MASSIVE price drop for the RED Komodo, now it is only US$2,995! The influence of the new Nikon owners, bringing in efficiencies? Or price pressures?

I

IronFilm

Veteran
www.red.com

RED Digital Cinema – Expands Access to High-End Cinematic Imaging with New KOMODO Pricing

RED DIGITAL CINEMA is thrilled to announce a price drop for its groundbreaking KOMODO camera, now priced at just $2,995, along with a substantial firmware update that enhances calibration speed, improves user page experience, and adds customization options.
www.red.com www.red.com

Am curious what is behind this.

1) the manufacturing might of Nikon allowing them to lower costs? Thus price cuts for their other cameras are coming as well?
2) strong price competion from the BMD Pyxis / Sony FX3 / Canon C70 / Panasonic S5IIX / Fujifim X-T5 / etc ?
3) clearing old inventory of pre-Nikon products to prepare for the launch of new RED/Nikon cameras?
4) a mix of all of the above?
 
Yeah I'd considered selling my komodo recently, but with these price drops I think I'll just keep it now. It'll be handier to have available instead of selling it off for peanuts. Oh well. Can never have too many cameras. ;)
 
RED has been dropping prices for a solid 4-5 years (one could probably go back and put all of their newsletters together and take a better look).

DLD, bless him wherever he may be, predicted about 10 years ago RED will fall hard and practically overnight.

I told him he was so wrong and crazy, ha.

Although not exactly, it's not far off...the days of buying cameras for more than a few thousand for 99% of the world are over, truly.
 
DustinSchmidt said:
Yeah I'd considered selling my komodo recently, but with these price drops I think I'll just keep it now. It'll be handier to have available instead of selling it off for peanuts. Oh well. Can never have too many cameras. ;)
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It's great for prospective owners, but a kick in the you know what for current owners. BM does this all the time and is one of the reasons I don't buy their cameras anymore...
 
NorBro said:
RED has been dropping prices for a solid 4-5 years (one could probably go back and put all of their newsletters together and take a better look).
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Even way back in their earliest days they had aggressive sale prices for their cameras after they'd been out for a while, such as even for the RED ONE.
 
What did the RED ONE end up going down to? Originally it was supposed to be cheaper, a few K, but they never managed that and most of those cams lingered between $10K-$30K.

The first modern RED camera I remember going for an unusually low price (for them, at that time) was the RED Raven for around $7K, which was only for a little bit and during that period JL said they would soon raise it by $3K to $10K and they did and it stayed like that for a while.
 
NorBro said:
What did the RED ONE end up going down to? Originally it was supposed to be cheaper, a few K, but they never managed that and most of those cams lingered between $10K-$30K.
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It's not uncommon to see them selling for $500-$1000 these days. I fulfilled a life-long aspiration and bought a R1MX in 2020. After kitting it out, I was amazed at how much camera I had for $4K. Four years later, I sold it for a mere $1.5K (and I was lucky to get it).

Now I'm seeing DSMC2 bodies for $1.5K to $2.5K, which really doesn't make sense now that the Komodo is $3K new.
 
QuickHitRecord said:
It's not uncommon to see them selling for $500-$1000 these days. I fulfilled a life-long aspiration and bought a R1MX in 2020. After kitting it out, I was amazed at how much camera I had for $4K. Four years later, I sold it for a mere $1.5K (and I was lucky to get it).

Now I'm seeing DSMC2 bodies for $1.5K to $2.5K, which really doesn't make sense now that the Komodo is $3K new.
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Yes DSCM2 bodies are going to see some harsh depreciation during 2025 (well, unless this RED price drop is just clearing out a few remaining stock and thus this deal is gone and done before the month is over).

Raven and any DSMC1 bodies are going to be practically given away.

But then again, fair enough! Have you seen what the prices of Sony FS7 / Sony F5 / Canon C300mk2 / Canon C300mk2 / Canon C500mk1 bodies go for these days? Next to nothing as well!
 
The convo split into two directions...

The used side (for Red One or anything else) doesn't relate here, everything eventually becomes almost worthless, hard to give away.

[I think the F35 is probably the most notable example of a camera once selling for a quarter million now down to nothing on eBay.]

The Komodos are brand new for this price, new pricing for a new generation, ha.

I bought a brand new C500 for $8K/$9K, whatever it was, in 2017. That was also one of the more notable price drops in the industry, slowly trickling down from around $30K, year-by-year.
 
scorsesefan said:
It's great for prospective owners, but a kick in the you know what for current owners. BM does this all the time and is one of the reasons I don't buy their cameras anymore...
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I'd certainly appreciate being able to get more on the used market, but it's not an expectation on my part when I buy any kind of tech. It will always depreciate. I'm aware there are some who don't share this view though.
 
NorBro said:
I bought a brand new C500 for $8K/$9K, whatever it was, in 2017. That was also one of the more notable price drops in the industry, slowly trickling down from around $30K, year-by-year.
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And now in 2025 they sell for only a little more than a grand:

www.ebay.com

Canon C500 PL Cinema EOS Camcorder Body - PL Lens Mount (683 Hours) SKU#1806084 13803147964 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Canon C500 PL Cinema EOS Camcorder Body - PL Lens Mount (683 Hours) SKU#1806084 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
After tax (where applicable), it's 50%+ more than a grand...

...not even worth it; an underperforming camera of yesteryear limited by available technology and possibly even some lack of knowledge from Canon (or purposeful greed related to planned trickling improvements). Only 2 years after its release, the big Blackmagic URSA was shipping in late 2014, which had such a higher IQ (terrible DR though just like the C500, and useless above ISO400, lol).

But it produced really attractive motion pictures; the start of a new era of non-ARRI, non-RED high-quality.

Yeah, you can squeeze some pretty images out of the C500 but you need a lot of assistance with that squeezing - in a perfect environment.
 
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Peter C. said:
I'm guessing they're unloading all the RF mounts to make way for the Nikon mount version.
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My two cent and guess would be that the Komodo will be replaced with a camera body more suited to Japanese automated mass production of the internal components with minimal human intervention apart from parts assembly, final testing and QC at the end of the line. Nikon's current major Thailand plant is more like a General Motors plant. Current Reds are much more labour-intensive to produce. Red has never run automated production stages like the Japanese manufacturers. That slower, more hands on manufacturing process of Red's build process probably doesn't fit into Nikon's mass production philosophy from a unit cost point of view.

If Nikon wants to compete with the likes of Sony with their high sales volume FX line-ups as opposed to Sony's A series, where Nikon are competing with the Z series, they need to move to the same type of manufacturing processes and philosophy that Sony used to produce the FX6 for example. One can't argue that hasn't been a success. Aside from the design and function of the FX6, Sony could barely meet market demand for the first two years of the FX6's production life from a new production line built specifically for the FX6. Producing anything for a mass market audience is impossible from a more boutique type of production facility such as Red's. A whole world of difference in production scale and philosophy between Red's and Nikon's operations.

Chris Young


 
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All of these 'titans of yesteryear' would make a great "interview only" cameras if their prices become low enough. If you did a lot of talking heads... But true, quality/need/use/price is all kind of blurry right now.
 
Who wants to bet that RED will release a new camera that wasn’t already in the pipeline from before Nikon bought them?
 
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