Anyone not yet decided on Weapon upgrade?

[Mat_G]

So far we've heard from those upgrading and those not upgrading to Weapon.

I'll share where I'm at today... I'm undecided for now, but I'll most likely start the process of buying a 4k UHD Amira for my personal projects/smaller jobs and rent Alexa when budget allows and producers demand it.

I purchased EpicM Dragon in November 2014. Been shooting the sh#$t out of it on personal projects and love it. I'm coming from the stills photo world and learning the HARD way after nearly 50k+ into the Red ecosystem that producers, agencies, clients all want ARRI (specifically for skin tones... and it's the only thing that matters to them and takes precedence over everything). Every job, it's Alexa, Alexa, Alexa and now the Amira is being requested heavily as well. And 99% of time they don't even care about resolution.

I'm looking into keeping the Red Dragon and not upgrading, for those jobs that want the resolution, the Red Dragon will be just fine and I can always upgrade to Weapon down the road if all of the sudden COLOR SCIENCE improves and the world is turned upside down and everyone starts to request Red Weapons on the larger shoots specially for the "skin tone"... although that day most likely will never come.

I'm disappointed in the lack of Red's COLOR SCIENCE education and marketing to the industry as a whole. Those on the outside of the industry, yes resolution is an easy "sell". However when it comes to commercial production at high level, COLOR SCIENCE and Skin Tones reign supreme. Art over technology in every sense.

That being said, I'm taking the next few days to make my decisions to where my 2015 $'s go.

 

[ryan peters castañeda]

I just got a Red Scarlet Dragon, the Epic Dragon upgrade for 9500 looks a lot more appealing than the Weapon upgrade.

 

[Tyrel Stumpff]

I thought Dragon matched the look of Alexa skin tones?

 

[Michael Blieden]

I shoot a lot on my Dragon, mostly for my personal projects and collaborating with DP's I like on their projects. If I had a lot of productions of my own going on I think the Weapon investment would make a lot of sense. It's great for the workflow concerns that producers have. I think it's also a great offering for people getting into Red for the first time. As an upgrade I don't know if the new body gives me that much more for my specific needs, considering that it's all about the sensor and for now that's staying the same.

Whether I buy in or not I'm happy that this iteration has come.

 

[Mat_G]

Has the weight of MG and CF Weapon been released yet?

Kinda important value proposition to know!

Are we talking ounces shaved off or pound+ in weight reduction?

 

[Tom Chase]

So I know for me personally - I'm not going to be doing the Weapon upgrade until I knock of down some of my original investment (I haven't been renting my gear until very recently - in fact I've been so caught up in a personal project I don't think my Dragon saw the light of day for two months).

As to the idea of clients and producers wanting ARRI - coming from both a military and print media/photography background isn't it part of our job as content creators (Directors or DP's) to present the best options possible and give our clients our sincere thoughts on which tools work the best so they get what works the best their needs as a final project. When I was doing event photography none of my clients ever told me well we can't use you because your shooting Cannon or vice versa. I even in the military - I worked with Senior NCO's and Officers who believed only XY or Z tool could do the mission until you showed them the power of effectiveness of tool A.

Just saying I think part of the ARRI vs RED argument isn't just tech but us as shooters/renters/operators not effectively selling the power of the tool we choose to use.

My Humble Opinion.