During the 4 hours session led by Scott Balkum, RED Digital Cinema CEO Jarred Land, sheds light on the Nikon acquisition. What can we learn regarding the possible synergy between the two companies?
The patent stuff is ridiculous. I can’t believe people are talking about this stuff.
RED Digital Cinema CEO – Jarred Land
RED’s CEO commenting
It appears that not all of it is about patents. That’s according to RED Digital Cinema CEO, Jarred Land. In a long and intriguing talk led by Scott Balkum. Land shared some of the goals and strategies of the unexpected acquisition. “The patent stuff is ridiculous. I can’t believe people are talking about this stuff” Land said and added that all the lawsuit sagas made the two companies closer, which contributed to the established partnership. “The consumers will most probably not notice any changes. Nikon has a great reputation for reliability, repair, and manufacturing. There’re a lot of repair facilities of Nikon” Land added. In between the lines, it can be concluded that RED has been searching for this kind of acquisition as the cinema camera market has become very competitive. Land demonstrates this by telling Jim Jannard’s (RED Founder) joke: “How to become a millionaire? Start with a billion dollars and then start a camera company”.
How to become a millionaire? Start with a billion dollars and then start a camera company”
RED Digital Cinema founder – Jim Jannard
Also, Land gave a solid example talking about Minolta: “Minolta was a great camera company that had hard times fighting the big guys. Minolta has invented the AF, in-camera stabilization. And Sony bought them. The tech of Minolta made Sony” Land claims and adds: “The acquisition of Minolta saved Sony camera division. This is an example of a big company, that buys a small company, and cool things happen”.
The acquisition of Minolta saved Sony’s camera division. This is an example of a big company, that buys a small company, and cool things happen.
RED Digital Cinema CEO – Jarred Land
Indeed, Nikon is much much bigger. RED is like 1% of Nikon. Only the firmware team is equal to the size of all RED’s employees, says Land. Also, Land gave another notable reference: “YouTube sucked before until Google bought it and made it great”. If so, RED can be greater after the acquisition. Furthermore, this doesn’t mark the EOL of RED’s products: “RED cameras will continue to get firmware updates regularly” Land emphasizes. Watch the full episode below:
So what’s next?
There are a few possibilities resulting from this acquisition. First, Nikon will significantly strengthen its high-end cameras, creating a cinema line to compete with Sony and Canon. We think that there’s a consensus that Canon Cinema EOS is in trouble. From now on Nikon has a mass destruction weapon called RED. In the field of high-end mirrorless and cinema, Nikon has a huge advantage.
Nikon will significantly strengthen its high-end cameras, creating a cinema line to compete with Sony and Canon. We think that there’s a consensus that Canon Cinema EOS is in trouble. From now on Nikon has a mass destruction weapon called RED.
Furthermore, we don’t think that it will harm high-end cinema camera companies like ARRI Sony’s CineAlta. The more logical option is that Nikon will dominate the mirrorless world. RED brings to the game its spirit, innovation, and technology. Nikon brings to the game its resources, credibility, and service capabilities. That’s exactly what RED needed. That’s exactly what Nikon needed.
However, most probably the Raptor [X] will be the last RED camera per se. Moreover, the manufacturing merging will take time. It will bring fruits in 2026 or so. Hence, don’t expect to see any changes soon. But don’t be surprised if on April 1st you will see the Nikon logo when booting up your RED camera (that’s Land’s idea) 😉
What does one mean, he thinks the patent stuff is ridiculous. I was there when Neman announced the raw compressed technology. Red was nowhere to be seen. This patent keeps falling to have a properly funded challenge go through. I imagine they have other payments which makes things sticky. The patent stuff held back the industry. We should have had better cheaper camera and raw compressed phones and pocket cameras. But no, greed ruled.
