RED WEAPON - Info and Data Sheets

[Phil Holland]

Can we have a little love for the original early adopters?

Instead of making us constantly refresh our browsers or whatever it will take, can we just have a window - i.e. something like a 3 or 5 day period where as long as you make your preorder within that window it goes by your serial number.

For example, I was Redone Serial Number 206 order and $1000 deposit placed at NAB April 2006 (with first cameras delivered in Fall of 2007) so as long as I placed my preorder within the 3 or 5 day window my order would be filled in order of that 206 serial number without having to try to beat every other owner in the world with an order.

Also, it would be nice if the preorder deposit was closer to the $1000 original Redone deposit, than the $5000 epic upgrade deposit that (IIRC) was required in June of 2010 and the cams didn't ship until September of 2011. (Maybe $1000 non-refundable deposit.) I think for most of us that was a pretty hefty chunk of change to not be able to use for that long.

As long as I'm publishing my wishlist - it would also be nice to have the same type of keep the old cam/get the new one too (for extra money) option that we had with Epic-X - especially for my customers that have underwater housings specifically fitted for the epic/scarlet body.

Finally, I'm sure I missed something but is Weapon upgrade a use the same sensor and lens mount but new body and electronics, or is it a totally new camera?

Many of your questions haven't been answered yet. Existing lens mounts (including Motion Mount) are compatible with the Weapon Brain.

As for that 3-5 day window, I have no idea. I do know the queue for pre-order begins NAB 2015 and upgrades themselves won't start until Summer/Fall 2015.

What I'm 100% sure on is if you don't have Dragon you aren't upgrading to Weapon. It's a Dragon upgrade only. If you are an Mysterium-X owner you'll need to upgrade to Dragon to get to Weapon. There might be a "double upgrade path" to Weapon around the time of NAB where you pay the upgrade to Dragon cost and the upgrade to Weapon cost, but based on what's been said early Dragon adopters, Carbon Dragon owners, and lower serial Dragon adopters will have priority.

Don't know about the pay more/keep the body option yet. Jarred will have to answer that one.


I'll say right now, not knowing exactly how many pre-orders will occur or anything like that, that I firmly believe there will be a demand to acquire Weapon. So I imagine that queue will grow between April, May, June, and July a whole bunch.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The way I understand it is those who upgrade to Dragon in time for NAB '15 will get in on the early adopter incentives. The ability to upgrade an MX camera to a Dragon camera will come to an end when RED converts those upgrade production lines over to Weapon production... Summer/Fall 2015. We don't have specifics on upgrade program options or what happens. RED will continue to sell and support EPIC and Scarlet Dragon for some time.

 

[Phil Holland]

The way I understand it is those who upgrade to Dragon in time for NAB '15 will get in on the early adopter incentives. The ability to upgrade an MX camera to a Dragon camera will come to an end when RED converts those upgrade production lines over to Weapon production... Summer/Fall 2015. We don't have specifics on upgrade program options or what happens. RED will continue to sell and support EPIC and Scarlet Dragon for some time.

That is correct. Though Jarred said something in the realm "the longer you've had Dragon" or something like that.

The early incentives in terms of general price and likely credits will be likely all in the wheelhouse.

I believe the Mysterium-X to Dragon upgrade price goes back up after NAB 2015, and right now is the last time you'll be able to get it done for the price it's currently at. The Mysterium-X to Dragon upgrades cease to exist around late June 2015 according to one of his early posts.

He's giving everybody the best "guesses" and information he can right now because some of the future is foggy just yet.

NAB is going to be rad though.

The future is bright for Red shooters as far as I'm concerned. They've been busting their asses. I know some are even working through the weekends to hammer things down.

It's actually killing Jarred that he "shouldn't" post more about Weapon at the moment. He's damn excited.

 

[Rodrigo Prata]

That is correct. Though Jarred said something in the realm "the longer you've had Dragon" or something like that.

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I believe that Jarred said that in a sense that the longer you`ve had Dragon, the more it will pay off, because you`ll trade an older camera for the same price as one would for a newer camera.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Will there be somthing like an "M weapon" or direct buy like the carbon dragon?

As I don't have a camera at the moment I'm thinking I should not do the same mistake as for the dragon where I could have just bought the carbon straight of and had it paid off even before the upgrades started.

 

[Phil Holland]

Will there be somthing like an "M weapon" or direct buy like the carbon dragon?

As I don't have a camera at the moment I'm thinking I should not do the same mistake as for the dragon where I could have just bought the carbon straight of and had it paid off even before the upgrades started.

Unknown at this time, but Jarred mentioned that Carbon take priority and in my mind in a similar way that Carbon Dragon took priority.

He also mentioned that Carbon Weapon will "do more", which is very interesting.

Jarred said that there will be multiple Weapons, though we don't know exactly how many or how they will differ just yet. I imagine it will be 2 or 3 models with Carbon Weapon being the top dog in terms of feature set and functionality as well as being the lightest weight option.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Will there be somthing like an "M weapon" or direct buy like the carbon dragon?

As I don't have a camera at the moment I'm thinking I should not do the same mistake as for the dragon where I could have just bought the carbon straight of and had it paid off even before the upgrades started.

