting.

Still, it's a tough pill to swallow for internal Prores and 50% faster fps...

Now if the $10k upgrade to 8k VV applied to magnesium that would change everything. All of a sudden it would be a no-brainer.
Click to expand...

the good new is this is an optional upgrade, nobody needs to do it ;-)

but u're paying 19K on the upgrade path - not 14. You are paying for these 5K accessories with your 19K and now you're "force-fed" RED AKS... if that's what you wanted to do anyways, this is great... but OffHollywood's stuff looks very interesting and maybe I wanna put cash towards that...

the option to put the 5K towards the trade-in price - as Adam suggested - is the way to go, and IMO this should be offered (at least) to peeps who stayed on the upgrade path, as per RED's suggestion... keep the family happy, and u're making more money anyways...

And RED can use the incoming Epic Dragons for the new Scarlet-Dragon-2-Epic-Dragon upgrade program, which they will anyways... so even more profit.

other than that, this would mark the first time where there is no incentive to stay on the upgrade path anymore... sell ur stuff early, buy new directly and save good money (compared to trade-in). Same as with all other cams.

I love the options, though. Much appreciated. I just don't get the upgrade-path-reward-mentality on this one... but hey, at one point RED has to start making some money ;-))))))

reality probably is that from that 19K, 18K go towards the rotten Apple for the ProRes license.... hahaha
 
Mike 'Fireman' Ross said:
You know what the third-party module is that will be most popular? Yep, one that takes full-size Redmags. Yes technology progresses, but Red could have stuffed the new faster SSD into the same shells and connectors as the old Redmags. But they didn't, they went for a new form factor. Excuse me, were there a bunch of people complaining that the old Redmags were too big and heavy, and screaming for a smaller lighter media package...?!

We're smart, we can live with different media having different perfomances; look how we managed with CF cards vs. Red Drive vs. Red Ram vs. Redmags on the Red One. I will be a HELL of a lot more likely to pull the trigger on Weapon if someone makes that module. I can live with my red 512GB mags not performing up to the specs of 1TB mini mags, a LOT better than I can live with them not working at all...

Mike
Click to expand...
As soon as the MINIMAGs dropped, I dumped all of my full-size and dove right in. This was a year ago now. I shoot a lot of high-speed and wanted a little less RC compression. I also use eSATA 6G with TB2 enclosures and wanted faster offloads. Plus I liked the value of the 512GB MINI versus the full-size. My only problem was having to wait a little while for a carbon fiber MINIMAG side module (the aluminum MINIMAG side module is not compatible with the CF). I made the MINIMAG jump immediately and I've been thrilled with it.

Inversely, I'm a bit sore you guys are getting a full-size MAG to MINIMAG trade-up program.

When I made the jump to MINIMAGs, I invested in the REAR SSD MODULE. This was to give my sub-rentals a 9-1-1 emergency button to jam if they ran out of MINIMAG media and the DIT was jammed up. Sourcing full-size mags is easy.

I'm reasonably certain something like the REAR SSD MODULE could be built for the Weapon. It's already a trick little module and doesn't seem like it would take much to hammer it onto the Weapon. But I'm also pretty sure it's been said the speed of the full-size mags cannot accommodate Weapon footage read/write requirements. (See the increase in frame rates and simultaneous RAW + ProRes capture.)

While the form factor probably could have stayed the same, the bigger issue is the speed of the full-size vs. MINIMAG media. Since the full-size mags are incompatible with the Weapon r/w requirements, why even bother keeping the form at all? Upgrading to the faster MINIMAG media is a necessity. So it's really not about having been able to build a carriage or rear module or whatever. Plus, RED's got the media upgrade path now.

I understand the frustration on the surface-level, but dig into it and it all makes sense why RED transitioned.
 
Unsure about this one, I have a scarlet dragon, 5k raw + a hd recorder on the side, spent about 25k usd, reason for, I don't want to compete with the big rental houses as they get the bigger gigs and I can go out as operator, dp on those big shoots, I would not have a chance trying to compete gear wise with what they have. so my gear works for me now to be fair right, reasonably affordable, can work on smaller commercials / features, great results lots of clients happy with the pro res files. Super 35 is a great format, no complaints. Ideal upgrade option for me would be scarlet weapon, 5k some little extras, possible upgrade as I do. that would be a worth while investment 10-15k usd, a bit of a discount happy days. Now upgrade would cost 30k including discount, and putting me in competition with my rental house friends. Not a viable option I think after 1 year year working the camera. I can get another few years out of this cam for sure, but this could be the end of the red train if there is not a lower spec weapon available, indie, owner operators will find this tough. Or I could just be a bigger name dp, make more money and have more pulling power, few years away I feel. My cam is working for me not me working for the camera.


