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Beating planned obsolescence--at a price: Red Camera's latest

By Rain Noe - December 4, 2008

in Object Culture

"Why do you want sixteen megabytes of memory, are you crazy? You'll never need that much." These were the words the computer salesman said to my friend's dad back in the '90s.

Is it possible to design products, in these times of exponentially-growing technology, that can "beat" obsolescence, planned or otherwise? The Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, founded by Jim Jannard (who also founded Oakley), is damn sure trying. You guys may remember the plan behind their Red One camera, released last year:

...Modular and upgradeable, the RED ONE camera is a future-proof acquisition system you can build upon. RED ONE's modular design means you can upgrade with us as we add new features and accessories, as well as benefitting from performance improvements with each new free firmware upgrade.

Yesterday Red announced their latest, the Epic X, which has a targeted release of Summer 2009.

So, does the Epic make the original Red One obsolete? As Jannard writes on the site:

Everything changes and improves in this industry. "Obsolescence Obsolete" means giving our customers a path (or paths) to upgrade to new technology so they don't have to buy a new camera every time a new sensor, feature or capability is introduced. We remain ever committed to this concept.

The EPIC X is a Limited Edition EPIC S35 Pro Cinema package that includes a CF Recording Module, I/O Module and Battery Module at no additional cost. It is our way of thanking our loyal RED ONE customers and giving them the most complete and inexpensive upgrade path possible to the new "interchangeable and upgradeable everything" future of the EPIC system.

The EPIC X "brain" is housed in a unique black and dark titanium color case. It is ONLY available to existing RED ONE owners who wish to upgrade their camera to the new system. A full trade-in allowance of $17,500 for a RED ONE is credited towards this special package. These will be the 1st EPICs shipped. Target: End of Summer 2009.

As you can see, the dollar amounts involved are fiendishly high; planned obsolescence is an expensive dragon to slay.

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Nate

15 years ago

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Actually, the price of a RED camera is comparable to a couple weeks renting another digital 4k camera. The RED is EXTREMELY cheap for the build quality. (There are caveats to the digital sensor in it, especially the low bitrate RED only has one 12 bit photosite compared to three 14 bit on other cameras.)

See a long critique here:
http://rcjohnso.com/REDFACTS.html

Still, the RED is quality for a very low cost.
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Tobias

15 years ago

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Actually the ability to trade in your original RED body, receiving a discount equal to what you paid for it off the cost of a brand new Epic is unheard of. Seems to make the price fiendishly low. Makes me wish I'd sprung for a RED One when they came out.
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