RED making "Big Change" announcement on December 3rd
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Nov 25th 2008 6:45AM
posted Nov 25th 2008 6:45AM
Oh noes, here we go again. At the risk of becoming RED's marketing pawn, we'd be remiss to the gadget community by ignoring Jim Jannard's latest attention begging tease. Titled simply, "Big Change...," Jannard writes, "New announcement on Dec. 3rd. Everything has changed... just as we promised." This comes after revealing "several nice breakthroughs" related to Scarlet and EPIC in the REDUSER forums. JJ then amps up the hype by calling the November 13th announcement of RED's Digital Still and Motion Camera (DSMC) system "insignificant" by comparison. Ok Jim, we'll be at your beck and call. But you'd better show up on the 3rd with something priced more competitively to Canon's EOS 5D Mark II if you expect us to consider your modular SLR / HD video camera anything other than a novelty for the consumer or prosumer markets. In other words: please, with sugar?[Thanks, Ben H.]
Man, this guy hypes things so much, he should work for Apple. On the other hand, Jobsy probably wouldn't like the upstaging.
It's going to be freaking UNBELIEVABLE! Prepare yourselves for the mind blowing of a lifetime!
It's so eye-popping, your eyeballs will pop from their sockets and you'll never see them again! MWAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
...Wait...
If RED was a division of Apple, they'd have no problem being one of their marketing pawns. Regardless, I'd be interested in one if it didn't mean I was going to have to buy a house just to take out a home equity loan to buy one.
If they announce one of their gazillion megapixel camera/dslr for under $4000, I'll shit my pants and cancel my 5D MkII preorder!
When people criticize RED what they typically fail to remember is that RED is not a consumer gadget company.
They make serious tools for serious professionals.
If you are a serious professionals then you know that REDs products are a BARGIN!
I would love to see RED make some consumer level products that give Sony, Canon and Nikon a kick in the pants.
Hopefully we will hear something along those lines on Dec 3rd.
@ SubGenius
BARGIN? ;)
I totally want to see Jannard introduce a new iPod. Or Jobs introduce a new RED camera (sorry, multifunction unobtanium media capturing device). April 1, 2009?
Yawn. It better be damn good, and affordable, or I'm filtering all Engadget articles with the word "RED" from now on.
No kidding. I'm all for modular customizable super-cameras, but not if they cost a house. The last announcement, after all the over-the-top hype, was completely underwhelming.
Screw you guys, I love RED!
Apart from the technology, I much prefer the way they handle announcements and new products than a typical PR approach. Like the November 13th announcement, finishing up with an "Oh by the way, 3D setup" and leaving it at that was a end. Other companies would have ran off spiel and whatnot. Their general way of working is just classy.
Everything RED make is unbelievably awesome. Not everyone around here is their target audience, obviously, but for those who know what's going on behind that price tag, it makes us giddy with glee.
eh, this is no different than the apple hype, and we all know it. RED just caught on and started uber-hyping their press releases, knowing that all the must-post-20-seconds-before-competitor gadget blogs will eat it up.
Actually, I take that back. At least their last announcement was a significant jump out ahead, instead of just putting a larger flash chip in an MP3 player, or catching up their lagging notebook line up to the rest of the market performance-wise.
To be fair, quite a lot of what Engadget reports on is well out of the average consumer price range (RED products, OLED televisions, etc), unavailable to the general public, interesting but currently vapourware science (all this nano stuff) and phones.
It's all immensely cool stuff, and i mean that genuinely, but expense never comes into it =P
A big change in the way porn is filmed me hopes...
Dude, what's with the dual identities?
It's called Schizophrenia, and blogging two websites at once... lol.
Well Engadget is already Art Lebedev's marketing pawn, so why not add RED to the list?
There was a guy Sam that used to work in this lab who announced that he was making a "big change" a few years back. He returned from a two month hiatus as Samantha. Maybe RED is having an identity crisis?
I'm so sick of hearing stuff about RED!
All the crap (RED, atom netbooks etc) should be rounded up in one big 'DONT READ THIS' post.
beckon call, unless you're hanging with Beck.
Darn it - didn't have my coffee. It *is* beck and call.
How can you not become Red's marketing pawn when all their products are so cool?
http://www.woopid.com
Mild applause for the point about competing with 5D mark II. No professional or hobbyist during the impending Global Economic Meltdown(TM) is going to ditch their glass based on the November announcement.
Hopefully RED has something like "3K for the rest of us."
Take a look at the new system. Many users won't need to ditch their glass, since the new Scarlet/Epic system is completely modular and allows for different lens mounts. I'm sure they'll release other lens mounts in the future as well.
Glass truly is the key...
Consider this... I already have a Nikon 400 2.8 AFI, 80-200 2.8 AFS, 17-35 2.8 AFS, 14 2.8, 1.4x Nikkor, 2x Nikkor, two SB800 flashes... when you add all that up... am I going to switch to another camera manufacturer and abandon all that glass? No, it's not financially feasible.
For my employer, I shoot both Nikon and Canon and I see the advantages of both. For wideangles, I like the Canon 16-35 2.8 a lot better than the Nikon 17-35 and it's not just because of the extra 1mm wide. But... I like the Nikkor 80-200 F2.8 AFS (not that crappy G lens that's built for crap) better than the Canon L series 70-200 2.8 (note: I haven't tried the IS version). Each situation demands different things. Nikon's flash system blows Canon's flash system out of the water. I'd much rather have a Nikon SB800 or SB900 than any Canon flash in their lineup.
