My Experience With RED Digital Cinema. 🤦‍♂️ 

For those curious, I sold the Monstro kit today (3/2/24) along with all my remaining RED accessories. Officially out of the ecosystem! 🥲

Summary of all 49 Minute video is This video is about the RU-vidr's experience with RED Digital Cinema cameras and their customer support. The RU-vidr has owned four RED cameras over the past two years, and has had multiple issues with each one. They have also had inconsistent experiences with RED customer support, with some issues being resolved quickly and others taking months to fix. The RU-vidr's main complaints about RED cameras are that they are unreliable and expensive. They have had issues with cameras shutting down in the middle of shoots, batteries not communicating with the camera, and scratch mics not working. The RU-vidr also feels that RED customer support is not always reliable, and that they have sometimes been treated unfairly. Despite these issues, the RU-vidr does say that RED cameras produce great image quality and that they enjoy the modularity of the RED ecosystem. However, they ultimately feel that the reliability and customer support issues are too much to deal with, and they are no longer using RED cameras for professional work. Here are some of the specific things the RU-vidr mentions in the video: They have owned four RED cameras: a Scarlet, a Komodo, a Dragon 6K, and a Monstro. They have had issues with all four cameras, including cameras shutting down, batteries not communicating with the camera, and scratch mics not working. Their best experience with RED customer support was when they had an issue with their Komodo and it was fixed within a week. Their worst experience with RED customer support was when they had an issue with their Dragon 6K and it took months to fix. They no longer use RED cameras for professional work because they are not reliable enough. They still own their Monstro and use it for personal projects and RU-vid videos. I hope this summary is helpful!

I owned two Reds and never had a problem with their customer service. I'm sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience. I now have an Arri Alexa Mini, which is a fantastic camera. It has been one of the most straightforward cameras I've ever used. Once you set your settings, it feels like you can just shoot and focus on your content rather than the camera. I've also never had an issue with Arri or their customer service, although I'm sure others have. I would recommend at least trying to rent one for a weekend and taking it out to see how you like it.

I definately feel your frustration. I would never wanna go what you went through. I'm very anxious about my Komodo breaking down because I also have a similar issue which i have been ignoring for quite a while. My issue is that the BP red batteries sometimes are not recognized and i get ''not approved'' message. and if I push it up and down a little bit on the pins the error goes away. It's very frustrating and im dreading the moment when it's stop working entirely.. my warranty from CVP expired 6 days ago :( . But I know understand why people go out and buy FX9 or FX6

I've heard so many horror stories with RED, far more than there should be for a premium camera manufacture. Blackmagic have a reputation for being cheaply made but honestly I've used pocket cameras around the world for the past 5 years or so and have never had an issue, outside of me dropping one once on concrete! Same goes for Sony and Canon, you shouldn't expect to camera to break anywhere near as much as you've had them break and if they do they should be repaired in a few days!

This is why I shoot on canon cinema cams - they are just reliable, solid workhorse cameras.

Hi It is great that you put this video out...maybe it would stop some of us getting the me from the second "best" pro camera in the market after Arri. I think with any Panasonic G, S line you would have been better served S1H for sure,S5 is more consumer and Sony FX line is pretty solid as well with ok consumer support. I had a Brocken servo of Pana S line lens and it covered it up even the sending and give me a new lens in exchanges du to EU guarantee law Wich is 2 years. FX3 Ninja V combo shooting Proresraw raw you could have a comparable DR to red ok just 4 K but amazing low light capabilities...and for fraction of a Red and with working AF😊😊😊😊 Pana S5iiX or maybe next S1H could do all what you need and is pretty reliable...

My red Komodo is not turning on, and is no longer under warranty. I have sent it for diagnosis I am expecting the worse now 😢

Chance bringing the denseness regarding RED! Great video!

Im interested in the what you 3rd party power was using, you can clone drives ISO dats ssd using disk Drill app btw.

I have to say, that you went from 6 problems, to three, and the major issue it seems was communication and response time. So I know you were upset for sometime about this. Let’s remember Red is small company. It is not an international company like Sony, Canon, Panasonic and Arri. So their R&D and support infrastructure will be limited in comparison. You have to research and manage your expectations when you invest into a person, place or thing. Now all that being said, Red operates like many shrewd businesses. Instead of doing a recall they prefer to charge for a repair/replacement and upsell the next model to you. Look at Canon with their cripple hammer and now Sony with adding new features (firmware) to lower tier products and ignoring their flagship cameras. These are business tactics that inly benefit their company. When its your company you make the rules. If RED charges $500 to replace a board. Its because it benefits them. Things like prepaid shipping is not provided by most companies. For the same reason. Its always a case by case scenario to me. You choose to play ball or not. Its a learning experience overall between your relationship with each company. Professionals *rely on consistency of a product and pro level support. I think that is worth considering if you plan to stay in the Red ecosystem. What your video showed me was that their cameras are not consistent, and reliable hardware wise. So much so, that buying a used Red without a warranty might not be worth the risk in the long run. And you add the lack of authorized repair centers, and proprietary parts. And now you have an issue with reliability overall. As far as how long they held your Monstro, something tells me, if you paid the repair sooner, it might have been fixed and sent back sooner. But the details are unclear. In the end take all aspects into account, so you can get the best ROI, while managing yours and your clients expectations moving forward. Because we all can feel your pain, and empathize with losing money, and a lack of a working tool or clear communication. I hope this does not happen again, or if it does, you are better prepared for it.