Best to all who can make the leap.

Cheers
Ian
 
Ryan Sauve said:
This. Sounds more like a Best Buy trade-in program, not the traditional RED one.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing lol. I just got this thing November of last year right before the price increase. But hey at least there
is a upgrade path I guess. That put's me at another 17K to upgrade and it appears most of the stuff I got won't work with it lol.
I'm out ............ for now.
 
Ya just saw, that is a great offer and can merrily make that upgrade, another year or two make another move, really fits with where I sit in this crazy world. Thanks Daniel! Smile returned :)


(temporary) SD to Epic Dragon upgrade for $9500.

This will get you 6K at higher frame-rates and lower compression now!

Plus, you get $8000 more credit towards VVeapon! (a nice step along the way)
 
What I would like to suggest is this and I'm asking everyone who can relate to this to support this so it won't get lost in the flow of posts.

There are some who upgraded to Dragon before NAB fore a sole purpose - to get a Weapon.

What these people have right now in their hands is a regular Epic-X that hasn't yet been shipped for a Dragon upgrade. I'm only talking about people who are in this particular situation, not the ones who took delivery or used their camera already.

I understand that the Dragon to Weapon trade in credit is offered to every Dragon owner and there are a lot of Dragons out there, some may be 3 months old, some more than a year. They are used and there is no doubt about it. Everyone gets a fixed trade in credit for a used camera.

But the not yet upgraded Dragons are not used. They are as good as brand new, at least the brain itself. Correct me if I'm wrong here but these brains can be sold in the RED store as new.

So what I would like to suggest is for great guys at RED to give it a thought and maybe extend the amount of credit for these cameras, but with a condition that their owners do not get delivery of their Dragon brains as these brains get sold on the RED store as new. Instead they wait and get a new Weapon, when the time comes based on a time stamp of their order.
 
Demetri Zuev said:
What I would like to suggest is this and I'm asking everyone who can relate to this to support this so it won't get lost in the flow of posts.

There are some who upgraded to Dragon before NAB fore a sole purpose - to get a Weapon.

What these people have right now in their hands is a regular Epic-X that hasn't yet been shipped for a Dragon upgrade. I'm only talking about people who are in this particular situation, not the ones who took delivery or used their camera already.

I understand that the Dragon to Weapon trade in credit is offered to every Dragon owner and there are a lot of Dragons out there, some may be 3 months old, some more than a year. They are used and there is no doubt about it. Everyone gets a fixed trade in credit for a used camera.

But the not yet upgraded Dragons are not used. They are as good as brand new, at least the brain itself. Correct me if I'm wrong here but these brains can be sold in the RED store as new.

So what I would like to suggest is for great guys at RED to give it a thought and maybe extend the amount of credit for these cameras, but with a condition that their owners do not get delivery of their Dragon brains as these brains get sold on the RED store as new. Instead they wait and get a new Weapon, when the time comes based on a time stamp of their order.
Click to expand...

Could not agree more.
 
Erwin van Dijck said:
I tend to agree with that... Guess RED will be a high-end only thing.
Click to expand...
Jarred said earlier that Weapon represents the top for RED. That implies a few things and it's been hinted in other ways over the last few months.. I think there's more than just the RED Weapon camera premiering at NAB. Exciting times.
 
Anyone know if the RED Weapon Magnesium will have a future upgrade path to 8K Vista Vision? I would like to know this info to see what junction we are at.... I'm only interested in the 8K Vista Vision upgrade path.
 
Demetri Zuev said:
But the not yet upgraded Dragons are not used. They are as good as brand new, at least the brain itself. Correct me if I'm wrong here but these brains can be sold in the RED store as new.
Click to expand...
Just to clarify, the upgraded Epic and Scarlet brains are definitely used. RED upgrades the sensor and a few other internals (plus fans) in the path to Dragon. However, the body, side module, lens mount (if you shipped one), and most other components are not upgraded at all. You'll be getting back your same camera body with love marks on it, just as you shipped it to RED. Definitely not brand-new condition. I'd be pretty upset if I bought a new Dragon from RED and received someone else's dinged and loved Scarlet/Epic body.
 
This scarlet d to epic d, opens the floor again for me, all my accessories fit straight on and work well for me now and into the future. Gives a breather for another year or two and who knows where we will be from there. But your right Erwin, any new comers are not going to be able to get the new body. Weapon seems to be high end only for sure, but Scarlet / Epic dragon, are more than comparable so that should help people at the lower end of the scale that crave quality.

Cheers
Ian
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top