CRAFT digital cinema camera?

Yes. I think what happens is this.

1. You outline an idea on a napkin for the next great camera.
2. You research parts and suppliers.
3. You draw photorealistic 3-D models.
4. You get a preliminary agreement from some factory in China, that if you pay in advance and order, say, 1,000 units, then the price will be, say, $1,000 per unit.
5. You don't have $1 million, so you announce your product and take deposits. You probably will still have to borrow some money from a bank or investors to cover the order to the factory.

The problem is, you think that these are the remaining steps:

6. Receive units from China.
7. Collect rest of payment for each order.
8. Mail camera.
9. Profit!!!

But really these are the remaining steps:

6. Field phone calls from factory about unintended problems in making your camera.
7. Change design.
8. Receive first samples from factory.
9. Test. Samples fail in certain ways.
10. Call back factory and report problems. Work out fixes with them.
11. Change design.
12. Repeat.


As we've seen happen with Ikonoskop, Digital Bolex, AJA, and Blackmagic, these steps tack on a year or more.

Now that doesn't mean it will happen this time, for Craft Camera. I am all for being optimistic and wishing them the best. I just will not schedule shoots around the arrival of the cameras.
 
On top of this, how many new camera manufacturers come out of the gate with an awesome product without defects, oversights, and general software issues? Looks like you can add another 6-12 months to work out the kinks to 2018! A nice idea though....
 
combatentropy said:
Yes. I think what happens is this.

1. You outline an idea on a napkin for the next great camera.
2. You research parts and suppliers.
3. You draw photorealistic 3-D models.
4. You get a preliminary agreement from some factory in China, that if you pay in advance and order, say, 1,000 units, then the price will be, say, $1,000 per unit.
5. You don't have $1 million, so you announce your product and take deposits. You probably will still have to borrow some money from a bank or investors to cover the order to the factory.

The problem is, you think that these are the remaining steps:

6. Receive units from China.
7. Collect rest of payment for each order.
8. Mail camera.
9. Profit!!!

But really these are the remaining steps:

6. Field phone calls from factory about unintended problems in making your camera.
7. Change design.
8. Receive first samples from factory.
9. Test. Samples fail in certain ways.
10. Call back factory and report problems. Work out fixes with them.
11. Change design.
12. Repeat.


As we've seen happen with Ikonoskop, Digital Bolex, AJA, and Blackmagic, these steps tack on a year or more.

Now that doesn't mean it will happen this time, for Craft Camera. I am all for being optimistic and wishing them the best. I just will not schedule shoots around the arrival of the cameras.
Click to expand...
Word :-)
 
I heard that Craft Camera is actually owned / started up by RED. Anyone else on the floor of NAB hear this too? Supposedly RED wanted a lower cost camera that was modular. One that could not really compete with their own line but also not piss off current RED owners with camera's similar in spec but stripped down a bit.

I can't believe it would be true, but you know anything is possible. Many detergent companies launched several brands of the same product to "compete" with themselves at one point in time…
 
starcentral said:
I heard that Craft Camera is actually owned / started up by RED. Anyone else on the floor of NAB hear this too? Supposedly RED wanted a lower cost camera that was modular. One that could not really compete with their own line but also not piss off current RED owners with camera's similar in spec but stripped down a bit.

I can't believe it would be true, but you know anything is possible. Many detergent companies launched several brands of the same product to "compete" with themselves at one point in time…
Click to expand...

Interesting....source?
 
starcentral said:
I heard that Craft Camera is actually owned / started up by RED. Anyone else on the floor of NAB hear this too? Supposedly RED wanted a lower cost camera that was modular. One that could not really compete with their own line but also not piss off current RED owners with camera's similar in spec but stripped down a bit.

I can't believe it would be true, but you know anything is possible. Many detergent companies launched several brands of the same product to "compete" with themselves at one point in time…
Click to expand...
While virtually anything is possible, I highly doubt that Red is behind CRAFT. I don't see the value to them of starting a lower-priced, Red-incompatible modular line. Modularity has its advantages, but cost-efficiency isn't one of them. (Ergonomics isn't, either, but that's a different story). If cheaper was what they were after, a non-modular approach would be better, setting it apart from the Red line, should Red's involvement become commonly known.

Years ago, Jim Jannard said 4K was the future. Although his time line for 4K adoption was optimistic, he's being proved right. Red itself has moved on from 4K, to 5K, 6K, and 8K. It therefore seems unlikely Red would invest funds in developing a modular HD camera. Even the 4K camera seems iffy in this regard -- it looks like its horizontal pixel count is 4,096, something Red has never offered (even the original Mysterium had 4,400 active pixels, and that was a decade ago).

Then there are the sensors. They appear to be global-shutter only and max out at 13 stops of dynamic range. In the past, Jannard has been dismissive of global shutters. So they're almost certainly not Red sensors, at least not ones used in the current Red line. That would mean Red either spent millions developing them or bought off-the-shelf products. In either case, that would require developing the necessary color science, possibly from scratch. Seems like a lot of effort for a low-end line.
 
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That's right, Jim only left running the company so maybe this is a new little pet project of his to….

…do it all over again. After all this is the 10th year since RED was first announced and they took deposits the same way I might add when everyone was extremely skeptical.

If that's you, happy anniversary dear Jimmy boy, happy anniversary!
 
From their FB page. So I guess all we need now is sample footage.


13015585_1347958578553751_2881295045360219776_n.jpg


FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/thecraftcamera/
 
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