RED Officialy Shipping Next Friday -- thoughts? Any feelings?

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
I know there's a reduser.net... if this is an inappropriate topic for DVX/HVXuser, please remove.

I don't oft visit those boards because I'm not a REDuser or prospective owners. I happened by there because I was informed by one of my friends, a reseveration holder, that his would be shipping in the coming weeks and I wanted to check out rental rates.

To that effect, I really started wondering what kind of effect it'd have on HVX owners working with their equipment. Not to exclude DVX owners or H1, etc etc.

It also set me wondering on just how long it would take for RED ONE to become something that studios accept as a new and viable, alternative tool for filmmaking.


I personally can't see it happening for quite some time, with tried and true tools (Genesis and Viper come to mind) are already established-- albeit not shooting @ 4k Resolutions.

Anyone else have any constructive, thought provoking ideas, thoughts or feelings on how next Friday and beyond will fair?
 
It seems like a day rental (or at least from the poll) was somewhere around 1200? Don't quote me because, well, there are no quotes at this time.
 
Kholi said:
It seems like a day rental (or at least from the poll) was somewhere around 1200? Don't quote me because, well, there are no quotes at this time.
Click to expand...

Then you have to rent a few lenses or a lens package...

But I'm glad they're finally shipping. :)
 
Indierentals.com has the red listed at $495 / day or 1,475 / week. Not sure if that will stick or not. And yea... renting the lenses will cost as well. Depending on what you chose to shoot and the workflow, you might need a beefy system to edit on of course.

My guess is that it will take a few years to work out the kinks and such. It sure is exciting though that such a camera is moving into the range of low to no budget filmmakers.
 
It's kinda strange to go to the RED site and see Soderbergh headlines and things ready to be shot with it already. Maybe it won't take that long to actually get it into circulation and on screen, but to iron the kinks yeah.

Also makes me wonder how many people will really be looking for the possibility to shoot 2k or 4k imagery within a sector that's low-budget (100 - 500k productions).

Since it's actually shipping THIS friday, we should see some images up around next weekend or mid-week.
 
Making HD look good at a low budget is difficult. Making it look good on a generous budget is difficult, too.
 
Last edited:
I think it's fantastic that it's shipping. I stopped visiting Reduser.net because the fanboyism just got beyond my tolerance levels. But when they say it's a revolution I find myself kind of inclined to agree with them.

Assuming that people rent out their Reds at a cost relative to the purchase price (i.e. in line with the rental cost of Viper/Genesis relative to their purchase price) then I think it will be. Though I get the feeling from the Red boards that a lot of people consider their Reds worthy of a rental cost equal to the Viper/Genesis on the basis that Red shoots higher-quality footage. I've heard suggestions of daily/weekly rental prices that would pay off the entire cost of the camera with lenses and accessories in just 4-8 weeks of rentals - Personally I don't agree with that mentality at all, Red will only be a revolution if the incredible cost of purchasing one is filtered down to rental costs in relative terms.

That said, I want one... badly! ;)
 
You know what this camera will be balls awesome for...Green screen work. I expect it to become the industry standard for those shoots.
 
Grug, for a product like this, it doesn't matter what someone purchased it for. If it shoots beautiful 4K RAW imagery, why shouldn't it hold true with Viper rental rates? Remember, RED is interfacing with professional equipment in professional environments.
 
Rental rates aren't about image quality or philosophy--they're about supply and demand--which is generally related to equipment price. The first Red owners will be able to charge high rates, but if these cameras are half as good as promised (and if Red can keep up with the sales), they'll flood the market and the rental rates will plummet.
 
Rental rates will be dictated by what the market is willing to pay. How much the gear costs is largely irrelevant. It's like an ebay auction -- the item will sell for what bidders are willing to pay, regardless of what the item's MSRP might be.

I expect Red rental rates will be quite high for the first few months. As they're in short supply, and the hype is at its highest, people will pay more for it. I also expect that this will be a short-term phenomenon, because when a thousand of these cameras are out, the supply/demand ratio will shift significantly.

When the HVX was first out, I was renting it out at $450/day. I expect a fully-configured Red body should probably go for $1000/day. And it doesn't matter when people say "but you could buy it for $17,500" because the answer is: no YOU can't. If you don't have a reservation, you aren't getting one. So those with reservations will charge what the market can bear.

Will it match Viper rental rates? Probably not, because there will probably be 10x as many Reds on the market as there are Vipers, in its first month. So the supply/demand ratio will be much tighter with the Viper. Will it produce better looking footage, and therefore demand a higher price? Largely irrelevant. It's supply and demand.

When the Red is first launched, supply will be at its all-time tightest, and the supply/demand ratio may be at its all-time strongest. Those who get the first ones will have the easiest time making their money back. If an early adopter doesn't pay off their entire Red kit in the first two months of ownership, they odds are good they just aren't trying hard enough.

But for reservation holders in the 2,000's and 3,000's, that market isn't going to exist. By the time there's thousands and thousands of Reds out there, the rental rates are going to be taken care of by the supply/demand ratio again.

MSRP really has very little to do with it, until Reds are easily commercially available (i.e., no waiting list). When that happens, you'll see the rental rate probably come down notably, as it makes little sense to rent a unit for $1200/day for a 4-week shoot when you could buy it for less. But, again, that situation isn't going to exist for months and months.
 
LOL. Well at least that's the general consensus.

The good thing is that they'll cost as much as high-end, which means they'll be in the high-end market and it shouldn't effect the HVX market by much at all. Never thought about that til you guys brought up those points.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top