Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

Question for RED owners

P

Paulo Uchoa

New member
Joined
Sep 30, 2009
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hello,

I have a question for the RED owners out there. I was wondering how long did it take you to pay off your camera package? And if you could provide me with an est of package price that would be super.

I asking this cause, I am thinking about buying a RED and it will be the first PRO camera that I have ever bought, yes I will have a complete package. And I would just like to hear a few owners point of view.

Thanks

-Paulo
 
The first question would be kind of irrelevant wouldn't it? It would all depend on how much you spent, what kind of money you had at your disposal to begin with and what your income was. Some folks probably paid it off all at once, others are currently leveraged up to their gills.

As for the second- a pro package is a very subjective term. Some would say you couldn't get there for under $30K, others will say up to $100K or much more. Bottom line is do a *lot* of research, i.e. read every bit of this forum before spending.

Oh and shameless plug- my book features an entire chapter devoted to 'whys' and 'how muches' on a variety of different potential RED packages:

RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera

Noah
 
Paulo Uchoa said:
Hello,
I asking this cause, I am thinking about buying a RED and it will be the first PRO camera that I have ever bought, yes I will have a complete package. And I would just like to hear a few owners point of view.

Thanks

-Paulo
Click to expand...

By complete package, are you talking lenses and so on? Or just the camera?
RED gear? or 3rd party like ET?
Making back your investment all depends on what you buy, what you shoot, and what you charge.
It might be worth working backwards, to decide on a sensible budget.

And aside from this forum, Noah's book is an excellent place to start.
Loads of information in there, and its a heck of a lot cheaper than other camera guide books I've bought in the past.
 
Hi Paulo,

The Red One was my first "Pro" camera as well- I went from shooting HDV to 4K, and it goes without saying (though I'll say it anyway) there's a world of difference.

Everything I bought from Red directly totalled to about 30K in US dollars. This did not include any lenses. You could spend another 12K for a set of Modded Zeiss ZF lenses, or 200K for a nice set of Master Primes. Element Technica gear will run you more than Red gear for the most part, but many of the pieces are preferred over Red pieces by prospective rental customers.

The biggest mistake you can make is buying a Red One and thinking you can just sit back and rake in rental cash. Depending where you live, competition cna be vwery stiff, or the demand could be nonexistent. Do a lot of reading here, and a lot of research about the demand for Reds in your city.

Cheers!
 
i wouldnt ever rent a "pro" camera to anyone for any amount without a proper backup body in the wings...could set yourself up for a legal situation. Just think that thru before
you choose to make that leap. a proper camera w/o lenses or head,sticks,mattebox,follow focus should be around 40ish another 20-140g's for proper "pro" lenses etc...good luck
 
Guidofilippi said:
Sorry... but I´d rather say 50k... and just to start! More towards 70-80k...
Guido
Click to expand...

30K can get you going IMO. Think about this, cheap or no FF or MB, Nikon mount with used still glass, LCD monitoring does not have to be RED (can use hdmi pc monitor), etc........ it can be done!! If there is a will, there is a way...... won't be easy, though. And I'm not sure how much you can stand behind the quality of the final product, either. :arf:
 
Yousuf Abbasi said:
30K can get you going IMO. Think about this, cheap or no FF or MB, Nikon mount with used still glass, LCD monitoring does not have to be RED (can use hdmi pc monitor), etc........ it can be done!! If there is a will, there is a way...... won't be easy, though. And I'm not sure how much you can stand behind the quality of the final product, either. :arf:
Click to expand...

At that point... maybe it´s more coherent (and easier to rent) to go with a couple of EX3 well fit with good tripods, an extra wide angle lens, reasonable monitor and audio gear, accessories, cases... dunno, just wondering...
I spent more than 30k per camera in Red gear, plus some 4-5k per camera in ET gear. Then come the lenses, tripods, head, hi-hat, monitor, follow focus, matte box, filters, cases, rain cover... and several, neverending etceteras...
Guido
 
sergio arguello said:
i wouldnt ever rent a "pro" camera to anyone for any amount without a proper backup body in the wings...could set yourself up for a legal situation.
Click to expand...

A simple waiver form would eliminate liability issues.
 
Guidofilippi said:
At that point... maybe it´s more coherent (and easier to rent) to go with a couple of EX3 well fit with good tripods, an extra wide angle lens, reasonable monitor and audio gear, accessories, cases... dunno, just wondering...
I spent more than 30k per camera in Red gear, plus some 4-5k per camera in ET gear. Then come the lenses, tripods, head, hi-hat, monitor, follow focus, matte box, filters, cases, rain cover... and several, neverending etceteras...
Guido
Click to expand...

I know what you're saying! I'm on a pretty tight budget and have already spent 50K, and still need atleast 15-20K more worth of stuff to get me started!! BUT, you get what you pay for... so all is well.
 
Some of you people are way off base here. You can certainly put together a very nice RED kit for $30K, including lenses, if you don't go PL and go Nikons or Canons instead. It's close, but it certainly can be done. If you are trying to rent your RED, lack of PL glass is obviously an issue. If, however, you are doing it just for yourself, you'll have an amazing kit that will produce world-class images. If you invest wisely, everything beyond $30K is primarily just bells and whistles. And that camera works just fine without any bells or any whistles.

Stephen
 
Another big thing to consider that those of us who have had cameras over a year have enjoyed higher rental rates.

Now, there are so many cameras out there, and so many people getting desperate, rates have dropped quite a bit, especially for owner-operators.

I got a call from a friend last night asking to rent my kit, but only wanted to pay AUD$350 (about U.S. $300) for my entire kit with lenses. He knew that was an insult, but said that's what he can get it for from another owner so that's the reality.

Got him to $450 since my kit has nicer stuff, but that's the reality.

I bought my kit for my own projects, which easily paid itself off (about $80k kit) but if I were relying on rental, I would get depressed pretty soon.

So if you have clients, ideas, ambition and talent, I say go for it. If it's more of a "if you build it they will come" scenario, I would think twice.
 
You may also consider if you have the post-end ability to handle Red. While the Graeme's codecs are awesome- they still take up a boatload of space and require great computing power. So figure in the cost of a machine that can handle the minimum editing/processing as well.
 
I suspect that a minority, yet still a fairly large number of RED users, are a bit like me in that they actually have "a real job" that pays the bills. In "my other life," I'm a college professor (finance and economics). I'd love to move into filmmaking full-time, and that's what we're attempting to do with our first couple of features, but, in all honesty, that is probably pretty unlikely.

But I have to laugh, because, when my fellow professors ask me the question, "how long do you intend to stay here?" I always answer, "It's a binomial distribution: I'll either be here for three years (if the movies hit) or until I'm 99 (because I can't afford to retire!)."

:-)

Stephen
 
Someone asked me that question at a job interview once and I said, "if someone gives me three million bucks, I'm outta here". The boss thought about it a moment and said, "yeah, me too".
 
the body is the entry drug @$20K!!! then the power @ $3K, basic accs @ $$6-10k, proper tripod @$8K, lens @$6k, Matte box, filters, drives, backup drives, cases, etc... then you realize that you cant carry or handle that moose by yourself so you need an assistant... ohh it will take you a month to render your project on your laptop!!! Whoops another $10k!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top