RED Media prices

[Nelson Alexandre]

I can't believe people complain about the price of storage. How much does Sony charge for SxS cards? Panisonic for P2? (Sony SxS 32gb is $599 last I checked)

Not only that, who says you can't use CF cards in Scarlet without any problems at all?

SxS and P2 cards are both dedicated media developed for a specific use. That is not what happen with SSD and CF cards, both developed by other brands costing much less! But hey... Everybody is free to buy them even if someone asks 10000 USD for them. As others are free not to buy them.
I didn't complain at all for the price asked! I simply made a question about why they cost that much if other brands made them 5 times cheaper!

 

[Michael Olsen]

I know that RED is a small company compared to others like Sony and Panasonic, but stating that a card is worth 5 times the money others ask for it based on testing alone is a bit overwhelming for me!...

Well, that testing ensures that it will reliably do what is asked of it. We will pay more than you can buy a bare drive for because the drives in our REDs need to be 1) extremely fast - constantly 2) extremely durable and capable of withstanding being inserted and ejected hundreds and hundreds of times 3) extremely reliable, in that small amount of data won't occasionally be lost here or there because those 1s and 0s could cost whole frames of extremely expensive (or otherwise valuable) sequences to be lost.

To me, it's the difference between buying a flashlight for a couple of bucks at the local megamart and buying a flashlight from a tactical gear company for well over 20 times that amount. One will be fine for walking the dog at night or looking under the kitchen sink. But when it is really on the line (firefight, ice-climbing, etc.) I want to use the flashlight that will do what it needs to do every time, virtually without exception.

I feel like most people in the industry cannot say that most "off the shelf" products offer that sort of protection. Which is exactly why P2 exists, exactly why SxS exists, and exactly why RED is building REDMAGs.

Yes, REDMAGs may contain hardware from an "off the shelf" brand. Just as do P2 cards and SxS cards, I imagine. But it is a combination of intelligent design and the selective process of hardware testing that assures us that the media we stick in the camera will deliver.

There are prices to be paid for excellent image quality. This isn't 1080p, this isn't AVCHD or MPEG-2, and this isn't 8-bit 4:2:0. This is a film alternative and it is revolutionary. So it will not be as cheap as buying a couple of low bandwidth SD or CF cards.

 

[Tim Hole]

SxS and P2 cards are both dedicated media developed for a specific use. That is not what happen with SSD and CF cards, both developed by other brands costing much less! But hey... Everybody is free to buy them even if someone asks 10000 USD for them. As others are free not to buy them.
I didn't complain at all for the price asked! I simply made a question about why they cost that much if other brands made them 5 times cheaper!

I understand what you are saying however in Jim's post he was stating exactly that. " Manufacturers specs don't match real performance so we had to pay a premium for guaranteed performance". So they had to pay a premium to guarantee the quality of the cards. So in effect they are developed for a certain purpose...to be used in RED's line of cameras. I'm sure to a certain level good CF cards will work. But don't use them on anything you care about. If you are working on a personal project that you value what you are shooting, or work for a client you know that media is not something you cheap out on...even if a producer does turn up onset with some cheap CF Cards and declares they are the fastest and best in the world...the bloke on ebay told me - not mentioning any names

 

[David Rasberry]

SxS and P2 cards are both dedicated media developed for a specific use. That is not what happen with SSD and CF cards, both developed by other brands costing much less! But hey... Everybody is free to buy them even if someone asks 10000 USD for them. As others are free not to buy them.
I didn't complain at all for the price asked! I simply made a question about why they cost that much if other brands made them 5 times cheaper!

Red happens to make their media to conform to common form factors instead of making a custom cartridge. But the cards themselves are not standard over the counter media from anyone. They are made to Red's specs. Their CF cards in some cases won't work in Canon cameras because the memory controller and software is different than standard.
The SSD's are similarly tweaked and are in a custom hot swap cartridge that can stand repeated insertions.
Even commercial market SSD's that are capable of sustained high speed writes to full capacity are similarly priced.

 

[jimhare]

Well said Michael. Seems like some people will never understand the reality of professional gear.

As you say, these are not off-the-shelf SSDs, they will be specialized, unique, and therefor expensive for Red to buy.

Anyone who thinks it's a surcharge for testing is completely off point.

If SSD is too expensive then use Scarlet with CF cards and enjoy the wonderful gift of quality without compromise.

But don't ask Red to subsidize your shooting costs by selling SSDs at a loss. I think Red has done enough for us...

 

[Stephen Matthews]

if you really want to go for cheap recording (though I would not go this route but to each his own) you could just get the H.264 module which records to cf cards at a much reduced data rate, though you will loose the benefit of RAW. Or just pick up a ninja or nano flash and skip red media all together until you can afford it.

modularity options.

 

[Jim Retar]

It is worth remembering that there will be many, many 2nd hand 16gb CF cards on the marketplace once the SSDs start rolling out.