It doesn't make sense...

[Ian Laurie]

I can look at it two ways.

One, everything just got cheaper, drastically, and that means exclusivity is gone. flood the market. too many cameras. etc. etc.

Two, it was that same exclusivity prices that other manufacturers were charging for lesser camera's that pushed me to Red in the first place. As far as i am concerned, good on you Red, for continuing to democratize film.

 

[Michael Brennan]

From my perspective the mistake RED made was to increase the price of the Epic in the first place.
It has been quite a unique and historic rise and fall of the price of Epic!
Ditto REDone.

Given RED has no advertising, no middlemen or sales outlets, few men in shinny suits with company cars and pension plans and no company buildings in foreign locations we are not being OTT expecting them to offer lower cost products especially since they have apparently shipped cameras in large numbers.



The notion of scarcity value of 4k cameras is well and truely gone, the scarcity value of owning a +120fps camera is gone or the uniqueness of a raw camera.. is gone.
If you require to pay the kit off via rentals and if you are not established you are at the mercy of being dragged down by the poor business practice of others.

So pay $50k for an Epic kit if it is worth that to your business or to your ego, but from a commercial perspective, think twice about buying kit that is less unique and about the same price as it was a year ago, from a company that now has a history of significant price rises and falls.

Changing the subject, there are other ways to invest in kit to make good pictures and a name for yourself.
When I owned the first Jimmy Jib in Europe I charged what it was worth to my customers. My customers had never had the opportunity of a portable crane on location. They were quite happy to be charged 50% less than the cost of having two grips turn up in a van and rig a monstrously heavy ride-on jib that only went to half the height of Jimmy Jib.
My rate for the jib was £400 per day.. on kit that cost £8k. I kept it at that rate for several years until a few guys setup specialist jimmy jib outfits and who could arrive on location in a van and charge £400 for themselves and the jib.

Simply buying the same kit that everyone else has isnt going to help you standout from the crowd.

Think, act and work different! Strive to charge what the pictures are worth to the client, not what they cost to produce
This will give you slush funds to reinvest in developing your ideas.



Mike Brennan
DP
Melbourne