A little company named JinniMag is causing RED to sweat. JinniMag uploaded a compelling video stripping down a $1,850 RED Mini-Mag showing that it’s just a consumer-based off the shelf SSD which is worth no more than $250. Why are RED users pay ten times more?
Nothing against RED
It all started in 2016, when a small company named JinniMag, manufactured a much cheaper and affordable SSDs to use within the RED cameras. According to JinniMag, it was (and still is) 100% RED Mini-Mag compatible. The slogan of JinniMag is: “Affordable Media for RED Digital Cinema Camera.”
I don’t think there are one filmmaker and especially RED user that will deny the fact that RED Mini Mags are an ultra-expensive piece of essential accessory to the RED camera. The question is, why is it so expensive?
First and foremost, let me emphasize that this is not an article against RED. You must (yes…MUST) watch the video below titled as “RED MINI-MAG – Things you only thought you knew” because it will enlighten you a lot of stuff regarding an essential accessory of the RED camera.
Behind this 18 minutes long video, there is a 3-years history of lawsuits and accusations, between RED Digital Cinema and JinniMag, the company that made this video.
RED vs. JinniMag | JinniMag vs. RED
RED sued the company for patent infringement, and right after, JinniMag sued RED for false accusations and slander. Moving three years forward, RED withdrew their lawsuit. However, the JinniMag lawsuit against RED is still going on. Anyway, we are not going to dive deep into the legal details of both lawsuits, as we are filmmakers and not lawyers.
In the video, you will explore what’s inside the RED Mini-Mag, and you will see that the ultra-expensive RED Mini-Mag is made from nothing than a consumer-based off the shelf SSD that costs no more than $250.
Watch the video down below:
It’s important to mention that the video indeed shows a cheap consumer based off the shelf SSD recognize by the RED camera, but the video doesn’t demonstrate any media being recorded. Furthermore, RED has updated its info regarding price and capacity of the 480GB Mini-Mag.
As for the price… as I said previously, yes, RED MAGS are expensive. The millions of dollars of R&D around media recording, the testing, the support for issues and firmware updates, etc., along with the hours of no charge media recovery we do every single day for customers needs to be paid somehow. That get’s rolled into the cards, and that’s why they are so expensive
Jarred Land, RED President
Many of RED shooters were pissed off by this video, which made them feel cheated by RED. However, RED president, Jarred Land posted some logical explanation for this overpriced piece of simple (and cheap) hardware. Let’s summaries the critical points of RED’s clarification:
RED’s clarifications
- RED never claimed to make its media.
- RED never claimed all parts of the media were made in the United States.
- RED make their firmware to write to the media.
- The RED patent covers encoding and decoding REDCODE to media.
- RED embraces third party solution that even compete with their products.
- RED can’t take responsibility for unauthorized malfunctioned media.
- RED admits that RED MAGS are expensive.
- RED invests millions of dollars of R&D around media recording, testing firmware update and support.
As stated by Jarred Land as a response to JinniMag’s video: “As for the price… as I said previously, yes, RED MAGS are expensive. The millions of dollars of R&D around media recording, the testing, the support for issues and firmware updates, etc., along with the hours of no charge media recovery we do every single day for customers needs to be paid somehow. That get’s rolled into the cards, and that’s why they are so expensive.
So basically, you’re paying for the support of the media recovery RED does daily, which means you’re paying extra for the warranty of the Mini Mag.
Conclusion
RED Mini Mags are indeed very straightforward and cheap consumer based off the shelf SSDs, with dedicated patented firmware and expensive warranty.
Have you been persuaded to pay that much for a media? Let’s know your insights in the comments section below.
Based on the video… Jinnimag is charging too much for their version of RED Media.
That’s true!
Haha.
Yes, I thought I would see the Jinnimag at a cost of SSD + $100 for the pcb, connectors and all case but they added way more and do not walk the talk.
Yossi quit kissing REDs Arse. If your scared to be sued like Andrew Reid was then dont bother commenting. I thought nikon sony forum fanboys were bad. OMG red is like a cult. Red should be Sued.
They make Nothing in USA. For them to say otherwise is fraud and lawsuits should be filed.
They marked up a $20 ssd to change a connector in order to make you buy a $3900 media holder that costs$6usd.
The old connector which is $2400 for old media said they couldn’t make adapter for it . Is a joke.
And millions of dollars for RnD into memory cards.
So pay me a few million to buy all 512gb branded sticks to see if they work.. non sense. Show me tax filings and employee invoices.
This is same company who hides their cmos chip manufacturers at an award show. Emmy for break thru. Red. They didnt acknowledge the real inventors.
