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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 :)

WOULD YOU BUY SCARLET AGAIN?

No, stay away! Soon you'll be thirsting for higher frame rates and doing unspeakable things to get your hands on an EPIC...

Kidding aside, I love it. RED is very addictive and working with the footage is amazing. 90% of our stuff goes straight to DVD or web deliveries. Yes this camera is over-kill for that but 120fps looks good online and compressed and will cut well. I've just started renting it out and getting more accessories making it a more rental friendly package that has helped quite a bit. The Scarlet has opened quite a bit of doors for me and has been great working with...
 
+ Dynamic range is great
- Fan is really loud. I hate that goddamn fan.
+ Resolution is good.
+ Very minimal Moire and aliasing.
- Compression is offensive in low-light situations but way better than 5D MK2 or equivalent.
+ Interface is nice and straight forward. Lots of info that competitors don't display live.
- Build quality of touchscreen and side handle is terrible.
- Rolling shutter is bad but not BMC or 5D MK2 bad.
- Heavy. Needs to be about half the size and weight ultimately.
- It's not something you can just throw in a suitcase after you put together all the chargers, bricks and card readers.
+ HDRx is great for timelapse.
- no Full Frame for fish eye shooting.
+ Great pipeline for getting a linear or cineon image.
+ Well integrated with most post tools.
+ Interchangeable lens mounts.
 
I would buy it again twice. (and maybe I really will, with the dragon coming up next year, lol).
 
Both my biz partners bough Scarlets, and it was the best decision our company ever made. It's changed how our clients and collaborators see us. We are now a very post-heavy production company with a strong RED workflow that OWNS Red cameras. Something about that has really opened up doors. I'm eternally grateful to the Scarlet line.
 
The Scarlet with a smidge of Epic shoots represents the vast majority of my income this year. It's taken me to different states and out of the country. I also am fairly passionate about my own personal work and having a tool like this for my goofy experiments is wonderful. So yes, I would likely buy it again because I enjoy eating.

The new Dragon sensor should come into your decision making at this point. This makes it an interesting time to purchase one as we have been told that Dragon is going into the Scarlet, but we don't know exactly what it does or what it costs. We do know most of what it does on the Epic however which should give us a hint of what is capable.

Scarlet really is the gateway drug to Epic. So beware. I shot with Epic for a while before purchasing a Scarlet and knew exactly what I was getting with the "little sister", but the desire and want for the "big brother" camera is very high.

On the Red system in general, RedCode Raw is brilliant and extremely easy to use these days. Wasn't that way in 2008, but here in 2012 we can edit and do color work natively without transcoding. It's scary in reality what you can do now with a Red camera and a laptop. Just a few years ago the idea or editing 4k on something like that was like telling people you saw a unicorn in the shower this morning.
 
Absolutely no buyer's remorse here. I would do it again without question. Buying this camera changed my life. May sound a bit cliched, but it's absolutely true.
 
Tobias Buehler said:
My finds after 7 months of scarlet:

When I bought my scarlet I thought it'll replace my 5D or GH2. It never did. I have 4-5 jobs a week, mostly television, events and smaller promo jobs. It's just to heavy to bring a similar scarlet setup to outdoor shoots for example. And it lacks sensitivity in low light for events at night. Most jobs don't need the RAW for grading. It's one more camera for specific types of jobs. Yes, it's a cinema camera. I use It for documentaries and musicvideos. The fan tends to ruin longer interview takes, imo I'd rather film an interview on the Iphone than having the artist in front of the camera surprised by the hooverish noise in mid take.
It mixes well with the GH2 for b-rolls.(except from IR faults in the blacks)
Still most of the people I work with can't really cope with the RAW files, they prefer ProRes files from the Samurai.(That's a good value option though) And I now have a desk full of 3TB harddrives.
But most important, most people (clients and endusers that is) see absolutely no difference in the footage compared to DSLRs. frustrating but true. A positive thing for clients is that it looks more professional on set (a fact I honestly underestimated for a long time).

120 fps is not really usable for professional jobs. 4K is nice, but I know how to frame my shots. 25p hdrx would make a little difference for me, but that's not possible yet.

It definitely is a very good camera but as of today for the nearly $20'000 it cost me in the end, I'd rather buy the Blackmagic m4/3, a FS700 and a 5d Mark III and a Nikon D800 and the Atomos Samurai.

cheers (I know, you can hate me now ;-)
Click to expand...

It sounds like you have low-end clients not really all tat concerned with quality. Time for better clients. My clients see a huge difference, and are often even amazed by what an Epic can do. Often they even say that it surprises them how much creamier images look compared to an Alexa, and cleaner.
 
Guys, how can you rant on the fan. Have you ever used a film camera? I think red would not have any problem making an scarlet without a fan... but then it would not be a third of the size, record 4 times a much data, and cost a fraction of an Alexa.... You kind of have to look at it for what it is... For me it's an insanely good bargain. Buy a scarlet, shot great looking footage, make money, buy an epic shoot stereo 4k with them together....

The path RED took when they made the scarlet basically the same camera, in menus, formfactor etc as their top of line camera was a whey good thing...
 
no, i would buy FS700 :)
of course i would buy it again! 4K raw? there is nothing on the market that comes close to the quality in this price range,
but i hate the fan too :)
 
learn to luv the fan.......it keeps things cool with the plus of giving higher data throughput.
 
Thank you all for your great posts.
It helped me a lot with taking decision. I know what is this camera for and I don't expect more.

I can't afford for an Epic, though, I am quite happy to join Scarlet community soon;))


All the best.

Marek
 
Of course yes I have been a pro photographer for 15 years switched to motion 2 years ago with dslr and since this year I used full time my Red Scarlet and discover what is a cinema tool build for motion I am just addicted to this camera and felt in love with the image.
A big advantage its’ to grab still from the motion, here is some gallery on my web site
http://photomargot.photoshelter.com/gallery/Spain-MTB-story-still-grab-red-Scarlet/G0000AGI4Yl_dH38/

http://photomargot.photoshelter.com...-4-with-Brook-Mac-Donald-NZ/G0000whLZw5G27c8/

http://photomargot.photoshelter.com/gallery/Darren-Berrecloth-Mavic-episode5/G0000cczEqTBRcOY/
 
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