Thinking about buying an Epic Dragon. Am I insane?

[Ned Wilson]

Our Epic paid itself off quite handily. That was two years ago. But keep in mind, with a camera package, the camera body is the most high risk investment. I say, test the Dragon out and see if you like it. It's not for everyone or every client. The upside with Epic is its size. With 3 axis gimbals, lightweight support, etc all the rage, smaller cameras are becoming more popular. Nothing in its size class compares - for now. As with anything electronic, todays world beater can become tomorrows paperweight overnight. Red was good to me in that the chip updates, kept my R1 relevant and the Epic far longer than cameras that don't have such upgrades.

Also, your camera package is as good as its accessories. Glass, filters, support and accessories will end up costing more than your Epic if you buy the right stuff for pro work. If you plan to rent it out, then you'll pay premium for O'Connor and Arri gear. The good side is that stuff doesn't lose re-sale like a computer (or digital camera). Much of it can carry over to the next great thing. Good thing about an Epic now, is you're starting at the beginning of a new chip cycle. It'll be cutting edge for two years at least.

At the end of the day, ask yourself what market do you serve? We ended up divesting of all our camera gear. The variety of work we do required a far wider variety of gear than we were willing to buy. And as I work in TV and features in NYC, the market radically shifted to Alexa's and C 300's over the past two years . I still use Epics primarily on commercial work and they're often ideal. Clients love to punch in. Yesterday, I shot with a Dragon on a Ford spot. For what we were doing (crammed in backseats, Ultimate Arm, camera ground level in passenger side, etc), Epic was ideal.

Good luck with your purchase.

 

[Ned Wilson]

Another arrangement if you're in the position to do this is house a camera package a a rental house and rent their glass. We did this quite profitably. As each job always had different glass requirements we could always meet those demands. The rental house loved it because we had kept renting glass and we loved it because they did our billing, maintained our package, etc.

 

[Art Chong]

Wow, thread resurrection...

In case anyone was curious, I decided not to purchase a Dragon. For a lot of different reasons, it doesn't make sense for my situation, but mostly because I'd rather concentrate on writing and directing instead of chasing the latest tech.

What was interesting was that while there were many people who thought I should not make the purchase, there were also quite a few who were in a similar situation as I was, and wanted to know what I decided. This, more than anything gave me perspective into how crazy it looked from the outside, and how little sense it made for me.

There is such an allure to "chasing your dream" that I think artist types (me) forget that just because I'm chasing the dream doesn't mean I can't make a bad decision in the process, and that a part of "the chase" is learning to avoid the especially seductive ones. I really had to ask myself what my dream really was. In the end, it was to make good movies, and as much as I often forget, a camera, any camera, is only a small piece of what makes that possible. Hell, a good camera's not even a requirement.

Speaking of chasing my dreams and bad decisions, I've decided to move to L.A. to pursue film full time. In fact, I'll be arriving mid-May. I'm looking forward to jumping into a much bigger pond and being a teeny-tiny fish in it. I hope I can learn to become a slightly bigger fish one day.

Thanks again to all the voices from both sides of the fence. I took a lot from your collective wisdom. I hope to return the favor by making good movies for everyone to enjoy.

 

[Paul Harb]

Smart choice.

Tons of people with no talent that own gear and think that makes them artists in this new world of democratized tech. Not as many talented writers and directors. Tech comes and goes faster than you can blink an eye and its easy to get sucked into chasing gear. Work on your craft, if youre really talented people will give you gear for free to work with. Just my 2 cents.

Wow, thread resurrection...

In case anyone was curious, I decided not to purchase a Dragon. For a lot of different reasons, it doesn't make sense for my situation, but mostly because I'd rather concentrate on writing and directing instead of chasing the latest tech.

What was interesting was that while there were many people who thought I should not make the purchase, there were also quite a few who were in a similar situation as I was, and wanted to know what I decided. This, more than anything gave me perspective into how crazy it looked from the outside, and how little sense it made for me.

There is such an allure to "chasing your dream" that I think artist types (me) forget that just because I'm chasing the dream doesn't mean I can't make a bad decision in the process, and that a part of "the chase" is learning to avoid the especially seductive ones. I really had to ask myself what my dream really was. In the end, it was to make good movies, and as much as I often forget, a camera, any camera, is only a small piece of what makes that possible. Hell, it's not even a requirement.

Speaking of chasing my dreams and bad decisions, I've decided to move to L.A. to pursue film full time. In fact, I'll be arriving mid-May. I'm looking forward to jumping into a much bigger pond and being a teeny-tiny fish in it. I hope I can learn to become a slightly bigger fish one day.

Thanks again to all the voices from both sides of the fence. I took a lot from your collective wisdom. I hope to return the favor by making good movies for everyone to enjoy.

 

[Jarek Zabczynski]

I think it's coming to a point where it matters less about the camera you have and more about the guy that's coming with the camera to operate it.
I generally always come with my gear unless it's going to someone I've worked with and trust.