What have the really achieved others didn’t do for them. These require the right robust flexible minds to push through the correct design strategy. They failed so many times at innovation, the projector, the pocket camera, the codec device, the multipoint camera parents. These are largely things suggested by 1 forum member, but they, could not follow through. Who would design a phone like that, the projector laser scanning was an issue from before it started, because that 1 forum member had pointed out to the laser light show industry that their estimates of damage were completely wrong, and the regulator agreed. 1 man can make a big difference, but even a large company of men can’t implement it. The Black Magic Camera debacle, was predictable. The build of the subsequent Red cameras, held it back Nobody wants a camera which doesn’t give the best quality and stops on set, waiting to be rectified. When I look at the older cameras… The color science, I had pocket cameras worth hardly anything with better looking color. Why? Everything has improved, excellent sensor and color science now, but where could we have been otherwise. But, look at Black Magics color science and codecs, after 1 forum member kept making technical mechanism suggestions. Even the original camera.
What is Grant Petty to do? He was warned many years ago, that a still camera with proper cinema features is able to outcompete and steal many potential customers away, and the pocket needed at least some wide range stills capability. But was listening?
RED isn’t Minolta before Sony, nor is it YouTube before Google, it’s more like Flip Video before Cisco, or Myspace before News Corp.
I edit national commercials for major ad agencies and brands. I haven’t received any footage shot on RED in years. Every DP worth his salt is shooting Arri. RED’s day has come and gone. I don’t see what Nikon gets out of this.
It’s true, there was a lot over overhype about some ads shot on some sensors from the little guy in the past. But, I looked and didn’t see it. I remember trying to speak to Grahame at Red about things, and was shocked at what I heard. It’s not people who drive hummers, or in the lodge, or whatever, who design things right. It’s the capable, who can design most anything right given time (and finances). Their opinion actually matters, as it is where art meets engineering. I’ve known of a fair few people go through companies making a position, a name, and bad product. I’ve even been there myself once while learning the ropes. I would not even want these people on an advisory panel about most things. Tbey are usually a one trick pony, and the trick is bad. However BM Resolve did listen on the image side and made great strides. The 50% clear pixel sensor technology was not to my style, and I would put extra work into handeling it.
But, don’t be mistaken, Nikon gets extra Sensor technology, which could be used well the same way as I suggested to BM and Resolve. But, combined with Nikon’s sensor technology, and whatever the two had been planning in sensor technology, they could produce something a lot better.
But, Nikon gets a Cinema brand cheap it can work off of to boost Red’s presence, or it’s own, aswell. Red always had a distribution problem into the maekets Nikon services, and Nikon had manufacturing know how and resources that allowed lower cost and better products. A Nikon acquisition effectively bank rolls development of better products.
We will see what comes out. Arri, has not advanced that much and are looking at selling. What they should all know, is that Panasonic is supposed to have a reasonable organic sensor solution they have to advance their technology to compete with. But, even phone sensor technology is closing the gap, of used on bigger pixels on a proper format. The end of significant gain is here. Alexa got us a long way there now it’s shortly going to get to be a hard sell on extra performance. These companies know the market is saturated, amd its going to take a lot to compete on technical performance improvements. The market has matured, they are sellimg up shop. If you look back 20 years, you might even find me forecasting the saturation (though I think I was aimimg for 10 years with cheaper hybrid cameras). It maybe that the day is coming where most DP hand you Arri content!
I edit national commercials for major ad agencies and brands. I haven’t received any footage shot on RED in years. Every DP worth his salt is shooting Arri or Sony. RED’s day has come and gone. I don’t see what Nikon gets out of this.
Arri Troll Detected
Real world experience is trolling now. Good to know.
Even your favorite youtubers aren’t using them anymore. https://youtu.be/Ru4g4Rm0Mfo In this behind the scenes video they’re all on Sony while their RED stuff literally collects dust on a shelf. 5 minutes in Linus Tech Tips even makes a comment during the tour about how little they’re worth today.
Used Tesla prices are crashing, too, doesn’t mean it’s a bad car. Markets are fluid.
Linus is more of an entertainment personality than a serious technical journalist. Gamers Nexus roasted LTT for sloppy benchmarking consistency of PC parts. And that’s supposedly his expertise. lol. Don’t hang your hat on LTT.