RED improves production process, slashes movie camera pricing

It seems like RED's digital movie cameras are everywhere these days: from the latest Hollywood blockbuster to Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking freefall and the retirement of the Space Shuttle, RED was there. A radical adjustment to the company's price structure seems likely to make its products even more pervasive, though.

A forum post from company founder Jim Jannard a few days ago tipped users off to the new price structure, said to have been achieved thanks to supplier improvements and streamlining of the assembly process. The scope for improvement, it seems, was vast. According to Jannard, assembly of a RED EPIC camera body used to take as long as 12 hours. That has been slashed to just 13 minutes, with less than 5% of assembled cameras needing a rework after post-assembly testing.

 

RED sells some serious movie gear. Now you can pick it up at an equally serious discount. This EPIC-X PRO Collection kit, for example, now costs about $15,000 less.

That has allowed an equally-impressive adjustment to RED camera prices. The full list is below, but summing up briefly, the cost of the EPIC-series camera "brains" -- that is, the heart of the camera without ancillaries -- has been cut by anywhere from 39% to 45%. With a much lower barrier to entry in the first place, pricing for a SCARLET-X brain has fallen by a smaller margin, but even there the company has achieved an 18% savings. These discounts also show themselves, with bundle pricing including the ancillaries also plunging across the board.

(Pro tip: if you were already planning on picking up an EPIC-M MONOCHROME package for Canon or Nikon mounts, you might want to check your couch cushions for spare change. You can now pick up two full kits for nearly the price of one, thanks to a 47% discount on those specific products.)

Of course, price cuts are great if you're about to buy the product in question, but less so if you've only just been parted with your money. Recognizing that, Jannard promises Scarlet and EPIC customers who've made a purchase since October 1st -- but before the new pricing took effect, obviously -- will receive a discount off a future accessories purchase. Scarlet buyers will get a US$1,000 discount, while EPIC buyers will receive a US$4,000 discount.

Note that these new prices don't include the Dragon sensor upgrade, which will cost US$6,000 when available. Also, RED cautions that it expects this new pricing will lead to extended response and processing times for new orders.

At the same time as unveiling the price cuts, RED has also made a couple of other tweaks to its product line. The RED ONE (MYSTERIUM-X) is no longer listed as a current product, and in its place sits the EPIC-X MONOCHROME [brain only], added as new product for a list price of US$20,000.