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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

MX Cameras discount ??

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Grant Smucker

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I am hoping to upgrade to epic-x from scarlet-x, but wanted to see if the mx sensor cameras go on sale at all with the rolling out of the dragon. Does anyone foresee price drops in the mx sensor cameras when the dragon upgrade price occurs? My guess (just a theory) is that the mx will drop $3k to make up for the increase in upgrade price.

Thoughts?
 
I tend to agree with you Grant. MX is a GREAT chip. But Dragon is so much better. I have to thing that MX cameras will depreciate much faster.
 
These prices are a bit messy. The upgrade to scarlet dragon brain will cost 12500$ for a camera brain worth 14500, new. My scarlet Mx is valued 2000$ then (I guess I better sell it used after 1st december, that's the biggest devaluation I ever had on a camera, we're far from obsolescence obsolete). If I go to epic mx after 1st december, it costs 9500$ to upgrade to a 17500$ camera, and my camera is worth 8000$ in that case. To be equal to the dragon prices the MX should be 11500$ new then (the 2000$ red value my scarlet plus the 9500 upgrade).
 
Sam why, knowing this would anyone wait and forgo the 3,000 difference? Plus Red might sell all the traded in used MX cameras, or stop selling MX entirely...Things can go any which way.. Why not just do the trade in now? Zero interest credit card deals can provide short term financing even...
 
Brian Merlen said:
Sam why, knowing this would anyone wait and forgo the 3,000 difference? Plus Red might sell all the traded in used MX cameras, or stop selling MX entirely...Things can go any which way.. Why not just do the trade in now? Zero interest credit card deals can provide short term financing even...
Click to expand...

I wanted to wait a bit. Dragon is still very young, I still see some issues threads. But yeah, i guess I will have to do it anyway, there is not much choice. And I'm european, the upgrade before 1st december is a bit more than 12000$, after it will be more than 15000$.
 
I also think the pricing is a bit of a mess, specifically with the Scarlet line. In retrospect we were really spoiled by how the REDone panned out, and unfortunately you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Wasn't REDone's sensor upgrade originally $4750 (nearly 1/4 the cost of the original camera purchase) whereas Dragon went from ~$5k to $6k, and then $9500, and now $12500... Which, for Scarlet owners, is almost double the cost of the original brain purchase... (plus technology is supposed to *reduce* in price over time, so it's kind of a hard sell). Back when it was ~$5k-6k, a lot of people clung to 'what other camera company gives you upgrade options!?' and I agreed... When it's $9500-$12500, I tend to face palm and look more closely at what the competition is offering in the $9500-$12500 range.

For me, it's obvious that $9500 (never mind $12500) isn't really in upgrade territory when the camera you're upgrading cost substantially less brand new... It's "entirely new camera" territory, and I think quite a few people are going to sit this iteration out and/or wait for the inevitable price drop on brand new brains (if they choose to stick with RED). And there will likely be a bunch of BT MX cameras heavily discounted in the near future, too. If I can pick up another Scarlet-X brain for ~$3k, I'll likely get one simply because I have enough accessories/mags to build a B-cam (plus I'm confident I can get more income with two Scarlet-Xs than I can from one Scarlet-Dragon... at the very least, it'd cut my shooting times in half).

So, to sum it up, I'm not sure when MX prices will start to erode (I don't think they'll change on Dec. 1st to be honest), but it'll likely be sooner rather than later (at least, much sooner than it was for REDone -- maybe just after NAB15).
 
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sam karr said:
These prices are a bit messy. The upgrade to scarlet dragon brain will cost 12500$ for a camera brain worth 14500, new. My scarlet Mx is valued 2000$ then (I guess I better sell it used after 1st december, that's the biggest devaluation I ever had on a camera, we're far from obsolescence obsolete). If I go to epic mx after 1st december, it costs 9500$ to upgrade to a 17500$ camera, and my camera is worth 8000$ in that case. To be equal to the dragon prices the MX should be 11500$ new then (the 2000$ red value my scarlet plus the 9500 upgrade).
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the math really doesn't work that way. Don't worry.
 
Living is Australia I was on the fence about an upgrade at 9500 for a scarlet. I dont have the cash now and am not interested in paying back a loan. Not on tech that depreciates like this. Fortunately im not a gun for hire dp dependent on a camera system for work. Still. This price hike seems very steep considering the cost of the camera new. Especially taking into account shipping and warranty difference. If the mx epic upgrade drops to around 5 grand id consider it though. As for dragon ill be waiting and investing elsewhere (gosh we're spoiled for choice now) or waiting to see how allthe olpf's go and buy new. Love the red look and workflow but i dont think the scarlet dragon upgrade is worth 9500 (living is Aus). Will be playing with an epic dragon in a few weeks and will see what I think. (After Dec 1).
 
The smartest upgrade, for those who don't want to move to Dragon just yet, would be from Scarlet-X to Epic-X-MX. The pricing is the same even after Dec. 1st ($9,500), and you know for a fact they won't have tons of battle-tested Epic-MXs to sell off (because you can't trade those in). Therefore, the value of your camera is less likely to drop to nothing.
 
BrendanLeahy said:
The smartest upgrade, for those who don't want to move to Dragon just yet, would be from Scarlet-X to Epic-X-MX. The pricing is the same even after Dec. 1st ($9,500), and you know for a fact they won't have tons of battle-tested Epic-MXs to sell off (because you can't trade those in). Therefore, the value of your camera is less likely to drop to nothing.
Click to expand...

This is what I'll probably look at (if the upgrade price drops a tad). There's some great options out there now it's hard to not look elsewhere too. Again, love the RED image, REDCODE and workflow though. The higher frame rates without going down to 3k would be very welcome.
 
Mike P. said:
Which, for Scarlet owners, is almost double the cost of the original brain purchase... (plus technology is supposed to *reduce* in price over time, so it's kind of a hard sell). Back when it was ~$5k-6k, a lot of people clung to 'what other camera company gives you upgrade options!?' and I agreed... When it's $9500-$12500, I tend to face palm and look more closely at what the competition is offering in the $9500-$12500 range.
Click to expand...

yeah I agree tech should reduce or at least stay the same over time. That's why i'm thinking the dragon prices should come down to near MX prices and MX would go on sale. The thing that gets me is I just bought my Scarlet MX this June, and if it goes on sale a significant amount (even the $3k difference from upgrade theory), that's unfortunate they wouldn't have alluded to that earlier.

if scarlet and epic both drop in price, they will probably still charge the $9500 upgrade price, which would devalue my camera a significant amount as well.

Just playing with numbers (hypothetically):
If the MX come down by $3k to make up for the upgrade difference, then epic MX is at $14,500 and scarlet MX is at $4950. This means my 5 month old camera just depreciated by $3k. Going to epic MX i'd still have to pay $9,500 though. Hopefully RED would do us scarlet owners a service and allow us to that purchased prior to any price decreases to pay the difference of original purchase price on the epic upgrade ($14,500 - $7950 = $6,550)

Maybe I'm thinking too hard and none of this will happen... we'll see in a few weeks!
 
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