Buying older Red

T

TC 3000

Active member
I'm in the market of purchasing a camera for professional work, and I've noticed people seemed to be getting rid of older RED cams or RED cameras in general and upgrading to newer camera's like the Blackmagics etc..are RED camera' not as weight friendly compared to newer cameras? I guess what my question is would it be better to get maybe a Red one MX or something with more mobility and modern?
 
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I have a R1MX. Of all the cameras I've used and owned, I like the image that I can get out of that camera best. The noise structure is very fine and pleasing, and I always like working with Red raw (recorded straight to Redmag in my case; I wouldn't have the patience for any of the other recording options). That being said, I would not recommend it to anyone as their only camera because I find that it's uses are fairly limited. For me, it's for crewed, no-budget narrative shorts and that's about the only situation that I'd want it for. Was it worth it? I haven't had much time to do passion projects lately so it's only come out with me a couple times. But when it has, it was impressive, even by 2022 standards. I bought it while people were panic selling at the beginning of the pandemic for the price of a DSLR, but in the end, it cost me another $1500 to get it up and running (or $2350 if you count the 100mm tripod head and sticks I had to buy). My current configuration weighs 17.5lbs without a lens. It was still worth it to me for the narrow band of use I've specified, but it might not be to others.

I also looked at the Scarlet-X because it's a much more versatile form factor, but heard too many horror stories about how loud the fans can be kicking. And, I really do prefer the look of the footage from the R1MX to the Scarlet or Epic. YMMV.

Here's a good comparison that someone did between the R1MX and the BMPCC4K:


If you can't see a big difference, then you'll probably save yourself a lot of time and money with a BlackMagic.
 
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I think that the early RED's were pretty susceptible to IR pollution, so you'll need IRND filters. I shot photos on a Doc that had an original Scarlet as the A cam, and I thought the fan was quite loud, and kicked in at relatively cool ambient temperatures.
 
QuickHitRecord said:
I have a R1MX. Of all the cameras I've used and owned, I like the image that I can get out of that camera best. The noise structure is very fine and pleasing, and I always like working with Red raw (recorded straight to Redmag in my case; I wouldn't have the patience for any of the other recording options). That being said, I would not recommend it to anyone as their only camera because I find that it's uses are fairly limited. For me, it's for crewed, no-budget narrative shorts and that's about the only situation that I'd want it for. Was it worth it? I haven't had much time to do passion projects lately so it's only come out with me a couple times. But when it has, it was impressive, even by 2022 standards. I bought it while people were panic selling at the beginning of the pandemic for the price of a DSLR, but in the end, it cost me another $1500 to get it up and running (or $2350 if you count the 100mm tripod head and sticks I had to buy). My current configuration weighs 17.5lbs without a lens. It was still worth it to me for the narrow band of use I've specified, but it might not be to others.

I also looked at the Scarlet-X because it's a much more versatile form factor, but heard too many horror stories about how loud the fans can be kicking. And, I really do prefer the look of the footage from the R1MX to the Scarlet or Epic. YMMV.

Here's a good comparison that someone did between the R1MX and the BMPCC4K:

[video=youtube_share;79hm04XBZhY]https://youtu.be/79hm04XBZhY[/video]

If you can't see a big difference, then you'll probably save yourself a lot of time and money with a BlackMagic.
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I do see where the RED has more of a difference, it has the filmic tone, The blackmagic kinda has that filmic tone with a touch of DSLR and its kinda like Mmmm!...I wanna like you over the red so bad but I dont know if I can lol... So you're also saying recording with it can be a pain? you mentioned patience with it
 
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TC 3000 said:
I do see where the RED has more of a difference, it has the filmic tone, The blackmagic kinda has that filmic tone with a touch of DSLR and its kinda like Mmmm!...I wanna like you over the red so bad but I dont know if I can lol... So you're also saying recording with it can be a pain? you mentioned patience with it
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I definitely see a difference and to me, that's why it's a camera worth having. I was on the fence between an R1MX and a Sony F35 for about five years before I finally realized that if I was actually totally honest with myself, I preferred the footage I was seeing out of the Red (I think that most here would disagree, and that's okay).

I wouldn't say that the camera requires more patience. It takes over a minute to boot up, and pretty much every other task is equally slow compared to modern cameras (black balancing, formatting SSDs, etc.). But once it's on and the cards are formatted, there's not really anything that's going to hold you up. If you do go in this direction, I'd highly recommend paying a little more for a body with an SSD module (also check that it has firmware version 31 or higher; it's impossible to upgrade these cameras at this point). Or as of the last year or so, you can buy a third party module from a guy on RedUser. This goes a long way towards keeping the camera footprint smaller and somewhat manageable. I actually like the weight. It keeps my shots steady.

One other thing to consider is that these cameras are over a decade old at this point. It's basically a sensor in front of a stack of circuit boards and a fan, all layered into an enclosure that feels like forged cast iron (which acts as a heatsink). The chance for a failure will increase with each passing year. I think that this happened recently to an F35 shooter here on DVX. So every time I've shot anything with this camera, I've always brought my C70 along as well as a backup so that I can keep the project moving if the camera decides to call it quits.

The smarter, more practical thing to do here would definitely be to invest in a newer camera, like the Raven or the R5C. But sometimes there is an itch that just has to be scratched. That's how it was for me.
 
QuickHitRecord said:
I definitely see a difference and to me, that's why it's a camera worth having. I was on the fence between an R1MX and a Sony F35 for about five years before I finally realized that if I was actually totally honest with myself, I preferred the footage I was seeing out of the Red (I think that most here would disagree, and that's okay).

I wouldn't say that the camera requires more patience. It takes over a minute to boot up, and pretty much every other task is equally slow compared to modern cameras (black balancing, formatting SSDs, etc.). But once it's on and the cards are formatted, there's not really anything that's going to hold you up. If you do go in this direction, I'd highly recommend paying a little more for a body with an SSD module (also check that it has firmware version 31 or higher; it's impossible to upgrade these cameras at this point). Or as of the last year or so, you can buy a third party module from a guy on RedUser. This goes a long way towards keeping the camera footprint smaller and somewhat manageable. I actually like the weight. It keeps my shots steady.

One other thing to consider is that these cameras are over a decade old at this point. It's basically a sensor in front of a stack of circuit boards and a fan, all layered into an enclosure that feels like forged cast iron (which acts as a heatsink). The chance for a failure will increase with each passing year. I think that this happened recently to an F35 shooter here on DVX. So every time I've shot anything with this camera, I've always brought my C70 along as well as a backup so that I can keep the project moving if the camera decides to call it quits.

The smarter, more practical thing to do here would definitely be to invest in a newer camera, like the Raven or the R5C. But sometimes there is an itch that just has to be scratched. That's how it was for me.
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You know what Im in that same bout you were in, I wanted to either get a Sony F35 or A R1MX, but the F35 are more expensive for some reason and its not 4K I don't think..I thought the F35 would would be more of an easier shoot. But it sucks that it sounds like these cameras are more of a risk... Maybe i'm better of with that Sigma
 
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