Anyone still with the Scarlet MX planning on upgrading to Epic W?

[yves d]

The scarlet MX has depreciated a great amount. People are selling the whole kit for the price of what I paid for the battle tested brain only (roughly 6000) if I remember correctly.

I'd assume that you'd save your money with the upgrade. What do you guys think?

 

[Jacobo Martinez]

I still have mine and won't sell it, I still like the images coming out and I think it's way better than any black magic, Sony or Canon camera, at least for my needs.

 

[Tom Dowler]

I bought mine as a holdover while waiting for scarlet-w. Was planning to sell it but can't decide if I should take the upgrade path to epic-w and then sell the e-w...

 

[yves d]

I bought mine as a holdover while waiting for scarlet-w. Was planning to sell it but can't decide if I should take the upgrade path to epic-w and then sell the e-w...

was thinking the exact same thing. upgrade to epic w and then sell it.

 

[Les Hillis]

Wouldn't that be a form of profiteering?

 

[Scot Yount]

Wouldn't that be a form of profiteering?

It would and would prolly not be looked at as cool. But what do I know? Having said that, the cost to take your Scarlet-MX to a $30K brain is gonna be in the mid to upper 20s I would guess....

 

[Tom Dowler]

Wouldn't that be a form of profiteering?

Which is why I can't decide.

Someone on here is selling their S-W at above what they paid for and I think it's a total dick move, frankly.

It just seems a waste to let the S-X upgradability go to waste.

 

[Tom Dowler]

I just WISH (and I hope my flowers and teddy bear to Brent make a difference here) that I could upgrade my S-X to a Raven or S-W. I would have ZERO problem with that upgrade being put right to the very very very end of the queue, since I know they're really keen not to increase the backlog on the Dragon-based cameras.

 

[Les Hillis]

Anything's possible, but as you say, it's doubtful RED will want to increase the RAVEN or S-W queue, or that they'll change their minds from their current position of all upgrade offers being to get to Epic-W (or higher) only.

And again, anything's possible, but I doubt RED will be offering much of a trade-in for people with Scarlet-X's to move up to Epic-W's. As an example, with the old Scarlet-D to Magnesium Weapon upgrade path, the Scarlet-D was only given a $2500 trade-in value.

I think if you really want to make use of your Scarlet-X as a way of getting to a RAVEN or Scarlet-W, you'd be better of just selling it and using the proceeds as part of an outright RAVEN or Scarlet-W purchase.

 

[Tom Dowler]

Anything's possible, but as you say, it's doubtful RED will want to increase the RAVEN or S-W queue, or that they'll change their minds from their current position of all upgrade offers being to get to Epic-W (or higher) only.

And again, anything's possible, but I doubt RED will be offering much of a trade-in for people with Scarlet-X's to move up to Epic-W's. As an example, with the old Scarlet-D to Magnesium Weapon upgrade path, the Scarlet-D was only given a $2500 trade-in value.

I think if you really want to make use of your Scarlet-X as a way of getting to a RAVEN or Scarlet-W, you'd be better of just selling it and using the proceeds as part of an outright RAVEN or Scarlet-W purchase.

Yeah, you're probably right.

 

[Curtis boggs]

I LOVE my Scarlet -x , ... ... but have a Scarlet-W order i'm switching over to Epic-W.

I'll keep the S-X as a Bcam

Curtis

 

[Dean Butler]

I have an MX. the path from it to epic MX isn't worth it compared to putting a deposit on a scarlet W and upgrading to epic. I'm putting a deposit down on Scarlet W and likely staying that route. Love the image from Dragon, 5k 50 fps is easy enough for our operation and the additional insurance and hard drives costs are keeping me away for now. Also I've seen nothing from Helium with new color science so... yeah. I'm sure it'll be great! And the offer on the table is sensational. But I'd more likely order a Scarlet W, upgrade to epic w, then upgrade the scarlet MX. Our plan is buy Scarlet-W and use MX as B cam. The Epic is tempting but there's a lot more additional costs and in 16:9 there's more of a crop on 6k on helium then on 5k on Dragon. I reckon I'd need to upgrade my graphics card for 8k too, maybe even "need" a red rocket X. With Scarlet w I think I'll be okay and if anything buy a gtx 1080 to go with my 1070

 

[yves d]

I have an MX. the path from it to epic MX isn't worth it compared to putting a deposit on a scarlet W and upgrading to epic. I'm putting a deposit down on Scarlet W and likely staying that route. Love the image from Dragon, 5k 50 fps is easy enough for our operation and the additional insurance and hard drives costs are keeping me away for now. Also I've seen nothing from Helium with new color science so... yeah. I'm sure it'll be great! And the offer on the table is sensational. But I'd more likely order a Scarlet W, upgrade to epic w, then upgrade the scarlet MX. Our plan is buy Scarlet-W and use MX as B cam. The Epic is tempting but there's a lot more additional costs and in 16:9 there's more of a crop on 6k on helium then on 5k on Dragon. I reckon I'd need to upgrade my graphics card for 8k too, maybe even "need" a red rocket X. With Scarlet w I think I'll be okay and if anything buy a gtx 1080 to go with my 1070

Would you have had to have a scarlet w deposit before october 11 to be eligible for the epic w transfer upgrade? What's preventing RED from having people buy the scarlet w deposit now and then upgrading to the epic w than buying the epic w for 30k?

and did you mean the path from scarlet mx to epic w wouldn't be worth it?