The point is... the glass is where the majority of the money is... you can't just switch, sell all that glass, make a fraction back on it, then re-invest it all in another set of glass. Unless your stuff is so old and unusable... you just can't afford to... especially not in this current economy.
One thing I love about the Red One is that you can buy the Nikon or Canon mount (not a cheesy adapter... but an actual metal mount -- no conversion... straight 1:1). Therefore, you can use your existing glass.
Now, how's that for brilliance?
BLUE
Sony's lawyers will be contacting you soon.
Well, yes, it is marvelous, but so are my crispy, freshly minted Euros and they are much more user friendly too. Their UI is a real pleasure to use, and as gals pullers they are still unrivalled.
Big Change?
Price drops, please God, please.
I'm so sick of hearing stuff about APPLE!
All the crap (APPLE, ipod macbook etc) should be rounded up in one big 'DONT READ THIS' post.
Well then, you're in luck! This article is about RED, not Apple, just in case you hadn't noticed already. Thanks for trolling!
If he does indeed announce a product that us normal folk can afford, it will change the world. If not, who cares?
Did you see the movie Jumper? It was shot on the Red One.
Peter Jackson is using the Red One on his current under-production movie...
Benicio del Torro is going to be Che in a two-part movie shot on the Red One.
These aren't amateur cameras... they're going toe-to-toe with Hollywood's best gear.
Even if it was $3k it wouldn't sell in the consumer market. It doesn't have autofocus (because it's not an SLR, it doesn't have a mirror and therefore can't have a dedicated phase-detect autofocus sensor.) In the future they may be able to do contrast-detection off the main sensor, but from what I've read that's not the case currently. And anyone who's tried to autofocus on a DSLR while in live view mode (without dropping the mirror) it's painfully slow. This is not a consumer product.
That said, I don't mind reading these articles (despite other people's complaints) there are those of us that use $50,000 camera systems in our daily lives.
Don't get me wrong, I like reading the articles. I just hate the ridiculous hype that goes behind these announcements, which implies that these products are going to change the entire consumer market of a non-relevant product line. Back before the last announcement, people were saying that RED was going to challenge Canon and Nikon in the SLR market, and saying that their announcement comes remotely close to that takes a gigantic leap of logic.
(end rant)
But that wasn't RED's fault. That's the fault of every media form out there, including Engadget.
Its funny how everyone is hoping for a $3000 consumer camera, when even Canon and Nikon have more expensive products in their lineup. RED could compete with them in the $5000+ end of the camera market as well, and some people would still think it's worth it. This camera is basically what people were asking for years ago, what with its modular design. I don't think even $10k is too much to ask if the camera is built really well.
It's been hyped AS a replacement for the $3000 "consumer" cameras, though. Oh, and the price doesn't even come close to touching that of Canon and Nikon's most expensive products. And it IS RED's fault, because it's Jannard that's hyping it as such.
"At the risk of becoming RED's marketing pawn ..." Dude, don't worry, there's absolutely no risk of "becoming" anything. You're already so there.
I looked at the prices for external drives and such; $900 for a 320GB drive, $2000 for a 128GB SSD. That's just overpriced.
Of course the 5D MkII doesn't really fair much better considering you need the 30MB/s to 45MB/s CF cards which cost $200 for a 16GB. Considering you can only record 12 minutes limited to 4GB due to the FAT32 file format, you'd have to spend around $1000 on cards to get an hour of recording.
Ummm...either
A. Please mark the currency
B. Tell us what dope you're smoking. I want to sell some of that to the economists on Wall Street. Make some bank with that. :D
Because honestly, 320 gig ext HDs do NOT cost $900 (more like a third of that or less).
@???: Considering doing some research and looking up the prices yourself before you act like a wiseass:
http://www.red.com/store/501001
And you honestly think these prices should bare some relation to the prices of domestic drives? Please...
Why not round up the prices of similar pro drives for broadcast and film kit from other companies like Sony and Arri who make high-grade, high-tolerance kit for professionals and come back and tell me if RED accessories are overpriced - because the people who actually buy them for professional use don't think so. Arri charges around $2000 for a matte box that's essential 4 bits of metal attached to a ring by hinges.
Last time I checked, HD 1080p camcorders and accessories cost on average TWICE the price of a RED One.
Wiseass.
Dear Ran,
Let me help your math:
5D Mk2: 12 mins of HD per 4 GB or 3 mins per GB
The 16 GB, Sandisk Extreme IV CF Card (45MB/s) cost $215 at Amazon, or $13.43 per GB.
If you want to record 60 mins, you'd need 20 GB or 60 mins * 1 GB / 3 Min = 20 GB
To buy 20GB, you'd need $268, since 20 GB * $13.43 / GB = $268.
Of course you can't buy a 20GB CF card, but you can buy 2 x 16 GB cards, for $430, which allows you to record 96 mins of HD video.
For much less than $1000, you can record 1.5 hours of HD 1080p video.
I can go right now to Best Buy and pick up a 1.5 terabyte external hard drive with E-SATA on it for under $200 U.S. -- actually closer to $170.
The Red One has an E-SATA connector. 3gig per second transfer rate.
The Canon does not, as far as I have read. You are stuck with memory cards which are more expensive per gigabyte.
Why do people keep entertaining this guy and his vaporware??
Maybe Red should read the story of the boy who cried wolf.