When you stick your head above the parapit you have to accept some flack, it seems like Philip has had his fair share of abusive comments from some users on RED USER a forum for people who like and use RED products.

Philip has written about his problems with his RED EPIC especially having Beta software installed and it seems to have let him down till it got to a stage his confidence was no longer with the camera… PB  ”I was no longer comfortable with using the camera on paid jobs.”

You need to be 100% confident in your bread and butter otherwise it can cost you a job and possibly your reputation. If I ever spend $80K on a camera I would not tolerate anything going wrong with it let alone signing an EULA…thats an end-user license agreement which is a contract you sign between you and a manufacturer when you are usually assessing new equipment or software.

Mr Thomas from Philip Blooms comments page “When buying an Epic, RED gave my boss an EULA to agree to that included wording that made it clear that any issues were to go through RED and nobody else. Would be really surprised if you didn’t get the same terms of use.

If this is true its the one single point that would stop me from ever buying a RED camera, can you imaging Sony selling you an F3 and asking you to sign such a document…GET REAL !!! This must be the first time in my production life of over 25 years that a manufacturer has had the nerve to impose restrictions when buying a video product.

I think this episode has been very damaging to RED, Philip has a huge following of potential customers and if I were RED I would seriously be looking at improving my products reliability issues and stop being obsessed with what people might say about your product…good or bad.

And just like magic Jim has actually posted on RED USER with an apology to Philip Bloom.

The Case of Philip Bloom… – Today, 06:29 PM By Jim Jannard

“I guess everyone makes mistakes… this one was mine.

A lot has been posted about this so I thought I would clarify from our perspective.

This situation is my fault… no one else’s. My apology was offered to Philip and apparently accepted.

Philip has returned his EPIC and cancelled his Scarlet order.

We will not allow any disrespectful posts here on Reduser about Philip or anyone else…

We consider the case closed. Nothing to see here… move along.”

 

Lets hope Philip is back to his cheery old self as was seen here at the Skywalker Ranch 2 years ago.

With the innate ability to capture 5K REDCODE RAW stills and 4K motion, resolution sustains itself as a dominant gene in the RED family. Scarlet-X functions as a flexible device, utilizing HDRx and interchangeable lens mounts to provide you with options in a world that’s always changing. 5K burst modes snap up to 12 fps with 4K reaching up to 30 fps – helping you capture every perfect moment. All of the finest qualities of cinema and photography have now aligned, letting you take advantage of the best of both worlds with Scarlet-X.

Sadly our second cinematic camera from RED was not to be as this was the screen that confronted me when I clicked onto REDs web site and the REDUSER won’t even open…If you are going to make a serious announcement the least you can provide is decent bandwidth to accomidate everyone…POOR SHOW !

You now have a further 2 cameras to choose from, the Canon EOS C300 and the Scarlet-X from RED. Scarlet for me has been the biggest let down not for anything other than their promise over 2 years ago that this would be a sub $5K camera and it’s now closer to $10K almost twice the price.

I did not know what to expect from Canon but recent reports have this camera now at $20K rather than the $16K which is now dearer than the current price of a Sony F3.

You have got to hand it to Canon it looks sexy and after seeing some of the short films Canon commissioned the EOS C300 certainly performs well.

One chap emailed me telling me that he had just ordered his Scarlet and that he hopes to have it within a YEAR…sorry but that timescale for a camera delivery is quite frankly unacceptable, who knows what will be available in less than a years time. I have since been informed we are talking a lead time of about 2 months for delivery.

“Ordered one today…hope it will be delivered within 12 months. Price for Scarlet-X with Canon AL Mount is $9750. PL is $1500 more Body ONLY!

Both Sony and Panasonic must be wiping their brows that Canon did not bring out a sub $6K camcorder so the AF101 and the FS100 are safe for now, Canon in my opinion missed a trick by not satisfying the majority of their cinematic community who all own EF glass and are looking to migrate from 5D2s to a camera that would take their EF glass.

