Epic-L on Epic Timeline / Reserve List?

[Ryan Patch]

With Jim's announcement on 11/26 that Scarlet S35 will now be known as Epic Light, several questions come immediately out of the gates, but the one that I feel is most immediately relevant I haven't been able to find online - please direct me if it's elsewhere online.

But I'm very concerned if, now that the S35 is an Epic, it will be treated as an Epic and released in the same "Stages" as the Epics, with the same large bias towards prior camera owners. I very much felt the vibe that, whereas Epic was going to be a slow roll-out product, the scarlet was going to be very mass-produced, and the indication from RED - through not creating reservation lists even though the camera was only "3 months" behind Epic - seemed to be that when it was available, it would be available.

Given that those of us who are in the market for a Scarlet S35 were thinking about this situation, the current question is weather we are now SOL and we need to get in the back of Epic que, behind all prior epic reservation holders, and now likely behind the 2/3" scarlet owners who will receive the product when it's released.

Thanks for any information on this!

Ryan

 

[Jim Retar]

To be honest... I think this was always the case.

The roll out was always thought to be Epic, Fixed 2/3", Cinema 2/3" and then Scarlet s35. I always imagined that s35 would start to be produced after stage 2 and 3 Epics were out of the door... can you imagine the uproar if people were shooting on s35 while stage 2 and 3 epics were still on back order? They paid deposits some time ago and certainly helped get the company off the ground by purchasing R1.

Hopefully the Epic-L and Epic-X (stage 4) will start to roll out at the same time though.

 

[Julio Quintana]

Hopefully the Epic-L and Epic-X (stage 4) will start to roll out at the same time though.

An interesting question is, if they are released at the same time, how many people would have bought the Epic-L instead of the Epic-X they have on order? This has been the perpetual debate about how to differentiate the Epic from the Scarlet S35, and now that they have the same name, it is even harder to tell.

 

[Jim Retar]

An interesting question is, if they are released at the same time, how many people would have bought the Epic-L instead of the Epic-X they have on order?

We will have to see the final pricing before determining that.

 

[Detlev Eller]

An interesting question is, if they are released at the same time, how many people would have bought the Epic-L instead of the Epic-X they have on order? This has been the perpetual debate about how to differentiate the Epic from the Scarlet S35, and now that they have the same name, it is even harder to tell.

vote for:
5K, 120 FPS ... always

 

[Julio Quintana]

vote for:
5K, 120 FPS ... always

Would your opinion change if you could buy 2 Epic-L for the price of one Epic-X?

 

[Andrew Salter]

As I don't have a RED its too heavy for my main type of work so never bought one, but do want Epic S and Scarlet x 8 asap, look at my joining date on here, like many people WE have been waiting a long time too.

Once Epic M & X are released I think its time to become commercial if you have the cash you can order, no preferences for a change, RI people have had the chance with Epic M & Epic X deal, does RED want new customers or just people to signed up since R1, getting a bit stupid otherwise! otherwise too much like the old boy network, being to feel like second class citizen otherwise (l do get the loyalty thing but there's a time for everything). First come first served for the scarlet and Epic S.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Once Epic M & X are released I think its time to become commercial if you have the cash you can order, no preferences for a change, RI people have had the chance with Epic M & Epic X deal, does RED want new customers or just people to signed up since R1, getting a bit stupid otherwise! otherwise too much like the old boy network, being to feel like second class citizen otherwise (l do get the loyalty thing but there's a time for everything). First come first served for the scarlet and Epic S.

As an early R1, I have an incentive to disagree, but in fact (and fairness) I have to agree with Andrew.

R1 and Epic-X are special cases, in part the trade in was facilitating the "obsolescence obsolete" idea without locking into a physical form factor that wasn't particularly suited for it, and leveraging all that RED had learned in the first go around.

But carrying that on any further doesn't make too much sense. As Alex says, it would alienate some people, and it also limits the user base for quite awhile to only those that could make sense out of buying a RED1 - which can be a fairly narrow subset of the motion production community. The compact size, greater integration (i.e. ability to shoot without rods or other bracketry and easier to travel with), power consumption, smart mounts for SLR lensesk autofocus capability, fully developed firmware, color science and workflow improvements, etc. open up RED camera use to much more one man crew, and run and gun/rapid setup style shooting.

I know it's a "Digital Cinema Camera Company" but extreme high resolution motion picture recording is important in many other areas. Opening up the user base can only help the overall program and Red's business.

 

[AnthonyFlores]

Guys, Red listens and also cares ... and remember that Red is also a BUSINESS and needs profit to further all these amazing innovations.

Thus, remember that Stage 2 and Stage 3 -- because they involve heavy discounts and/or trade-ins, are not as lucrative for Red as getting to the new customers in Stage 4+. It's actually a testament to how loyal they are, few other companies are willing to sacrifice profit to reward pre-existing customers.

I guess what I'm saying is that Red is as eager as anyone to get to Stage 4 and beyond -- and to bring the Scarlet models to the masses -- just not at the expense of alienating their main base .....
I'm pretty confident Jim and Co. have a pretty aggressive roll out strategy once everything is ready