DSLR impact on your business

[Andrew clemson]

How has the HDSLR craze affected what and when you shoot in this region?They seem to be popping up on jobs all over the place here.

[Panos Bournias]

I tell you what we did. We bought a PL mount 7d and rent it in the package with the red, as a pick ups B' Cam, calculating the 7d at ~100US/day-One set of primes.
The clients look happy and the 7D is part of the RED CAM main package. I think that this is a good strategy as you cannot deny that as a B' Cam the 7D is usable.
Now, if they want to go all low budget most of the serious DoPs here in Jakarta deny to shoot an all 7D or 5D commercial, so it stays for the low budget music videos and the very low budget commercials.
The EX3 w/ a 35mm adapter is affecting more the Redone rentals in Jakarta.

[michael zaletel]

I was able to rent the 5D2 body and a small monitor only for 3 weeks for $600. Small Indy couldn't afford much lighting or crew and was shooting mostly in a forest at night. Same client renting my RED for a higher budget Indy this week. Helped me keep the client happy.

-michael zaletel

[Andrew clemson]

Its a great BCAM for sure, seems to found a nice niche here as a crashcam and for rigging in car interiors.

Despite all the zacuto and redrock crap I've bought to build around it, it always seems to be used "naked"!!!

[Tunji Ladoja]

In Lagos here, most music videos are now being shot on the 5D/7D

[Matt Gottshalk]

I use my 5dmkii and 7d all of the time.

Usually with my "cinevised" Nikon hi-speed primes.

Just another tool.

[Prabhat]

Is there a possibility of firmware update for the 5dm2 for slowmo etc

[Andrew clemson]

i doubt it. isnt that one of the advantages of the MKIV? I could be mistaken, I know the 7D shoots Hispeed

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I've had trouble selling RED One rentals, as many (too many I say) clients are completely happy with my 7D image wise. I estimate 85% of my work is on the 7D now.

People are much more interested in higher end cameras when audio is part of the equation though- up until the client expects to record second system audio. Then they are interested in the 7D again. The 5D takes a surprising amount of business now that it has new firmware to disable the built audio's automatic gain control.

(House didn't hurt the marketing of that system either.)

Its a combination of not caring about the better images RED can produce and the better light sensitivity of the DSLR's. Third the camera's size is an asset.

RED M-X is too late to gather the interest of the clients buying DSLR production now. If the M-X was widely available in Summer 2009, there may well be less interest in these DSLRs for professional work.

I expect to see this situation remain until Scarlet comes around to pick up that low end work. Scarlet will definitely compete very well with the higher end DSLR's and cameras like the EX1/Letus combination.

Still RED had better put the speed on. Every player with a DSLR in the market is developing a video camera from their DSLR products right now. If any of them deliver before RED does it could be a fatal blow to RED's lower end "mass market" products.

I still think RED should deliver a 3K Scarlet S35 camera with specs to compare with the planned Scarlet 2/3" camera. Essentially the same camera, with a different sensor size option. Heck, a FF35 3K camera is probably worthwhile. Hold the brain price to the planned price for the 3K 2/3" brain. Compromise elsewhere to hit that price point.

RED should be ready to sell them by the 10000, and possibly the 100000.

Even if RED were to deliver a 3K system like I propose at the price point I propose, you are still looking at ~$4000 USD for complete system that competes with a 5D/7D. You get way more camera of course... but don't doubt that price is a huge factor in this market.

I also recommend renaming the entire 3K product line to something other than "Scarlet." Well, that or rename the 5K and 6K Scarlets to something else. It will become increasingly important to separate the "good enough for 2K/1080p delivery" systems from the cinema systems meant to carry production into the future and capable of 4K+ delivery.

Its interesting times.

I still want to get my hands on Epic, and I think that RED is asking a bargain price for that system. I just think that the 5K+ future has been pushed further out. Between the recession and the fact that most consumers are just now completing their in home 1080p conversions, its hard to sell the need/value of 1080p delivery. Add to that the general satisfaction of audiences with films finished at 2K... and I think 2K delivery is well cemented as a quality standard.

The final nail is the Internet. 1080p delivery on the internet is still a big deal. I don't think we'll see resolution pushed upwards there for a while. Instead I expect that we'll see bitrates pushed up for the same resolution.

Ultimately I'm in business to sell my services and make good images. The current crop of DSLR cameras lets me do that. Clients can only pay so much for production... so if I rent RED, I have to cut prices somewhere else, and my rate may end up in question.

I'd rather keep working at a solid rate with a lesser camera. Of course if someone, perhaps RED, delivers a better camera that can be rented competitive with these low end DSLRs then I'll be freer to do top notch work and still remain price competitive.

[David Mullen ASC]

I've had trouble selling RED One rentals, as many (too many I say) clients are completely happy with my 7D image wise. I estimate 85% of my work is on the 7D now.

If anything, it shows the despite all the nitpicking some people have done over Redcode compression, the truth is that a lot of people seem to be OK with a lot of compression, especially if the end product is for television or the internet.

I can remember way back when Digital Betacam came along and a lot of people said it wasn't good enough for mastering onto, not compared to D1. But soon, people were mastering onto Digital Betacam anyway. Same goes for any number of other formats that at first were deemed too high in compression only to be embraced for the sake of convenience & cost under the "good enough" mantra. Now we're at the point where most of us believe that consumer grade H.264 is not really acceptable for broadcast material, and yet more and more people are accepting it anyway, flaws and all. I don't know if it's a case of standards getting lower and lower, or technology making more and more compression look acceptable -- probably a mix of both.