They make nothing.
They tried same strategy w cell phones and hydrogen bomb. And a bomb it was. Its hype bs.
Same guy who sold Oakley glasses. Remember those. $500 for piece of $20 plastic mold . Made in china.
Red is greedy AF . If you marked up 50% cost to make profit sure
But to make ppl spend $4k for a $6 connector.
Its BS.
Just like patent they own Red code for is BS.
Y u think ur camera cant offer RAW compression internal or external. Red thinks they own it all.
They stole that too and sue any1 who uses compression.
But guess what.. if u file a patent u must disclose if longer than 1 year you sold a product or advertised and showed it to the public.
Red lied! They did both.i hope they lose their patent and they should. And I hope this cult like following in red community realizes there being suckered.
Any1 that speaks up or out get banished. Or sued.
There is no firmware that is used on sdd. They used standard micron firmware that’s free.
If any1 should be suing it should be micron and these sdd makers. For Red lying saying they build sdd in USA and build their own software.
And any nonsense that it’s done In camera then sent to sdd is non sense. All recorders do is record whatever data is sent.
Jinny proved it 100% these guys are CROOKS and FTC needs to investigate false made in USA and 480gb being sold as 512GB. Its fraud!!
$2500 for a memory card sdd… $3900 for a card reader..
Lol
Wow. How’s that hydrogen phone working 4 u too.
S u c k e r s TAPED on ur forehead
If your scared to be sued like Andrew Reid was then dont bother commenting. I thought nikon sony forum fanboys were bad. OMG red is like a cult. Red should be Sued.
They make Nothing in USA. For them to say otherwise is fraud and lawsuits should be filed.
If your scared to be sued like Andrew Reid was then dont bother commenting. I thought nikon sony forum fanboys were bad. OMG red is like a cult. Red should be Sued.
They make Nothing in USA. For them to say otherwise is fraud and lawsuits should be filed.
They marked up a $20 ssd to change a connector in order to make you buy a $3900 media holder that costs$6usd.
The old connector which is $2400 for old media said they couldn’t make adapter for it . Is a joke.
And millions of dollars for RnD into memory cards.
So pay me a few million to buy all 512gb branded sticks to see if they work.. non sense. Show me tax filings and employee invoices.
This is same company who hides their cmos chip manufacturers at an award show. Emmy for break thru. Red. They didnt acknowledge the real inventors.
They make nothing.
They tried same strategy w cell phones and hydrogen bomb. And a bomb it was. Its hype bs.
Same guy who sold Oakley glasses. Remember those. $500 for piece of $20 plastic mold . Made in china.
Red is greedy AF . If you marked up 50% cost to make profit sure
But to make ppl spend $4k for a $6 connector.
Its BS.
OMG! The profit’s doesn’t have limits!
“with dedicated patented firmware”
Seriously!!?? Is this what you got from that Yossy?!
No… This is what RED claims!
Clearly this is very misleading, you’re not stating anywhere that it’s claimed, which you should at the very least since it’s been proven false.
He even shows in the video that the firmware is not special.
[…] are not familiar with the so-called dramatic discussion/ novel between RED and Jinnimag, refer to this article to get updated. Make the story short (if it’s possible), Jinnimag proved that RED Min-Mags […]
[…] Tech Tips has decided to join the party about the saga between RED and Jinni Tech (or vice versa). Linus disassembled its own 960 GB Mini-Mag, to investigate and get some answers. […]
Point 1 and 2 are correct, it is a bad in general that things are called “made in *” that easily however not really a RED specific thing. Point 3: He even shows in the video that the firmware is not relevant. Point 4 might be, but still hasn’t anything todo with the SSD itself. Point 5 yeah so what? Those approved third party manufacturers probably paying alot to RED for that and had to sign many many papers. All that without any real benefit to the customer. Point 6 yeah sure, but they cannot either for an approved third party product. Point 7 seriously? Point 8 they won’t spend a huge amount of money into their SSDs. So they would have to charge more for the camera, if neccessary, but the SSDs don’t have anything to do with them.
But even if RED would make the best and most reliable SSDs ever seen, they still would be a single point of failure, so without any redundancy it is a stupid system.
Btw according to the federal trade commissions guidelines “Made in the US” would definitely not apply to MiniMags, they only may claim “assembly in the USA”.
There is a new article from now with new conclusions: https://ymcinema.com/2019/07/17/the-mini-mags-saga-red-should-get-back-to-the-planning-table/
Now to wait for the inevitable cheap chinese enclosure we all can just stick cheap SSDs into, apply the DRM tag to the drive and call it good.