http://technabob.com/blog/2011/04/25/james-cameron-red-epic-m-cameras/

Which means the guy on the street will have to wait a wee bit longer, no?

Come to think of it, can the guy on the street even buy one at all at this point?

Those are the machined versions, Epic-M, not Epic-X.

And yes, the guy on the street can buy one today for $58,000 -- although I think quantity orders get priority.

Those RED robotic mills are going to be working day and night for a while.
I wonder if Mr. Cameron got a discount? :-)

Whyever would he possibly want 50. Is he going to donate them to filmschools?

My rabid imagining is that there must be some extraordinarily massive motion mapping thing he is doing, wall-to-wall paired 3D cameras, focus all locked off and converged onto specific marks in a large set? - Interactive 3D game at a whole new level as a tie in to his next big movie? Whatever. One thing guaranteed. It IS going to be interesting.

Cameron is fully committed to stereoscopic 3D production, so
it's safe to assume that he's going to be using them as 25 pairs,
on a somewhat larger scale than Peter Jackson is doing right
now with 30 RED Epic-M cameras (in 15 pairs) on The Hobbit.

Obviously his plan is to have multiple units shooting concurrently,
like Jackson. Perhaps more than one production, each with several
units. 25 pairs, each with backups, could be assigned pretty quickly
that way.

That would be my guess Chris.
Lots of time can money can be saved if you are able to get several shots and/or angles at once.
Probably especially true in high end 3D capture. One perfect performance means all angles cut seamlessly.
And no, to do so is NOT easy, sometimes impossible, but when it is possible for the big guys it is worth the investment.

I wish I could afford 1 Epic M rig - sigh!

And think about how much all that glass is going to cost too. Could easily exceed the cost of the cameras.

From here on out, nearly everything will cost more than the camera.

Digital cameras are tiny computers. R&D of tiny computers is everywhere & the price just keeps dropping as quality keeps soaring.

Opposite of that, there probably will never be a gigantic surge of R&D & massive progressive evolution when it comes to lenses, tripods, etc. It won't be long until you can get a camera better than a Red for less than the price of an airline ticket, but a good tripod is still going to cost about the same as it did 10 years ago.

I don't think the prices will drop much for high end cameras, just the specification will keep increasing. Although there does reach a point of diminishing returns, that point really depends if you can notice the difference and how important people feel that difference is.

Depending on the subject matter, top DPs may not want to shoot too many camera angles at once because it can compromise the lighting and camera placement. Good editing can be a temporal lie and the performances built up from different takes, which is the cool part.

I'd imagine Cameron will have several units working back to back with the main unit.

Looks like the baby brother/sister might just be on its way:

MacVideo - Camera Technology - Features - RED Scarlet, working model on show (http://www.macvideo.tv/camera-technology/features/index.cfm?articleId=3276182)

Looks like the baby brother/sister might just be on its way:

MacVideo - Camera Technology - Features - RED Scarlet, working model on show (http://www.macvideo.tv/camera-technology/features/index.cfm?articleId=3276182)
On the contrary, Jim Jannard recently posted that fixed-lens Scarlet is effectively on indefinite hold. Not only is it suffering the same electronic-component shortage as the Epics, there are also problems obtaining lens parts. The interchangeable-lens Scarlet Cinema model was scheduled to follow after the fixed; whether that will continue to be the case -- or the Cinema is to be moved ahead of the fixed -- is known only to Red. So Scarlet may be delayed until the fall or later.

I gather it's Cameron-Pace that have bought 50 Epics. Vince Pace have been involved in 3d camera development together with James Cameron for many years. I expect the cameras are part of a rental fleet, rather than just for Cameron's own use.

It seems that James is investing in the new ARRI's as well:

ARRI Group: News (http://www.arri.com/news.html?article=673&cHash=9cc3cdc92b)

I think he can afford to have a large collection of all the cameras on the market - he's even grabbing the ones not yet on the market.

