RED Mini Mag price breakdown, comparisons

[Daniel Kelly Brown]

You will still be able to use 120s and 240s with the Weapon, just not at higher FPS and/or lower REDcode compression levels.

Looks to me like the only the carbon fiber weapon can take advantage of the 512gb cards. The Mag Weapon does not matter what card.

[TABLE="class: specs, width: 100%"]
[TR="bgcolor: #888888"]
[TD]MAX DATA RATES (512GB & 1TB)[/TD]
[TD="class: right, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]WEAPON DRAGON (Carbon Fiber) up to 300 MB/s
WEAPON DRAGON (Magnesium) up to 225 MB/s
EPIC DRAGON up to 200 MB/s
SCARLET DRAGON up to 72 MB/s
SCARLET-W and RAVEN DRAGON up to 140 MB/s[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: #AAAAAA"]
[TD]MAX DATA RATES (120GB & 240GB)[/TD]
[TD="class: right, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]WEAPON DRAGON (Carbon Fiber) up to 225 MB/s
WEAPON DRAGON (Magnesium) up to 225 MB/s
EPIC DRAGON up to 170 MB/s
SCARLET DRAGON up to 72 MB/s
SCARLET-W and RAVEN DRAGON up to 140 MB/s[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[Alexander Thomson]

Looks to me like the only the carbon fiber weapon can take advantage of the 512gb cards. The Mag Weapon does not matter what card.

[TABLE="class: specs, width: 100%"]
[TR="bgcolor: #888888"]
[TD]MAX DATA RATES (512GB & 1TB)
[/TD]
[TD="class: right, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]WEAPON DRAGON (Carbon Fiber) up to 300 MB/s
WEAPON DRAGON (Magnesium) up to 225 MB/s
EPIC DRAGON up to 200 MB/s
SCARLET DRAGON up to 72 MB/s
SCARLET-W and RAVEN DRAGON up to 140 MB/s
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: #AAAAAA"]
[TD]MAX DATA RATES (120GB & 240GB)
[/TD]
[TD="class: right, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]WEAPON DRAGON (Carbon Fiber) up to 225 MB/s
WEAPON DRAGON (Magnesium) up to 225 MB/s
EPIC DRAGON up to 170 MB/s
SCARLET DRAGON up to 72 MB/s
SCARLET-W and RAVEN DRAGON up to 140 MB/s
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Correct, the Forged Carbon Fiber and Woven Carbon Fiber Weapon cameras have ASICs which are capable of 33x33x33 LUTs, 4K ProRes simultaneous recording, and the 8K Vista Vision upgrade. The Magnesium 6K Weapon has different ASICs and as such only writes up to 225 MB/s. So besides the price advantage of going with 512GB or 1TB media, if you plan to upgrade to a CF Weapon (especially if you aspire to go 8K) then going for the RED anodized mini-mags (512GB or 1TB) is a solid decision.

 

[Gene Sung]

Hi Daniel,

Looks like you are right, the max data rate on both the 240 and 512 cards is 225 mb for Magnesium, so either will work. Good catch. There's a chance I might upgrade to Mag Weapon, but I doubt I would ever upgrade to Carbon or 8K because of $$$$, so maybe to start with 240 gigs are fine since I won't outgrow the specs out.

 

[Josh Becker]

Hi Daniel,

Looks like you are right, the max data rate on both the 240 and 512 cards is 225 mb for Magnesium, so either will work. Good catch. There's a chance I might upgrade to Mag Weapon, but I doubt I would ever upgrade to Carbon or 8K because of $$$$, so maybe to start with 240 gigs are fine since I won't outgrow the specs out.

There is certainly that aspect... But I think ultimately for me, I have a feeling I'll want/need the space. So if I'm already deciding that 1TB is right capacity for me, then I want to get the best deal. Obviously the 1TB card is the best price per gig, but it's too risky and annoying to have only one card. So that means stepping down to two 512GB. Or four 240GB, which technically would have 64 gigs less than two 512GB. So you'd spend $700 more by buying four 240GB and you'd be short 64GB.

 

[Ketch Rossi]

The 1TB's are a great deal, financially...

However if you can't afford a minimum of 3, then I'll go for the 512's, we've run in issues several times with just 2x512's, just not enough time to recycle... So 3 has been a sweet spot, where I agree with Phil that in larger productions 4 is ideal, but for the most part in smaller to medium size production 3 is ok, but 2 it is not.

But there is also an other thing to say on the 512's with Weapon, if you are now recording simultaneously RAW at low recodes or high frame rates or HDR + your flavors of Prores / DNx then data goes fast and the 1TB's depending on project and production run, might be the only option.