Still Jobs for the Red One mx?

[Spencer Davies]

is it just me or does it seem like my red one is an expensive dust collector lately now it seems as if only people want to rent or use the epic is there anything i can do with this beast is there still a rental or shooting market for this old girl?

 

[Wil Wong]

Good question. I don't own a Red One but my guess is that unless it's pretty cheap as a rental, anyone willing to rent a camera will have somewhat a budget and want the best or latest.

Many will merely make due with their DSLR (although it's not in the same league quality wise) and the easier workflow, storage, and familiarity of them (because chances are that's what they own or used to before taking the next step and level up).

When I owned a Scarlet, I found that prices needed to be low cause the Scarlet rentals catered to the newbie moving up from a DSLR that may not have much money (and can't afford and Epic). After they played with a Scarlet, they will want to go Epic...unless they still can't afford it (which seems the case at the low budget of indie music video and filmmakers).

Epic tends to cater to the medium budgets and up.

So where does that leave Red One rentals? Lower then the Scarlet unfortunately. Folks wanna rent new stuff and the 'ease of use' and weight of the Scarlet/Epics is more appealing.

I think the best way to make money off a Red One is to offer Camera operator services. Sell YOU not the camera rental. Use the Red One as your tool rather then merely rent it out for gigs (which I believe the demand is dead). I could be wrong and perhaps some owners will chime in. I'm merely guessing as I think about the future of my Epic and what may happen eventually when my camera loses public interest.

 

[Russell Morris]

I agree with wil, the way to get full use out of your R1 is to do an owner operator package

 

[L. Langer]

is it just me or does it seem like my red one is an expensive dust collector lately now it seems as if only people want to rent or use the epic is there anything i can do with this beast is there still a rental or shooting market for this old girl?

The camera has gotten plenty of work in foreign markets but that would require you to sell your whole kit and probably not for much money at all. A year or two ago, all the low budget stuff shot in Canada and Europe that you normally see as DTV in this country was shot on RED ONE/RED ONE MX though some of those production companies have begun migrating to Alexa. RED ONEs are still widely used for small-budget/indie films though. I just don't know who you could sell yours to off the top of my head. Schools could certainly make good use of RED ONE kit.

 

[egon touste]

our rates are low for red one and epic, always have been £150 a day for epic, £250 week for a red one
the red one has perfectly usable audio recording as default..so for low budget..its one less thing to worry about
enquiries : segaunt@yahoo.com or text 07835915253

 

[George Butterfield]

is there anything i can do with this beast ...

You could try to shoot a movie, I suppose. If you're in the "rental" business, the CASE 580 backhoe is the way to go!

 

[Spencer Davies]

All good input I feel even the owner op market has dried up a bit and even for cheaper hubs I use the epic just because ease of use its sad that such a once revealed piece of equitment and still one the only good 4k cams has so little use

 

[Nick Morrison]

I'm not sure if I agree with this line if thinking...that the RED ONE is somehow dead. Yes, I'm sure rentals are down, but I still know of a number of production companies and DP's that OWN several bodies as backups or as their main cams, and these old ladies are still put to good use. I do a lot of work with History and Lifetime, and one major production company they hire brings 4 to 5 cameras on shoots. The first 3 are Epics sure, but for the interview station (medium and tight) they at times still use their Red Ones (and why not...the audio is great...and the cams are super silent).

I was in Lisbon two months ago, and walked past a small indie shoot. About 20 crew members hunkered around a video village and an interesting shop front. I asked what they were shooting on? A Red One MX. With Ultraprimes.

And again...there are lots of owner operators who are getting a ton of mileage out of these babies. One of my faves is Ed David, a very talented old friend of mine who won the GOLDEN LION for best commercial of 2013 (ie...the biggest award in advertising in the world) for this Dove Real Beauty Sketches he shot...you guessed it...on two RED ONE MX's (one was battle tested)....with Leica Rs.

So all hope is not lost. Use the tools you know, and use them well. Its still an amazing camera.

 

[Josh Snyder]

EPIC is so great that people will forget how good the R1 was/is. Imagewise it's as good as EPIC or even better (imo), but size, weight and easy to use is what makes EPIC much better for most productions. Few years and all of the cameras currently on the market will have the same faith including EPIC. New even cheaper cameras will come and make the old cameras obsolete even though the old cameras still produce fantastic image.

 

[Michael Dalton]

I wonder if anyone was swayed by Jim in the lead up to Epic to keep their R1 cameras. He was very passionate that people will regret selling their cameras. But that trade in deal was incredible.

I seem to recall a 200k offer to Mark Peterson to buy his camera 006. I wonder what he thinks now.

 

[George Butterfield]

I seem to recall a 200k offer to Mark Peterson to buy his camera 006. I wonder what he thinks now.

Well if someone was willing to spend 200K then, they should still be willing to spend it now.

 

[Mark K.]

The last three 'red' shoots I've worked on have all been on the R1. It still seems to be getting plenty of work down here as a cheaper alternative to the Epic.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

The only thing that makes the RED One seem like less of an extraordinary image maker is pure and simply...HYPE.