Allan Barnwell
Omega Broadcast Group - Professional Video Sales, Rental & Services (http://www.omegabroadcast.com)

If we're speculating, I personally believe he's built a single 50-camera rig that's capable of resolving subatomic pixels beyond every known and unknown dimension. To detect light before it has even been emitted by the globes. It's really the only possible next step for him.

He might be trying to film "Schrödinger's cat"...

He might be trying to film "Schrödinger's cat"...

very clever. clearly you were not educated in the American public school system.

50 Epics must be for rental right? What is Peter Jackson doing with his 30? He can't possibly be using 15 3D rigs on a single movie can he?

very clever. clearly you were not educated in the American public school system.

50 Epics must be for rental right? What is Peter Jackson doing with his 30? He can't possibly be using 15 3D rigs on a single movie can he?

I reckon he would be. The behind the scenes of LOTR showed that he often had up to 4 units filming at the same time around NZ. Each unit was covering 3 or more angles at the same time.

Couple of spares would do it. Besides Peter Jackson is very big on behind the scenes footage - who knows he might film that on Epics while he's at it...

Hardware means little...
Please have Jim spend some money on a real story for his next film.

Hardware means little...
Please have Jim spend some money on a real story for his next film.

Ditto. I'd rather he used Mini-DV and concentrated on a script as good as some of his early work.

He might be trying to film "Schrödinger's cat"...

very clever. clearly you were not educated in the American public school system.

That, or a fan of "the eels" (http://www.eelstheband.com/) & Nova. In "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/manyworlds/), Schrödinger's kitty played a part in Spock getting a goatee (http://www.google.com/search?q=spock+goatee)

50 Epics must be for rental right? What is Peter Jackson doing with his 30? He can't possibly be using 15 3D rigs on a single movie can he?

I'm guessing Jimmy boy as so much money, he is setting them up as security cameras around his house. Hard to spend that much money at once.

I think 15 paired RED Epic-Ms on The Hobbit also include 2nd unit, etc

Interesting that Pace and Cameron also met and struck a partnership with ARRI, because I was going to comment that Cameron finally found the ideal camera to shoot 3D in RED, but then there's ARRI!

I do know that a local South Florida rental house I've worked with in the past is ordering a RED Epic, but currently have an ARRI Alexa that gets rented a lot.

Heath

Hardware means little...
Please have Jim spend some money on a real story for his next film.

Oh come on... you didn't like Pocahontas in space?

Yeah, it was so bad it only grossed a billion dollars world wide.
And then there's that hack that wrote Star Wars.

I guess it helps if what's about to happen is flagged up 15 minutes in advance, "Terminator" is much smarter.

Yeah, it was so bad it only grossed a billion dollars world wide.

it was closer to 2 billion actually and working near 3 when you include merchandise, dvd, tv ...

To put it into perspective, Paul Blart: Mall Cop made a quarter billion dollars and There Will Be Blood made a "paltry" $75M. There is obviously an inverse relationship between the quality of a story and its marketability. James Cameron has discovered this formula.

50 Epics must be for rental right? What is Peter Jackson doing with his 30? He can't possibly be using 15 3D rigs on a single movie can he?
The fact is, changing lenses on a 3D rig is time-consuming, so having multiple rigs with different lenses already lined up is going to be cost effective - even given the price of those Epics and Atom rigs. Also, by the time you factor in A + B cameras and first, second and possibly third units, you get to 25 rigs pretty quickly.

Plus you need spare bodies in case a camera fails.

When they did Star Wars Episode 2, they only had six F900 cameras, and their insurance company (and probably the completion bond company, if they had one) made them bring 35mm film cameras as a backup, especially in the desert for those scenes.

Heath

very clever. clearly you were not educated in the American public school system.

50 Epics must be for rental right? What is Peter Jackson doing with his 30? He can't possibly be using 15 3D rigs on a single movie can he?

He will use all of them and have back up units ready and waiting, the price of Epic M's is still bugger all compared to other cameras especially the costs related to film. I'm sure Jim gave him a good deal on them too as it's pretty good publicity for RED too. I just wish the general public could start getting their hands on them.