out of tolorance vs broken parts.

[jchalfant]

First off let me preface this email with how much I LOVE this camera.

Keep your eye out.

Jim Jannard and the Red Digital Camera company are legendary; they are true revolutionaries in their time. I'm honored to be an artist/owner of a Red Camera at such an extraordinary time in the history of digital cinema. I've owned a film scanning business, and currently own and operate an animation / design company (Red Engine Productions, of no relation to Red.com) through which I make a decent living working for some of the film / game / and ad industries top talents... I am very opinionated about my work and the mediums I use. I think film is crap, period. In comparison to digital formats film is a totally unreliable, degraded, and limited medium for the Arts. Computers, specifically digital: capturing, manipulation, and creation tools are the wave of the future. Riding the crest of that wave is companies like, The Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, Autodesk, Apple, and any number of real time interactive media developers. This is where content, art, and talent run head first into the next century of entertainment and design.

....and now to more pressing matters. I'm an independent guy working in a very competitive industry, every dollar counts and every dollar goes towards the future and the growth of my skills, success of my clients, and nurturing of my fellow artists. Unfortunately I had a rather lousy experience with some of the red camera's accessories that resulted in a wasting of my time and money, so I figured I share this with you here and allow you the opportunity to learn then make an effective decision regarding what you purchase and accept

Keep your eye out.

For lousy (out of tolerance) parts, check out this sample imagery showcasing a comparison between a good part and a bad part:
http://www.jchalfant.com/redone/images/bottom01.jpg
http://www.jchalfant.com/redone/images/bottom02.jpg
http://www.jchalfant.com/redone/images/bottom03.jpg
Notice the texture of the metal is different, matte gray versus shiny black.

Unfortunately I've been stuck with owning the replacement shiny black bottom plate twice over. Call it corporate regulations, defective vs broken part protocol, and a little 'we are too busy making awesome cameras to get back to you so your return window is over and you are out of luck'..... so I now have two wonderfully brand spanking new bottom plates but only one camera... basically I blew an extra 600bones on a replacement part thinking what I had might have been something I broke rather then a 'defective' part. Later I found out from Red once they reviewed my pictorial comparison that they would gladly replace my 'out of tolerance' bottom plate, but wouldn’t credit my recent purchase of a new plate....oh well. So I am currently looking to hock my extra brand new uber high quality bottom plate to any interested fellow red users out there:
http://www.jchalfant.com/redone/images/bottom.jpg

This extra plate is still in the bag shipped from RED, 'un-opened' and will be sent fed-x to whomever will pay me anything close to what I paid for it... heck I'd take 400 bucks for it... it's yours, (at my 200dollar loss)! I ssooooo don't need an extra hunk of metal in my camera case...

Super thanks for reading the 'woes' of this humble animator/digital cinema auteur please continue wowing us with your awesomeness. I know I sound little sarcastic, but wouldn't you?

...Seriously tho, I love this camera...

The beginnings of my red adventures are further chronicled here on my personal site:

www.jchalfant.com/redone

[Simon Valderrama]

Unfortunately defective parts can be found even where you do not expect it.
Yesterday all three leg spreader levers of my oConner 1030 broke into my hands, and they were brand new. broke like cookies.
The legendary and famous and pricey OConnor ... shit happens, i guess.

[Axel Mertes]

John,

I had the exact same thing here. We bought an extra "Basic production pack" as a collegue had some broken parts on the shoulder dove tail and missing screws on the drive & battery holder. So bought a new set - and got our old bottom plate replaced.

I understand your point. Anyhow, I am happy to say that RED was at least willing to complement for their own error in production quality etc. - which is just fair.

Best of all, due to the experienced instabilities, we ordered the ARRI bottom plate too, another 900 US$ went down the road...

I guess I'll try to maintain different base setups with different tripod mounts etc to quickly change the body from one setup to another. I'll find use for the three bottom plates, sooner or later. If anyone is searching one, give me a call :)

Cheers,
Axel

[Brent@RED]

John, send me an email to brent - at -red - dot - com. Let's see if we can work something out.

BC

[Simon Valderrama]

Sorry if i go again off topic, but few hours after i posted my offtopic OConnor complaint i was contacted by email from Bob Low, Key Account Manager of OConnor Engineering, who heard about my post (!).
Now they say they're sending me a whole brand new spreader (!) tomorrow.
Now i'm both impressed by OConnor and by this forum ... :w00t:

(!!)

[jchalfant]

Big thank you Brent... Red is gonna credit me for my extra part!

woohoo

-John

[gdv]

John, Red owners and Red Company
The problems with the peripherals of the camera is a very unpleasant issue.
Most of Red owners are like you, small business, freelancers, very small rental house (if can be called rental house) who don't have an in house technician or maintenance ability.
While the image of the camera is fantastic and the Red support team is doing his best to fix problems and get the cameras running, there are still too many problems, electrical and mechanical, with the support gear of the camera body.
Loose connection of cables, power failure of cables, cradles and chargers, broken hand grips and plates and we are talking here during a few months, very few as cameras are not out every day on a shoot, of camera operating.
If that continues I can't see how the camera will survive another year. Yes the sensor is great but like a good heart it still need that the lunges, kidney liver and the rest will function too.
Also what will be after the one year of the guarantee period?
The cameras were and are being sold around the globe and for every small problems, like a loose cable connection, owners have to ship them all the way, from China to South Africa, to california. FedEx are happy about that, owners are much less smiling.

[jchalfant]

In comparison to what else is out there, (and I've only messed with a Genesis it's post workflow; and scanning/DI for 35mm / 16mm).... I find the Red camera, it's tools and post workflow fantastic... sure there is always something people can complain about, and it's especially easy to point fingers at a start up company... But if you look at what they've done and where they are going, it's pretty incredible... especially considering they've only been in business for what? something like two years now?

If their current track record maintains, I see only amazing things coming of this.

John