They did give the DSLR crowd one hope by showing the EOS C DSLR, probably a 1DX with the badge replaced, this may satisfy the sub £6K Canon crowd as long as it’s more “video” and less photographic. This camera is still in it’s infancy so don’t go thinking it’s due anytime before the summer of 2012.

Two major surprises from the Canon camera…8bit and no 1080 50p, the 8bit is rather dissapointing for a camera of this magnitude as for the lack of 1080 50p it’s down to the fact that people will be using this in 24 and 25p mode for that cinematic look.

The “movie” glass will be superb and the prime lenses with the 24mm and 50mm at T2 (f2.0) will be very coveted by the cinematic community, no pricing as yet but I suspect will be nearer the PL prices.

Once again a small form factor that will not appeal to DPs that are used to working with ARRI cameras, shoulder mounts etc. Japan seems inherant on producing film like cameras that are not much bigger than a DSLR rather than spreading the load on a body that would have less finnicky switches and not look so stupid using bigger zoom lenses.

Canon could have made the C300 more user friendly with the EF lens by incorperating their auto focus capabilities, not for AF but for pull focus but then did they email me for advice !

Avid made a major blunder coming in on the 3rd of November to announce Media Composer 6 let alone the cost of £1799, present AVID users will get an upgrade for about £300 so if nothing else the AVID community will be happy.

Canon hope to start shipping late January 2012 while RED hope to ship Scarlet on November/December 2011.

More importantly will they sell, the Canon C300 looks the part, performs fantastic and will certainly have it’s followers, it may not hit the top ten best selling list but every rental house will take at least 2 cameras to start the ball rolling. The Scarlet on the other hand is the first on the ladder of owning a RED camera which has a steady following of cameramen/women and with a lead time of about a month as from last night (3 rd November) it will be interesting to here how users get on with their purchases.

I read this from Philip Bloom this morning and was rather surprised by his comments about his RED EPIC.. ”I love my Epic but have had hideous reliability issues with it. Will RED carry on with having BETA firmware in the Scarlet or will they make it more stable. At the lower price point they are going to ship more so it will need to be. I expect the C300 will be super reliable straight out of the starting block”

All the info live from Los Angeles starts from 10pm tonight UK time. I will be glued to the keyboard bringing you all the exiting information from both Canon and RED…the event of 2011 tonight from 10pm.

This is a strange one, RED are to announce the up and coming Scarlet camera about 3 hours after Canons announcement. It may be a tactical move by RED to ingest the Canon specs before announcing their own specs…who knows.

Discussing this with “He who should not be named” said that RED should bring their news 1 day forward as it will be lost with Canon’s news, I agree as RED have nothing to gain by taking this to the wire.

From Jim Jannard “The unthinkable has just happened. Mark’s chalet was broken into while they were sleeping and EPIC 0006 was stolen along with cash. Mark is at the Police Station right now in Meribel, France.
The family is safe and no one was hurt.

This is a tight community. We need your help. Keep your eyes and ears open for any news, tips or details about an EPIC floating around. An EPIC is a hard thing to circulate since there is only one in the world.
Please contact anyone at RED if you hear of anything.

Of course Mark is heartbroken. So are we.”

This is an historic camera and is obviously seen so by Jim Jannard as he is offering a $100,000 reward for the return of the camera, media and the conviction of the thieves. You can find details about that here. This is NOT a ransom payment!!

