James Mathers (Digital Cinema Society): RED Epic for Sale? Interesting article.

[D Fuller]

Nick -

My memory may be faulty as it has been a while since my BS rep discussed the upgrade to Dragon but:
Recollection was that as one of the early adopters, there was an additional discount - especially if I picked up the Rocket X at the same time as the new Dragon sensor.
Those that purchased the M jumped the early adopters when it came to timing…

A bit complicated - especially since the actual program may be morphing. Jarred was recently considering an option to trade in versus upgrade. Might be announced during the show or they may still be crunching numbers to ensure it works financially.

Hoping that someone can chime in with the specifics on the original plan. Current production schedule doesn't give me time to research…

This is partly right, partly not.

Yes, Early Red One adopters got an additional discount. That was separate from a discount on the Red Rocket X. That discount was (and I believe still is) available to anyone who buys it at the same time as upgrading to Dragon.

Those who purchased an M did not jump the early adopters when it came to timing. Both early Red One adopters and Epic M owners shared an exclusive opportunity to purchase the Dragon upgrade for during the first three days of NAB 2013. After that, upgrades were open for everyone with an X or an M to purchase.

Position in line is determined by the time/date stamp on your order. Nothing else comes into play; not your serial number, not X vs M, nothing. Only the time/date stamp. (I'd love to be wrong and for M's to have priority over all the X's, because then I'd get my upgrade sooner, but that is not how it works. It's all about the time/date stamp.)

The exceptions to this are a number of people who were especially deserving and to whom Red decided to give upgrades without any consideration of place in line.

 

[George Butterfield]

a Producer friend put me up for what turned out to be a very successful and long running show. He only told me later that the studio was dead set against using RED cameras, and assuming I would push for it, knocked me out of contention. I only wish they would have checked with me first, because I would have happily shot on whatever cameras they liked. I never wanted to be tied to any one type of capture medium, and still don’t.

So this has nothing to do with RED or your EPIC, it seems you were not involved with negotiating your services.

I would then be ready to shoot 6K except that many of my large assortment of high-end cinema lenses don’t cover the larger sensor area. Any wonder I’m having second thoughts?

People use the Alexa because 2k is good enough, you don't need 6k, continue with 4K on the EPIC

I look forward to being hired for my filmmaking abilities, then collaboratively with the other creatives, coming up with the best camera for the project. This rat race to own the latest and greatest is getting tiring,

So wait for 'Son of Dragon', that's what I am doing.

 

[James Mathers]

From RED Recon:
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Announcing the RED 4K Broadcast Module for DRAGON.

Live uncompressed YCbCr 4:2:2 video feed
Up to 4K and 60 FPS via Quad 3G-SDI
BNC ports for timecode and genlock

$6950, Coming Soon.
###

The 4K RED Broadcast Module is a step in the right direction, as well as the news, (which I got in this thread), that I will apparently be able to use my legacy S35 lenses to cover higher resolutions than 4K with the Dragon is great. These will definitely influence my decision of whether to stay with RED, or migrate to another of the many Digital Cinema cameras on the market. Looking forward today to looking at the Panasonic 4K Varicam which in addition to onboard 4K, will also record 4K RAW to Codex, as well as the new AJA 4K camera. So many choices...

Thanks All,
James Mathers
From NAB
(My streaming reports will start appearing about noon today on the DCS and Studio Daily sites)