Scarlet-W has Begun...

[Suresh Kara]

i just got an email about moving over to epic W funny enough.

I would love it!!

but i just can't justify the cost increase especially when my projects are saying no to 8k, it will triple the upgrade cost if not more.

if i would have got the SW when it was announced i think i would have been so happy but i'm really not sure now.

I'm sure they would'nt say anything negative but i wonder if all the epic W upgraders are happy with their choice?

if i had the money i would do it though

 

[Dean Butler]

I like the idea of 8k for stills. It's useless for me for video though. But to be honest clients have been happy with 4k stills from my Scarlet-X. Even 3k from 48 fps work when just used online. So for me the 5k move to Scarletw is really more/exactly what I'm after. If I was shooting fashion motion/stills my needs might be different but I shoot mostly documentary, narrative, music videos and corporate work and I still haven't had a client officially ask for a 4k master (only acquisition). The majority of people in my City are still watching TV on 1080p 46" - 65" 1080p screens and will be for some time. Computer monitors too. I think in 2 - 3 years I'll be required to master in 4k. I'd love it if it was widespread but 1080 still looks pretty damn nice providing you aren't sitting right in front of the screen.

 

[Nicholaus James]

I ordered my Scarlet-W on January 1st. Once the Epic-W offer came in for us S-W waiters, I hopped the line over to it. Once "life" was lining up by the time my number was called, I had to switch back to the Scarlet-W order.

I don't regret it one bit. The Scarlet-W is a BEAST. Period. Yes, RED makes "better" models, but RED is so freaking progressive, they are LIGHT YEARS ahead of the competition. When their "bottom rung" camera (RAVEN) is on par with the competition's top notch cameras, jumping into ANY of their models is going to get you in on a good camera investment.

5K is PLENTY for me for quite a while. Don't feel you're going without if you aren't getting into their 8K models. Just because it exists doesn't mean it's the standard. Again, remember that when you buy into this company, you are buying into something so much further ahead of the status quo.

Now to get the allocation on my second Scarlet-W.....:biggrin5:

 

[Suresh Kara]

Did you notice a big jump in quality and function from your scarlet dragon to scarlet w upgrade?

 

[Rakesh Malik]

I sort of skipped that part... but I can say that the DSMC2 bodies are mostly a lot nicer than the DSMC1 bodies. It's a lot easier to s carry an almost ready to shoot setup now. The only down side imo is that the built in port cluster is gone, replaced by a vent.

Quality wise, everyone was very happy with the footage from the Scarlet Dragon. Nowadays, everyone is terrified of the 8K datarate.

For me it's worth it for the system consolidation for backcountry and mountaineering photography, but for everything else, it's massive overkill. There really aren't any down sides to the Scarlet-w on the other hand... unless u ou want to double it up as a camera for fine art prints.

 

[patrickortman]

While we wait... 8K: I know for what I do, it's way overkill. Way, way overkill. You can get around that by shooting ProRes, a killer 4K ProRes from the Epic-W would probably give you an amazing picture but way less stress on your edit pipeline. Then of course, you lose the Raw advantage- but unless I'm doing narrative work, the clients don't care (meaning, my commercial clients mostly just want pretty pictures, don't care about how we get them, and we do all the post, so no big deal- and the corporate clients don't understand Raw at all in any case).

I have heard from many colleagues who work with producers, who have told them no way on that 8K camera on their projects. And I have heard from friends who rent cams, that once the initial 'wow that's fucking cool!' wore off, their clients said no way on the 8K.

BUT...

You can get on helluva nice negative out of Epic-W in Raw if you shoot, what, 6K? 6.5K? We don't HAVE to film in 8K, just like on S-W you don't HAVE to shoot in 5K. Sure you lose some stuff when you do that. Depends on the job if that works for you.

If I had the extra 3x the cost of the S-W, and needed a huge tax break, I'd maybe go Epic-W. Maybe. But I get to choose what I use, whereas a lot of others here have to sell the package to the producer, etc.