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  • 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 :)

Scarlet-W - Would you Purchase One today?

Audy Erel said:
Scarlet-W is more than enough for anyone who wants to make a great film for many years to come. The Super 35mm Dragon 5K sensor is beautiful, even better with IPP2. The frame rates are very versatile too.
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Totally agree with you. The SW is a great camera and will be an awesome tool for many years.
 
I had my red MX for 4 years, and never felt "behind" in terms of quality or technology. I upgraded to a scarlet W in January, and def don't regret it. I hope to get another 4 years out of this camera, however at that point I will have to look at the market to decide what I get. It seems like many other brands are catching up at a lower price point. I wouldn't wait for NAB, just because they announce a camera, as many scarlet w owners will remind you, there was over a year long wait list, with no tangible list to know when you would actually get the camera. Just buy what you think is the best camera for you right now. Lots of scarlet W are going slightly used at great prices.
 
Dean Butler said:
Its not a camera to make rental money off. But its a hell of a camera at any price. I still get excited seeing the DR difference to our old scarletmx. Very happy with it.
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Really depends in which part of the world are you, in the EU I know many people charging a nice fare on their SW, (around 350-600EURO's for a package with lenses etc), it adds up nicely in long run.

Agree with all the rest! :-)
 
Oron Cohen said:
Really depends in which part of the world are you, in the EU I know many people charging a nice fare on their SW, (around 350-600EURO's for a package with lenses etc), it adds up nicely in long run.

Agree with all the rest! :-)
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I currently rent my lenses and camera for $600 / day in south florida.
I get about 3-6 rentals a month. I bought my camera in January and have made atleast $10,000 in rentals. but the way I get it rented is I also rent lighting, and other production equipment as well. Like a one stop shop. I bought my equipment to shoot my own indie projects, so rental income has been vital. The key is to find a couple directors that are constantly shooting, and build relationships with them. If you have 5 directors that rent from you doing 2 projects a month, at $600 + a pop, well that's $6000 a month.
 
Evan Rouillard said:
So... with the new upgrade path and the lowered price of the Gemini, would you buy one today ?
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There is something very special about the dragon sensor. And for the price, if you don’t think about upgrades.. the SW is still a crazy crazy bananas beast of a Camera.
I would have no issue using one ever
 
I just bought a Scarlet-W (used) last week and having to do the math is breaking my brain, hah. I have 30 days to return it for a full refund but honestly I think the deal was good enough that returning it makes little sense. I'd have to put up an additional $10K right now to buy a brand new DSMC2 brain but that would give me a 2 year warranty which is probably worth a few grand. Still a lot of cash to outlay but I have 3 more weeks to rock the math around in my head.

The upgrade for $12,500 makes little sense in my case.
 
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You can't go wrong with the 5k dragon. It's an awesome camera. It all boils down to how much money you have / want to spare if you don't have the specific professional "need" for best lowlight situations. Since you'd be in the DSMC2 eco-system, talking about the Scarlet-W as if it were outdated seems odd to me.
 
I think it's also great news that they're releasing more DSMC2 "expensive" brains this late in 2018 -- that means DSMC2 accessories have the backing of higher end professionals which means us Scarlet-W owners have a long lifespan AND a longer resale window if we want to move up later without doing an "upgrade" path.

Use your Scarlet-W to pay it off AND build a solid reputation. If the work increases enough to need a more powerful brain, rent it short term and if the funds are there to pay the upgrade costs off, buy in and sell your S-W if necessary.

Overall the Scarlet-W still seems like a fantastic deal.

As Grossien said, the need for low light is really the $7000 question here (in the difference between $12,500 Scarlet and $19,500 Gemini).
 
I did also recently buy a Scarlet W second hand.
But from what it seems the upgrade path will be open for a while ("foreseeable future" was the answer to my question at the red tech support).

So I am thinking of using the Scarlet W as it is. And if later on things pick up upgrading at that time.
In the end the camera still works the same, and once the heat of the announcement dissipates it will still be an interesting camera for people who do not want to put 20K for a brain (so like 30$ with everything...).
 
Definitely, Patrick! The price of the brain isn't even the big concern here long term -- as long as there are MANY options of DSMC2 compatible brains going forward, all these (expensive) accessories we're buying for our S-W will work with whatever brain we decide to upgrade to later. And that's a key factor for me.

I want to snag a total of 4 mini-mags this year, but that's $7400 -- more than half the cost of the brain. But when it's time to upgrade from S-W to something bigger and "better", those mini-mags aren't going to need to be replaced.

Red is expensive, yes, but it's the only camera system where I know that I'm not paying for features I don't need, and every feature I do need I can buy, and if I outgrow it I can sell it. I still see RED ONE's on the street to this day -- a camera released 11 years ago. Great to see people still bashing them around, too. I figure even if the DSMC2 connector is "retired" in 2020, we have another 5-7 years of capturing light with our Scarlet-W's.
 
If I was to buy a new camera TODAY. I would probably look at the gemini. Yes I know it's 7.5k more but it just seems super versatile with dual native iso. Can go on a gimbal, be rigged up for shoulder etc etc just like Scarlet-w.
I don't need more than 5k res, deliverables are all 1080 or 4k. But to shoot 5k 100fps without crop and dual native iso would be great.
But I got the Scarlet-w last year, not intending to get anything else (as an A Cam, maybe when Sony release a 10bit A7s mkIII as a C-cam) until 2021.
By then it'll be a used gemini, another brand - or something RED is yet to announce... Hopefully with internal ND's!!!!
 
For me it's Scarlet-w 96% of the time, and I use an A7s for 4k prores to an external recorder for low light situations. Of course the gemini would probably negate needing to sacrifice picture quality, raw and better motion cadence to shoot in low light scenarios. I do often push the Scarlet-w to iso 2000 for doc and run n gun work and find it acceptable more or less. It's WAY better than my Scarlet-MX which is now only an interview B-cam.
 
I think the Scarlet-W is still a lot of bang for your buck. It struggles in low light, but it’s not at all unusable. If the only feature you’re excited about is low-light awesomeness, save yourself some money with the Scarlet-W, and use that extra money to kit it out. No point in getting the brain if you don’t have enough batteries and mini-mags, etc to make it work flawlessly. It’s more than just the brain. It’s everything else too.
 
Yes, I did last week (used). I actually know a lot of people that prefer the dragon sensor

. If you have the money for Gemini, maybe consider that (I could see that camera being in demand here pretty soon) if you're in the 12.5 price range, the scarlet w is the only thing around that mark.

And if you're asking if it's going to be discontinued, I doubt it but who knows. Most people have been referring back to older posts saying the scarlet w would be in the lineup til 2020.

People have also mentioned that the dsmc 2 unified body announcement just reinforces that the dsmc 2 lineup will be around for a bit (but again who knows what that means for scarlet w)
 
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