Forgive me but.....

[Gavin Owens]

Forgive me for been a bit paralyzed from the neck up but I am trying to sell Scarlet/Epic to my boss and when doing this on blind faith, it's hard to sell a theory.
I assume that Red has set true goals and I can imagine the work everyone is doing there(the competition is so fierce right now) but it would be great to get some difinitive word on the packages/workflows/package costs/lens options/low light... etc. A few renders just doesn't cut it! Speculation is rife right now
I don't want to sound aggressive but summer is fast approching and I need a reason to delay important purchases.
Jim... gives us the quintessential low down.
Thanks to you all.
G

 

[Leo Ticheli]

If you have body armor, don it now.

Best regards,

Leo

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

Forgive me for been a bit paralyzed from the neck up
G

good news! Comments like this will get you beheaded and ease your pain.

while your sincerity is heartening... do you really think RED will stop everything they have done to date, to help YOU convince your boss to POSSIBLY buy something?



dude, you are ONE guy... there are thousands waiting on EPIC and Id bet tens of thousands waiting on Scarlet.

you are even more naive than your post if you think RED does not want to ship as soon as possible...

you probably dont have a boss, and certainly dont have any leverage with a 1 or 2 camera order...

Serious question.

how old are you?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Why not wait until the camera exists and is ready to purchase before you start selling the idea to your boss? It will be a lot easier then.

 

[Gavin Owens]

Ah Jaysus, I don't want to get backs up. The questions are honest and fair........
Beheading... body armor.......

you probably dont have a boss, and certainly dont have any leverage with a 1 or 2 camera order...

I do. It's a small outfit with a limited budget mostly built around corporates. Some of them are decent payers. The option is this http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-PDW700/
but I feel that I could get more from Red for a lot less

Serious question.

how old are you?

The same as your I.Q.?

Why not wait until the camera exists and is ready to purchase before you start selling the idea to your boss? It will be a lot easier then.

Thanks David and you are right. I'm been a bit cheeky though with my desire to push Red for it's all good from where I stand and I have a feeling that the next wave of cameras are worth waiting for.
Kind regards and limited respect for the warpath
G

 

[David Mullen ASC]

My general philosophy is wait until you absolutely need to buy something electronic because generally the next wave is better... but once you buy, try not to think about what is coming out next that would be even better.

But I think sometimes people do buy their camera too early, thinking it's the first thing they need to get together before a major project, when in some ways, they should get it as late as possible just in case something better comes along. I've seen people buy an expensive digital camera for their "big" feature, only to actually shoot that feature two years later. In fact, there is a general misconception that the biggest hurdle to making features is the camera itself, when in some ways it's the easiest thing to acquire (which is why some people buy it too early... it's too easy to get that part out of the way.)

 

[NateWeaver]

\In fact, there is a general misconception that the biggest hurdle to making features is the camera itself

I'll go a step further. If you are trying to make an independent feature, the camera is the least of your worries!

And if it's not...it should be.

 

[Gavin Owens]

David and Nate,
Sound advice but I'm out to look for a workhorse. There will be no independants and what gets purchased gets purchased with at least a 5 year life span. I'll go as far as to say that for the company, this is the most importand purchase for the past 10 years. The powers that be are very indecisive as to what is the future and with my 12 years experiance, I'm merely trying to guide them into the right direction.
I know I'm jumping the gun
G

 

[Pawel Achtel]

G'day Gavi,

I wouldn't buy this Sony dinosaur no matter what. You can get Red One now - a far better camera and, when Scarlet/Epic become available, get full trade-in on it.

And welcome to the forum!

 

[Joel Kaye]

The powers that be are very indecisive as to what is the future and with my 12 years experiance, I'm merely trying to guide them into the right direction.
I know I'm jumping the gun
G

What's your budget and what is the purpose of the camera? Maybe another camera would actually be better for what your company is doing. There are a lot of great cameras out there right now. Are we talking $3k Scarlet or $15k Scarlet?

To be safe assume this - fully functioning Scarlet is early 2010. Guessing that it will really arrive in the summer is a mistake. RED has missed just about every date ever. The camera, the EVF, the raids, the accessories, the flash cards etc. They've all been late or MIA at some point. Jim has already mentioned setbacks in the "Update" thread. Maybe RED already padded their delivery dates so they are more likely to hit them but I sure wouldn't bank on it. You and your 12 years of experience aren't going to look too great if RED misses by 4 months and you didn't prepare anyone for that.

Trying to time cameras perfectly is like trying to time the stock market perfectly. Buy a RED now and trade it in later if RED is really the right workflow for you.

 

[Richard Goodwin]

Loving RED and planning on bying one I should prob. not say this. But, if your baseline is a PDW700 (more of an ENG/EFP style) then RED may not be the right choice for you for a while. Add to that your focus on Corporate clients who may want a more "standard" output such as XDCAM or DVCAM etc. Note, not attacking RED footage/workflow here (which I love the look of) but having friends who work on Corporate projects there is often a desire for archival masters in a broadly known format (REDCODE may be better but it does not have the market penetration of say XDCAM or DVCAM etc).

To the points above you want to focus on making money and building the business so that you can get more business and do more interesting projects etc. The time between now and Scarlet is long. In that time you could build substantial business on a PDW700 or another camera. Then when you need your second camera you can go for a RED