My dad (who is my friend) bought a RED Epic last week. The prices were recently cut in half... Did he just get owned?
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Did my friend just get owned? He bought a RED Epic?
- Thread starter RealJasonBourne
- Start date
I don't know, but I really would not feel owned with a Red Epic in my hands, regardless of how much I had paid for it. 
One of his reasons for buying it was that the depreciation value shouldn't go down another 5 years lol
I try to not fool myself into buying what I want, but what I need. I'm not always successful, but more times than not I convince myself I don't need to spend money, I just need to get my ideas down on paper. Its usually just an expensive way to try and satisfy a sense of accomplishment that isn't being met by your creative side. It you really need it - paying... or even overpaying, probably won't be your greatest concern. On the other hand, if its just some toy - yeah, it'll really burn.
buying a camera is like buying a car. depreciation value takes effect as soon as you walk out the store. Then based on the hours of film recorded. I'd be upset about the prices going down..... buuuut..... the point is you have a Red. Although i think it's a scarlet red not an epic red.
An epic red for 50K with all the gear would be pretty cheap.
An epic red for 50K with all the gear would be pretty cheap.
Heh, right?
Just going to put this here:
https://www.facebook.com/dpredwizard
Probably posted it before. Great source of hilarity.
I wouldn't say owned, especially as the prices weren't exactly cut in half but he certainly paid a lot more than he needed to.
These days I don't think investing in a camera system is a good idea anyway; the next best thing comes along every 6 months and suddenly the camera you paid for is obsolete. RED do try and curb this by making their modular cameras, but as I've said in previous threads, if you buy an expensive camera without the work already lined up to justify it, you end up selling the camera not yourself as a DP.
Unless you have so much work that by the end of it, it would be cheaper to buy your own Epic than rent it (keeping in mind you still have to rent lenses and extra accessories even if buying an Epic), that's the break point where buying one does not mean you got 'owned'
These days I don't think investing in a camera system is a good idea anyway; the next best thing comes along every 6 months and suddenly the camera you paid for is obsolete. RED do try and curb this by making their modular cameras, but as I've said in previous threads, if you buy an expensive camera without the work already lined up to justify it, you end up selling the camera not yourself as a DP.
Unless you have so much work that by the end of it, it would be cheaper to buy your own Epic than rent it (keeping in mind you still have to rent lenses and extra accessories even if buying an Epic), that's the break point where buying one does not mean you got 'owned'
im gonna delete this thread incase he comes here and sees that I made this thread about him lol
He got bent over. I hope that he had plenty of this:
This is one of the many reasons that, unless you do something for a living, you should rent or hire someone with the gear. I do sound for a living, yet I still rent field recording gear. I only own gear I use almost every day. In fact, if my facility ever gets to that point, I will lease most everything instead of owning it.
Five years ago I would have bought the Marantz PMD-660 because it was just about the only game in town. There are now four better units in that price range, and less expensive units - H4n, DR-100, R-26, etc. - that didn't even exist four years ago. For cripes sake, the DR-100 is already on the mkII version, and Roland/Edirol is putting out a little brother to the R-26.
This is one of the many reasons that, unless you do something for a living, you should rent or hire someone with the gear. I do sound for a living, yet I still rent field recording gear. I only own gear I use almost every day. In fact, if my facility ever gets to that point, I will lease most everything instead of owning it.
Five years ago I would have bought the Marantz PMD-660 because it was just about the only game in town. There are now four better units in that price range, and less expensive units - H4n, DR-100, R-26, etc. - that didn't even exist four years ago. For cripes sake, the DR-100 is already on the mkII version, and Roland/Edirol is putting out a little brother to the R-26.
Bingo. This is the only reason to spend $50K on any piece of gear. Yep, owned.
Any technology depreciates pretty significantly over five years. Assuming he bought it with the intent of making money with it over those five years I'd say the current price difference is only significant in the short term. You don't buy equipment like that unless you have a plan to make it pay for itself over 6 months to a year, and the price drop shouldn't heavily impact those plans. After that it's all profit, and I'm pretty confident you'll still be able to do paying work with an Epic in 5 years, just like people are still doing work with the red one now.
