Re: Red complaints

Why don't you propose that J.J. buy your underwater housing as part of the deal? He could probably get it sold again to one of the remaining reservation holders.

I'm not an apologist for RED at all BTW, in case anyone wonders...

I was personally weary of the RED hype 6 mos. before anyone had a chance to actually shoot with one.

They are quick to describe the virtues of their camera relative to anyone else's, but cried 'foul' when cameras 1-25 were immediately put into various private comparison tests after over a year of competitor manufacturers having to compare their shipping products to nothing but propaganda, balsa wood and photographs of prototypes with code names that produced test results that we were told about by RED alone for months.

Why is someone who watched all this happen and then paid money to this company surprised that there was some manufacturing and delivery date snafus and that their complaint post was deleted from their website forum?

RED Camera happens to be a company that is completely new to this market and this business and this is the first product they've ever developed or sold.

Now...all that said, those who gambled and bought a RED by putting 1000.00 down very early in the development process bought into the whole "RED revolution" and everything that comes with it.

If what you want is a completely new paradigm (geez I hate that word), a revolution is what you want I guess...and certainly revolutions bring about change that is often a good thing. However, revolutions are messy and revolutionaries are typically completely committed to their cause, reactive, loosely organized, and rarely foresee the collateral issues that will be involved with, or result from their venture.

I think that RED can certainly be criticized for lots of things, but let's be careful about accusing them of unethical business practices. My production business had 10+ employees in the 90s and I almost never handled an incoming check, I had a staff member that took care of that end of things. I'm sure in what is a larger staff than that at RED camera, the same is true, and the employee who cashes checks isn't the same employee who deals with manufacturing QC problems I'd bet...so once again, cashing the check doesn't establish any specific intent of any kind. It's a mechanical business function.

I'm all for calling the whole reservation defer/not defer merry-go-round that RED instituted a really naive business decision, but let's be real here. J.J. could just buy his own island and tell everyone else to stuff it...he doesn't have to be dishonest to scrape together a little cash.

"Everything in life changes... including our camera specs and delivery dates..." is, I believe the sig line in the founders posts on his own website.

Caveat emptor people...oh, and exspectata ut revolution.




TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

CPO, Digieffects