Red Lenses

Matt Workman · September 9, 2006

Hi,

Why is RED, or why would you speculate, that RED is releasing a 300mm Prime Lens first?

- Is there a gap in the telephoto prime lens world?

- Is it impressive to be albe to manufacture the lens, so they are testing their engineering?

I'm just curious. Not skeptical, malicious, jelous. It just seemed odd.

"Yeah first off I'm going to buy my RED camera and now I just have to have a 300mm lens..."

Their 18mm-85mm Zoom, if it is fast and probably will be, is definitely the lens I would get. I'm interested to see if RED has something new up their sleeve as far as lenses are concerned. Are their lenses going to be better than Zeiss, Cooke, Arri etc? It seemed unlikely, but I'm all for it.

I'm excited to see the results, they certainly have at least got their marketing down with all of the hype. Thanks.

Matt

Keith Walters · September 10, 2006

Hi,

Why is RED, or why would you speculate, that RED is releasing a 300mm Prime Lens first?

Is it possible that RED are looking at other potential markets such as surveillance? I can think of a number of government agencies that would have lots of uses for a cheap 4K reasonably portable CCTV camera. They more than anyone would be interested in 300mm lenses.

Max Jacoby · September 10, 2006

I'm interested to see if RED has something new up their sleeve as far as lenses are concerned. Are their lenses going to be better than Zeiss, Cooke, Arri etc? It seemed unlikely, but I'm all for it.

That's very unlikely in my opinion too. From looking at the price, it seems obvious that they are offering a lower cost alternative to other 35mm lenses out there. Nothing wrong with that, but for 10K I would not expect this zoom lens to rival the Optimos, Zeiss or Primo zoms available.

Greg Lowry · September 10, 2006

That's very unlikely in my opinion too. From looking at the price, it seems obvious that they are offering a lower cost alternative to other 35mm lenses out there. Nothing wrong with that, but for 10K I would not expect this zoom lens to rival the Optimos, Zeiss or Primo zoms available.

The RED business model seems to be based on high volume / low price. If they have pre-orders for 1000 cameras before they start to manufacture in 07, that's a big number for the professional camera world. If they plan to initially order/build a couple hundred 18-85 zoom lenses, then their cost per unit may provide for very high quality at that admittedly low price. It's even possible that one of the above-mentioned big-three manufacturers is building the lens (although Zeiss is unlikely due to its ARRI relationship). J. Jannard is a big Cooke fan. Who knows? There is definitely method in the apparent madness.

Edited September 10, 2006 by Greg Lowry

Max Jacoby · September 10, 2006

Since no one at Red is publicly stating where the lenses, respectively the design/glass are coming from (despite some people having asked already) I doubt that these lenses have very exciting (i.e. Zeiss, Cooke, Leitz) origins.

Greg Lowry · September 10, 2006

Since no one at Red is publicly stating where the lenses, respectively the design/glass are coming from (despite some people having asked already) I doubt that these lenses have very exciting (i.e. Zeiss, Cooke, Leitz) origins.

Nor is RED releasing the name of the company that fabricated their sensor. It's too soon to definitively rule any possibility in or out, IMO.