Standard REDmags or Mini-mags?

[Daniel Christensen]

RED's almost weekly announcements of new accessories is going to drive me nuts! Kidding, of course!

I had fairly simple camera package worked out for a little over $30,000, with 4 128 GB standard REDmags. I figured that should work for my needs, with a laptop and external drives to offload to during shoots. Then they announces these Mini-mags, new side module, etc. For the same price I can get two smaller (physically) 512 GB cards, so double the space for the same price. My question is, I guess, is it even worth it to consider the standard REDmags since I'm not invested in them? I mean, half the price, and slightly higher speeds on the Mini-mags? It seems like a no-brainer. The only thing I can think of that would count towards the standard REDmags is that the little bit of extra speed doesn't really make a huge difference to me, and it might be possible to pick up some used REDmags at a discounted price from people who are transferring over to the Mini-mags.

Let me know your thoughts!

 

[Louis Maddalena]

Since you're not already invested in any standard size mags..I'd go for the minis. At a significantly lower price per gig at larger capacities, you're also getting smaller, lighter, and faster cards.

While you might be able to pick up some used cards fairly cheaply as people start migrating over, I don't know that the money you'll save there will make it worth it to buy the larger size side ssd module, as you'll eventually want to go to the minis down the road, might as well just grab them now.

However, if you do decide you want to go with the standard size, let me know and I should be able to get you a side module, as right now I'm deciding if I want to jump towards the minis myself on one of my cams.

 

[Daniel Christensen]

That's pretty much what I was thinking, just wanted some other opinions... Thanks Louis!

 

[Louis Maddalena]

No problem. Good luck with you future camera purchase.

 

[Tom Greenberg]

Another consideration is whether you are a "lone gunman", who is shooting your own projects, with a single camera, and not renting out your kit…or if you collaborate with other shooters, work on multi-camera jobs, and do rentals. At least for the foreseeable future, the original REDMag is the standard format of the RED ecosystem…almost every EPIC, Scarlet and many R1MX's use them. As the early adopters change over, and as Dragon gets wider deployment, that will gradually change. But the changeover process is going to take a while. For now, if you have to work with other RED owners on multi-camera projects or rental situations, you need to maintain compatibility. The idea of mixing multiple sizes of cards on a single shoot is not very appealing. Personally, I am going to stock up on original REDMags at bargain prices as people begin dumping them. They are perfectly viable, and I don't currently need the speed or high capacity that the MiniMags offer. If and when that changes, I'll upgrade.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

^ what he said

 

[ericyoung]

What Tom said is exactly why Red should make a rear MiniMag module which will work both in relay record and single selected slot record mode with the existing 1.8" RedMag Side Module.

Maximises compatibility and existing owner investments in 1.8" RedMags, while adding functionality. Win-win.

At the moment, it involves exchanging one for the other and potentially limits getting additional media at short notice when required for a job.

 

[Martin Stevens]

What Tom said is exactly why Red should make a rear MiniMag module which will work both in relay record and single selected slot record mode with the existing 1.8" RedMag Side Module.

Maximises compatibility and existing owner investments in 1.8" RedMags, while adding functionality. Win-win.

At the moment, it involves exchanging one for the other and potentially limits getting additional media at short notice when required for a job.

I agree.

 

[Ruff]

Also, smaller capacity media is often much better to cycle throughout a shoot day. Dumping off 128 cards throughout the day is often preferred to loading up a single card for the end of the day / overnight.

 

[Brian Merlen]

512 is a huge amount of record time at 4k/5k/ and even 6k for those who have upgraded. I would get the minis, everyone else is going to phase over anyway. the minis download faster, are cheaper per gb, and will become the new standard. i'd be buy those. i keep my camera at a large rental house and already know i will need to phase over, and likely soon. its kind of a drag cuz im just finishing paying off the epic and was about to pay for dragon and am broke lol, but what can ya do!

 

[Daniel Christensen]

Ruff, in reply to what you said, that makes sense for bigger productions with somebody who can run with the cards and offload them and bring them back. For me, I tend to go one man band, in which case it would make more sense to have 2 or 4 512 cards for a day, which according to RED's cinephotography tools should get me around 3 hours to the card, give or take based on compression, framerate and resolution. So have that amount of recording time and only having to carry two cards is a big plus. I could theoretically get through an entire day of shooting with a terabyte of space, not so much with half that. So for the same price and can see no reason to go with the standard mags.

 

[Brian Merlen]

plus speed of download is faster on the new mini mags, so it makes more sense for financially per gb, getting the new media that will be standard, getting 6g downloads not 3g, and I think it makes perfect sense for you to get them. Everyones gonna switch over eventually I am sure, at least if they can. i actually cant decide what to do really cuz if i sell my old ones now ill make more, but milking them at the rental house works too and helps, its slow cuz of the holidays for me outside rentals, providing they dont pull the rug out from under me, which surely will come sooner then later and I need to switch over to stay with their standards. so I am sure when i'll need to switch myself but im betting sooner then later... i was even considering keeping the old ones and grabbing a used brain if i could swing it...then id have an mx to play with and a dragon at the rental house...wouldn't mind that at all