Mark L Pederson’s email is  mark@offhollywoodny.com

This is the very first public footage of a working Red Scarlet Fixed Lens camera. I’m currently at Red Studios helping with the Santa Fe 3d Workshop with Geoff Boyle. Just as I am sitting there…in comes Jarred with a WORKING Red Scarlet 8X fixed camera! Naturally I was dying to hold the camera. As Jarred passed it to me, he told me I was the first public person to hold a working Red Scarlet. Let me tell you folks, it is real and is working. The Scarlet I was holding had the 5inch lcd touchscreen. The lens gear ring which can be set to zoom, iris or focus is buttery smooth. QUALITY. The electronic zoom works like a charm. I used the up-down rocker on the camera to zoom in on a Jeep in the parking lot (though I was “Mr. Shakey” due to the sheer excitement of finally getting to hold the Red Scarlet.) Justin O’Neill and I got to see it for a mere brief moment and off it went back to the vault. This should be comforting to those who may fear that RED wouldn’t have time for the Scarlet with all the Epic buzz going on. This gives me more confidence that the Red Scarlet is definitely around the corner. I have been really lucky to have held both the Epic and Scarlet. The Scarlet is lighter in weight than the Epic even with the fixed lens. This is due to the Scarlet body being more narrow. The weight felt very good and the camera felt rugged. Touch screen controls were functional. Enjoy! tonacitran.com

HDW : Interesting but I think Panasonic and Sony have taken the lions share of REDs intended market with the very popular AF101 and the F3 due in January 2011, both cameras with interchangeable lenses unlike Scarlet with an 8x fixed lens !

RED have their following but don’t have the production might of Panasonic or Sony, I have my doubts having a fixed lens that Scarlet has the appeal for DPs or photographers, it’s just too limiting, knowing the AF101 was in the offering at £4000 you would think Jim and his team would have changed direction and made Scarlet an interchangeable lens camera.

UPDATE : Jim Jannard has said in the Reduser.net forums that for their most humble camera offering, “the features have changed as has the price. I’ll update in the next two weeks.”It’s now the “Epic Light,” which reflects that it’s really just a compact and differently-spec’ed version of their new digital cinema camera.

The successor to RED’s industry changing RED ONE, the EPIC has 5K resolution, can shoot up to 120 frames per second and has a new HDRx™ mode for the highest dynamic range of any digital cinema camera ever made. Taking everything they had learned from building their first camera, RED designed the EPIC from scratch and have produced a smaller, lighter camera that is an order of magnitude more powerful.

The Hobbit will be amongst the first productions in the world to use the EPIC and at least thirty cameras will be required by the 3-D production. The EPIC’S small size and relatively low weight, makes it perfect for 3-D – where two cameras have to be mounted on each 3D rig.

Jackson has a long history with RED, dating back to when he directed the short film ‘Crossing the Line’ as a very early test of prototype RED ONE cameras. “I have always liked the look of RED footage.” he says, “I’m not a scientist or mathematician, but the image RED produces has a much more filmic feel than most of the other digital formats. I find the picture quality appealing and attractive, and with the EPIC, Jim and his team have gone even further. It is a fantastic tool, the EPIC not only has cutting edge technology, incredible resolution and visual quality, but it is also a very practical tool for film makers. Many competing digital systems require the cameras to be tethered to large cumbersome VTR machines. The EPIC gives us back the ability to be totally cable free, even when working in stereo.”

Jim Jannard the owner and founder of RED flew to New Zealand earlier this year with members of his team so that Jackson could test the EPIC and assess its suitability. “Everybody at RED is incredibly proud that Peter has chosen the EPIC” says Jannard, “The Hobbit is a major production, and could have chosen any camera system that they wanted. The fact that they went with us is extremely gratifying.”

The Hobbit will start shooting in New Zealand early 2011.

Fascinating…here we have a company who dare to mix Canon 5D2s with RED ONE’s and get away with it. Interestingly from all accounts the two cameras matched in post production but here is a small extract from the story on HD Magazine Digital Edition No.45…

It just goes to show even Jamie Oliver is a big DSLR fan though I am still not convinced now we have the Panasonic AF101 and the Sony F3 though would the Panasonic or the Sony sit beside the RED ONE… that’s a story yet to be told.

This is a YouTube link to a 3min documentary talking about 30 minute meals with shots of filming… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8dlsC4LIa0

You can catch the full story at   http://www.definitionmagazine.com