RED Cameras Are Now Much Cheaper

RED’s Hollywood-worthy HD video cameras just got way, way cheaper. On Friday, CEO Jim Jannard (who also founded eyewear goliath Oakley) posted in a RED users’ forum that the company would be reducing the price of many of its professional-grade cameras by up to 45 percent. According to Jannard, the price drop is the result of the company’s incredibly efficient factory in Irvine, California.
Yes, you read that right. A company managed to lower its own costs — while manufacturing in the U.S., no less — and rather than just keeping the higher margins, it passed the savings on to consumers. Nice one, Jannard.
If you’re in the market for a RED camera, here are the new prices, with some old ones in parenthesis, for reference:
– 5K EPIC-X Brain: $19,000 (down from $34,500)
– 5K EPIC-X Monochrome Brain: $20,000
– 5K EPIC-M Brain: $24,000 (down from $39,500)
– 5K/4K Scarlet Brain: $7,950 (down from $9,700)
– 4.5K RED ONE M-X Battle Tested: $4,000
Jannard posted on the same RED forum on Oct. 26 that the price cuts were coming. He wrote, “We can continue to charge the same for an EPIC (and now make an obscene amount of profit) or lower the price.” When’s the last time a CEO gave up the chance to buy an island so auteurs could afford to shoot another movie about isolation and desperation on the beach?