Dragon Upgrade Predictions for Scarlet-X

[Scott C]

I have brought this up before but I will say it again (just throwing things out, here!)

One thing I think would be really awesome would be an alternative/less expensive upgrade option as well. Hypothetical situation:

Let's say for the sake of argument that this upgrade costs $9k for Scarlet. We know it requires obviously replacing the sensor but also replacing boards to handle/process more information. Let's also say that of the $9k upgrade cost, 5000 is the cost of the sensor, 4000 is the cost of the new boards.

Now, stay with me here.. for people who maybe are on a bit tighter budget/are happy with the current sensor but want some more framerates/hdrx etc.. what about an upgrade option just to replace the boards? The $4000 part of the upgrade, which would simply increase performance with the current sensor? I know I would be interested in it, I bet I'm not the only one.

All conjecture of course. But this is a speculative thread.

[Daniel Peters]

def not the only one..

hey maybe when they are upgrading our scarlets, we'll be allowed an EPIC on loan til our Scarlets are back...wink wink ;)

[Nick Morrison]

I think we are all guessing along the same lines:

5k 25fps
4k 50fps
3k: 96fps
2k: 120fps

$9000 upgrade, as its the $6000 Epic upgrade...PLUS $$$ for the extra boards. You are getting a whole new sensor with 15DR (better than Alexa), aggressive lowlight, better slowmo. It's a whole new camera for 1/4 the price of an Epic. Still pretty amazing.

And...by the time all the Epic's have been upgraded, it will probably be mid 2013 before the Scarlets are due for their upgrade. So this is still all over a year off.

And don't forget, the Scarlet even NOW is amazing. Dragon Tattoo was 80-90% Red One. Proof that just owning a RAW RED camera is all you need to make an uncompromising movie.

[Björn Benckert]

Remember this,
When the epics get upgraded there will be a lot of old epic boards... I think scarlet users will be able to have their cameras gutted and replaced with epic interior... for a good price.

[Daniel Peters]

Remember this,
When the epics get upgraded there will be a lot of old epic boards... I think scarlet users will be able to have their cameras gutted and replaced with epic interior... for a good price.

What an awesome idea! ;)

[Rodrigo Prata]

Remember this,
When the epics get upgraded there will be a lot of old epic boards... I think scarlet users will be able to have their cameras gutted and replaced with epic interior... for a good price.

The RED One upgrade + original price was less expensive them just buying a new body with the MX sensor. I think that give us a clue!

[Peter Stadelmann]

Remember this,
When the epics get upgraded there will be a lot of old epic boards... I think scarlet users will be able to have their cameras gutted and replaced with epic interior... for a good price.

Great idea Björn and i hope not far from the reality...

[Zach Swena]

Great idea Björn and i hope not far from the reality...

How far from reality this is depends on if the extra frame rates on epic are from new asics or just tweaking the settings. I wouldn't be supprised if they continue to make the mx scarlet for a while with new asic's and old epic sensors.

The reason they have not given specifics on the scarlet upgrades is they don't know what it is yet. If they get significantly better yields, then we could see a huge framerate upgrade. Scarlet framerates were set based on the average speed of asic that didn't bin high enough for epic. These bin effeciencies improve over time,we just don't know by how much.

I predict two options for scarlet.

Dragon upgrade. More then $6k epic upgrade but less then current Scarlet X brain.
Dragon Sensor only. $6k better DR and highe resr stills at lower fps
ASIC only, higher fps with same sensor. Difference in price between the two.

I wouldn't be supprised if the third option is offered as a new scarlet model to use up all the epic sensors comming back in. They will give the most speed they can manage with whatever the new group of epic reject chips can provide.

[Patrick Grossien]

Remember this,
When the epics get upgraded there will be a lot of old epic boards... I think scarlet users will be able to have their cameras gutted and replaced with epic interior... for a good price.

That's why you're creative lead! ;) great idea, I still doubt it though.
But who knows. One can dream, can he?

Though this really sounds like a clever idea business wise

[Demetri Zuev]

What would be reasonable and logical is to multiply all current framerates by two, making it

12fps@6K
24fps@5K
48fps@4K
96fps@3K
120fps@2K
240fps@720p

Maybe also add a lower compression settings for higher res, allowing to shoot 5K at something like 3:1.

Plus all the benefits of the sensor that are the same on any camera — higher DR, better low light etc.

Now, saying all that doesn't mean that I don't want Scarlet to be a 6K 120fps beast of a camera, I'm just trying to be realistic.

I really hope that the upgrade cost for Scarlet won't exceed 10K.