I hope not, if you mean the M program that allowed M buyers to jump ahead of early adopters that had paid deposits the previous year. I understood it at the time because there were a number of things that kept the RedOne from making a lot of inroads with the major Hollywood Producers and DPs that were improved with the Epic - and it was good for everyone to get those people on board. But that's not the case anymore and as I stated before, I hope it is time to prioritize the early adopters again - we were the ones that made the big "leap of faith" in Jim and the RED team.

I guess some would say: "Hey it's been 7 years, give it up on the early adopter thing... " but the whole program has been a continuum of upgrades so priority to initial order date makes some sense.

BTW If it wasn't clear in my earlier post I/we upgraded to dragon last summer - just never updated my signature (just did).

 

[Wil Wong]

I hope there is no M and X versions. I found that to be poor marketing and kind of an unnecessary difference. I'm fine with a Scarlet Weapon and an Epic Weapon but then add an M and an X version is quite messy to new consumers. It was even more messy when we had the M and then the MX chips. Yikes...

 

[Bob Gundu]

I hope there is no M and X versions. I found that to be poor marketing and kind of an unnecessary difference. I'm fine with a Scarlet Weapon and an Epic Weapon but then add an M and an X version is quite messy to new consumers. It was even more messy when we had the M and then the MX chips. Yikes...

I believe the Epic and Scarlet nomenclature will disappear for Weapon.

 

[Wil Wong]

So it'll be weapon and carbon weapon?

I am glad of the loss of Epic and Scarlet variations too (if that's the case). I like things clean and simple. One camera with choice of add-ons makes more sense then multiple variations of the camera and then add-ons to customize. It's focused.

 

[Bob Gundu]

So it'll be weapon and carbon weapon?

I am glad of the loss of Epic and Scarlet variations too (if that's the case). I like things clean and simple. One camera with choice of add-ons makes more sense then multiple variations of the camera and then add-ons to customize. It's focused.

That's my feeling.

 

[Nick Morrison]

That's my feeling.

My guess is there will be 3 versions of Weapon, representimg RED's three common price points - $15,000 (Scarlet), $25,000 (Epic) and $50,000 (Carbon) - except this time Carbon will be the flagship Weapon and have added features (4:3 sensor?), etc.

 

[Wil Wong]

That's my concern. A junior Weapon (i.e. Scarlet version) and a senior Weapon (that's not Carbon). I don't see a point in that. There should be merely a Aluminum Weapon and a Carbon Weapon. No M(handmade) or X(machined). No low end cheaper versus better and more expensive. Hope it's not another round of this. Low end should simply be the previous version Epic/Scarlet Dragon.

 

[Nick Morrison]

That's my concern. A junior Weapon (i.e. Scarlet version) and a senior Weapon (that's not Carbon). I don't see a point in that. There should be merely a Aluminum Weapon and a Carbon Weapon. No M(handmade) or X(machined). No low end cheaper versus better and more expensive. Hope it's not another round of this. Low end should simply be the previous version Epic/Scarlet Dragon.

There is a real market for a Scarlet priced system. It clearly expanded the RED ecosystem, and brought an influx of new talent/business. I dont see them abandoning that. The Scarlet Dragon is very hard to beat at its price point. Im personally looking forward to all versions of Weapon!

 

[Terry VerHaar]

From everything I have read and interpreted so far, I'd say there will eventually be just two models; Weapon and Carbon Weapon.

 

[Patrick Grossien]

From everything I have read and interpreted so far, I'd say there will eventually be just two models; Weapon and Carbon Weapon.

Jarred stated that there will be a way to upgrade Scarlet to "Top" Weapon. which implies that there's a "low end" Weapon, which to me means there's a "Scarlet Weapon" of some sort.

 

[Sergio Perez]

From everything I have read and interpreted so far, I'd say there will eventually be just two models; Weapon and Carbon Weapon.

Hmm, I respectfully disagree. I see there being 4 models: a Scarlet Dragon equivalent, a Red Dragon Equivalent, A Red Carbon Dragon equivalent- all these with the current Dragon sensor. The big surprise could be a new Sensor in a Weapon body. All these in the same Weapon form factor (differing of course on carbon and non carbon exteriors).

 

[Wil Wong]

Perhaps Carbon Weapon is "Top" weapon... Maybe all versions of Weapon has carbon OR will there be a cheaper aluminum/plastic version this time round...hmmm

 

[Christoffer Glans]

So what you all are saying is that people who has the much less expensive Scarlet Dragon will be able to upgrade to the same camera as those with an Epic Dragon?
If so, the price for upgrading a Scarlet Dragon to Weapon would be quite high, otherwise that's a pretty lousy thing to do to people who paid a lot for the Epic.

 

[Mendes Nabil]

What would be really great for indie filmmakers is to have a Weapon Junior with as good compression as the "senior Weapon", and no more crop in the sensor, I don't care if the camera can't go up to 24fps, and i'm certainly not the only one who think that..

So "as good compression as the senior Weapon and no more crop in the sensor. And the price for such great things would be "lower Fps"..

Maybe that's what Jarred meant by "2 steps forward, 1 step back"?

It would be huge..