Red Primes

[RedPICK]

Does anybody know an estimated ship date on the Red prime lenses?

[Martin Weiss]

Before the end of year is the target.

[Phil Bates]

RedPICK, I noticed this is your first post. Welcome to the Red Forum! I hope you enjoy this community. :)

One other thought about lenses. While waiting for the Red lenses to be released, some Red Users like myself are converting our PL mounts to Nikon to take advantage of a wider range of lens options available now. Of course you lose the common features of cine lenses, like geared rings.

Phil
http://www.artbeats.com

[Paul Hazlett]

what I was told was q1 of 2009

[Sven Seynaeve]

the sooner the better

[Evin Grant]

No sooner that early 2009, more realistically NAB 2009, going by history.

[must-c-tv]

Who is actually making them?

Who go the sub-contract?

I've heard either Ekran in Canada or Optima Elite in Russia.

[Rob Gardner]

I'll add to that rumor. I heard from a guy that ran a Russian camera/lens website (a Dutch guy now in Russia) that he had been contacted by Jim Jannard through his website with a request for contact information about the Optica Elite company.

Wouldn't it be funny if the reason Optica Elite doesn't seem to be able to deliver any of its own lenses is because they are too busy making Red lenses?

Now, I can't speak for whether or not the website guy was actually contacted by Jannard, but I know he told me this in an email exchange about Russian lenses.

So I would say the rumor is only partially baseless (or at least non-confirmable). But as vague rumors go, its pretty good...

Of course anybody with a web browser can find Optica Elite's web page, so why would Jannard have to contact this guy? That takes some of the beef out of the rumor. Who knows?

And I would have to add that Ekran is the name of a Russian company that made lenses, not a Canadian company. Pretty good lenses too.
Rob Gardner

[chuck colburn]

Morning Rob,

It was you who told me Ekran was Russian, right?
Leitz (Leica) use to fabricate cameras and more so lenses in Canada under the name ELCAN ( Ernst Leitz Canada) but I believe they sold that divison to Raytheon.

[Rob Gardner]

Yes, Ekran lenses are Russian. You're right about Leica making cameras and Lenses in Canada, though I think they no longer do.

I think it would be funny if it turned out that Red lenses were Russian (son-of-LOMO). Or more accurately Son-of-Optima. We had a couple Optima lenses we got from Able Cinetech for our super16 Arri SR back when we used to shoot everything on film and they were fine lenses.

I think there are lots of reasons Red might consider a Russian source. The big Asian companies might not be interested in tooling up for the relatively small numbers Red would be purchasing, and the design work for cine lenses (both the optical and mechanical design) would have been done already and the quality of Russian optical glass is quite good, their coatings are good and their design work is quite good.

The down side in the past (LOMO particularly) was not in the quality of the glass or optical design, but in the build quality and the mechanical issues that come from a lower level of quality control in the Soviet system (vodka fueled technicians on the assembly bench). But that was a long time ago and modern Russian lenses seem to be quite good.

This is an interesting rumor and some people (probably Mitch Gross, for instance) who have experience working with Optica Elite, probably know the real story. But they are not talking...

I hope somebody else can pour fuel on the fire of this rumor...

Rob Gardner