I have 30 Grand to buy a RED ONE - Help me

[Mark Phelan]

Hans, no way is your (or my) Red One outdated. This is all about the hard $30k barrier, which makes one of the more affordable cameras more appropriate. I've spent about $85k so far and have about half of what I want! ;-)

If you're destiny is EPIC, get a Red One today! Easy decision. But if you think Scarlet might be right, the R1 could become an anchor for you.

Unfortunately, Jim is spot on.

 

[Robert Craig]

I have calculated that for a solidly capable Red Package prepare to spend about 52,000 dollars. Red One that is. Scarlet well thats another story. :smile5:

And to all those who are waiting, HOW?
I don't understand this waiting for a camera business, stop waiting and film with whatever ya got. All cameras from the new ipod to the Arri 35mm jobies all serve one purpose documenting life so onward people film film film

 

[hans de vries]

I think I spent 23.500 dollars; I seldom use anything from the production pack, except the top handle (saves me about 5 kilo's on my shoulders: I have the battery on my waistbelt); ofcourse I had my leica lenses already, so no money spent there, did spent some money on a leica mount, but that was custom made, maybe 150 dollars. I use a drive and never cf cards, so I'm cheap off there; never needed more than two batteries. The extra money, and that was more than I counted on, was in the computers and monitors, the tripod, I think about 6000 dollars. People tent to forget about those things when they start planning for their camera
:edit: 6000 was without the monitors!

 

[jimhare]

Absolutely, the camera turns out to be one of the less expensive items! My most commonly used RED gear is probably about $25k. Lighting, sound gear, jib, dolly, tripod, lenses, screens, these are the things that end up dwarfing the cost.

My problem is I want to be able to do EVERYTHING, not just have a great camera. Gets expensive when you want to play that way.

 

[hans de vries]

I had the same thing when I bought my Hasselblad stuff; I wanted to be prepared for every situation, which had nothing to do with the variety of assignments; I just wanted to be prepared; I ended up buying some terribly overpriced things that never got to be used and I sold them again. But that all depends on what kind of work you do. That is one of the things that seldom get to be mentioned here: what are you going to use your Red for, and what will the situations be? Because that's what is going to decide what kind of setup you need; it's very seductive, buying all those very professional looking accesories, but there's some stuff that you might want to do without; if you're going to run around on your own in Africa you can do without a number of things, if you're on a low budget production they would probably want you to own as much as possible, and if it's on a big budget, well, they can rent it. But I must admit I'm not talking from experience there.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Most important thing is to define your needs and what type of user you are.
If you're going for general rentals, you need it "all"
If you just want to do your own stuff, you can rent whatever, as long as you have the body, an AC adapter, a CF card, some kind of glass and a computerscreen with DVI input. The rest can be rented on a need basis. (you can use the screen on the back of the cam to navigate the menues...)

You'll very soon NOT be very happy with such a setup. And it will be unrentable.
BUT you can use and learn and add up as you go.

There's nothing wrong with this lane, but don't try to follow this kind of setups and think you'll have a great return from rentals! And for commercial gigs, you'll need everything x2, in case something breaks.

So:
Define your needs and use.
Put together a package
Use.

 

[hans de vries]

ah yes, if you're serious about rentals, that changes everything