 

[Scot Yount]

Would you have had to have a scarlet w deposit before october 11 to be eligible for the epic w transfer upgrade? What's preventing RED from having people buy the scarlet w deposit now and then upgrading to the epic w than buying the epic w for 30k?

and did you mean the path from scarlet mx to epic w wouldn't be worth it?

I won't speak for Dean, but what I think he means is simply this. It is fantastic for RED to offer an upgrade path for my little old Scarlet-MX, circa 2011. Great!! The path is this; trade in the camera and get the Epic-W for $19,500. Cool. However, you can put in a Scarlet-W order right now, which will cost you $9500 if you take delivery of the camera. If you don't, and decide to upgrade it to Epic-W, you just need to kick in $10K more....which equals, uh $19,500. Guess what. If you do the Scarlet-W order you pay $19,500 and you get to keep your Scarlet-MX! Trade it in, pay the same money, and don't get to keep it. I am not knocking the deal in anyway, and for some people, (perhaps for tax reasons) the trade in might be more effective. The one big difference is likely one of those scenarios will get you the camera you desire quicker, I just don't know which one. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Dean Butler]

I won't speak for Dean, but what I think he means is simply this. It is fantastic for RED to offer an upgrade path for my little old Scarlet-MX, circa 2011. Great!! The path is this; trade in the camera and get the Epic-W for $19,500. Cool. However, you can put in a Scarlet-W order right now, which will cost you $9500 if you take delivery of the camera. If you don't, and decide to upgrade it to Epic-W, you just need to kick in $10K more....which equals, uh $19,500. Guess what. If you do the Scarlet-W order you pay $19,500 and you get to keep your Scarlet-MX! Trade it in, pay the same money, and don't get to keep it. I am not knocking the deal in anyway, and for some people, (perhaps for tax reasons) the trade in might be more effective. The one big difference is likely one of those scenarios will get you the camera you desire quicker, I just don't know which one. Your mileage may vary.

Correct

 

[Eric Santiago]

Got my BT Scarlet in Fall 2012.

Its 4 years old and still going strong.

Where Im located its still IMHO a better option than the BMDs/DSRLs.

Dont think Ill ever get my money back on the whole eco-system but the experience and knowledge during the years is priceless.

 

[Aaron michaels]

I traded my scarlet-MX for the Epic-MX when this first started and I'm glad I did because of the features I needed but then years later I got the R1 because I've always wanted that camera. To hear that you can upgrade the R1 to an Epic-W or helium blows my mind. its something to think about instead of having a closet full of cameras

 

[Keith B Plummer]

I'm keeping my Scarlet MX. It's more valuable to me than what I would get in for cash or trade. Great images still and no reason to believe it won't keep making me proud. With that said I have been leaning Epic W for my next RED. Running out of time though.

 

[Dean Butler]

I'm keeping my Scarlet MX. It's more valuable to me than what I would get in for cash or trade. Great images still and no reason to believe it won't keep making me proud. With that said I have been leaning Epic W for my next RED. Running out of time though.

Me too. I'm keeping my Scarlet MX as a B-cam and getting a Scarlet-W.

 

[Mike P.]

I'm actually still leaning towards a cheap Epic-X/Scarlet-Dragon (~sub-$5k) or Epic-Dragon (~sub-$10k), and using all of my current accessories... I know those prices seem like wishful thinking, but to be honest, I really don't understand people buying even Epic-Dragons for ~$10k+ when the Scarlet-W is $9500 fresh off the line with a year warranty and chock full of DSMC2 benefits (though, that's probably precisely why the queue is so long). Granted, in my case, I know I could *not* charge my main clients more merely for 8k/Helium, which means I'd be paying for something that wouldn't really change my bottomline...

And after re-watching Toia's video a couple times, while I love the cleaner high-ISO blacks and ability to punch in 2x while still being 4k, ultimately I agree with his sentiments about what you put in front of the sensor (lights, filtration, lenses) and what you do in post, having a more noticeable difference. On the same token, as long as we're hovering around ~s35, I feel less anxious to upgrade; if Epic-W was VV 8k/s35 6k for a $20k upgrade, then I'd definitely be considering it as that'd have a substantial impact/difference on the images I could make.

Anyway, bottom line is that I'm hoping they do a BT sale of all the traded-in brains after all the dust settles with Epic-W (I'd certainly be content dropping $4k for an Epic-X and shooting MX for another year with my Scarlet-X as b-cam/backup...)