If this is all they did to you, you got off a lot lighter than we did.

After a while, the problem becomes you… How long are you gonna put up with this shit? You said it yourself, Sony has never failed you. I understand the look of the red and I’ve used the Komodo once and it’s an amazing looking camera. But what good is a great looking camera if it doesn’t work half the time? How much longer are you gonna stick with red? I would have dropped them like a hot potato long long time ago. I’ve owned Sony cameras all over the place and they’ve never ever ever failed me not even once. Sony makes some great cameras. You could’ve bought the Burano and and not had any of these problems or even the A7S3… yes red does have the more film like look… But again the greatest airplane in the world. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. Get rid of red permanently! I would’ve gotten a lawyer by now and sued them.

That's what you get when you purchase the cheapest gear possible on eBay from non-reputable dealers. you only have yourself to blame.

The second you used the word ecosystem I lost complete trust in every word 😂😂😂

It's wild how different experiences can be. I've had nothing but great experiences with their support. Very minimal issues with their cameras and I've used them for 7 years or so at this point. You've had the absolute worst luck of anyone I've heard of with the reliability of the cameras. It's really upsetting when you pay a lot of money for something, so i don't think you're being dramatic. That being said, I don't believe that they were being malicious. I've had similar annoyances with not being told details of repairs from both apple and canon. Most companies have pretty strict policies with what they can and can't share for various reasons. It sounds like the root issue is some serious incompetence by the specific support rep and/or tech.

I have an almost identical experience with one of my Dragon cameras. Having used Reds on and off since 2009 I can confidently say they are the most unreliable camera on the market. They produce stunning images and recode raw is a sensational codec. Though, the build quality of the cameras and their accessories is a joke. Every Red I have owned and used had problems, the redmags fail, the red pro touch screens fail, the lens mounts fail, the cooling fans fail, every SDI, HDMI, cntrl, TC and USB connections fail. They are an awful investment and embarrassing to put my name to when on a shoot. I gave up 2 years ago and have no interest in using Red ever again now that they sold out to Nikon.

RED is a boutique company and you need to do your research before buying a Ferrari or Aston Martin. Many creators have moved from Sony to Red when the KX was released.

Yeesh. I was debating between getting a Komodo-X or a used Sony Venice in the new year. The absolute horror stories I've heard from people about RED Support has been more than enough to sway me to pick up the Venice. I've had multiple experiences with Sony Support and they've been more than accommodating for my needs. Great video! You did a good thing by bringing your experience to the masses.

I've shot with RED twice since they have existed. Both times, RED Hollywood had to drive me out new cameras to replace the broken REDs. My take is that they make great sensors, the codec and file wrapper is excellent and the cameras make great images. Other than that I dislike everything about them. The black shading, the unreliability, the bafflingly bad ergonomics with some bodies and monitors. I've had much better luck and reliability with Canon, Sony and Fuji. I will never own a RED and I would never want to. To me, they are the Adobe Premiere of cameras, you have to be a masochist use the product.

I'm certainly no defender of Red - but some of their pricing isn't really out of the range for repair pricing from my experience with other cameras.adah I had a Sony FS7 that would not power up. I paid for shipping both ways and the cost was about $2500. I had a Blackmagic Camera lose and SDI port and it cost $275. I have an Arri Amira which fortunately had a warranty when the sensor needed to be replaced - normally $10k. The gear is expensive and the repairs often more so. Most all of the camera companies do have free shipping under warranty, etc. but after that, none of them are very much fun to deal with. But your other point definitely speaks more to the level of professionalism and customer service that different camera companies provide. Of all the major players out there, I'd say Red is the smallest of the bunch. They have always been run as a seat of your pants, shirk the other guys, we are the disrupters, kind of company. My feeling has always been that they make and design really nice equipment, but are built more like a high end sports car. When they work, they work really well, but it can sometimes take some doing to make them work well. Sony, Arri, Canon have all been in business for 100 plus year now. They manufacture other things besides just cameras and have a very well established business infrastructure that allows them to A.) Make better equipment at a higher volume with much higher consistency in quality B.) have fully dedicated teams to focus just on the particular camera C.) RnD departments to develop new tech D.) and the larger business to support that development. Comparatively, Red is a tiny company that just doesn't have the ability to be at the same level with their cameras. If a larger company were to buy Red out, I imagine much of what you have issues with would go away. The move to the new sensor and camera line looks to me that they have begun working on improving their reliability and quality (referring to build, manufacturing). They have somewhat streamlined their offerings too which means it should be easier to manufacture a smaller product line. If they make incremental improvements and keep a consistent line of camera offerings, I am sure they will improve greatly. And hopefully with that, they will be able to improve their customer support as well.

Few years ago I needed to scratch that "itch" of being a Red owner and purchased an old Scarlet Dragon 6k. What a horrible camera to use, black shading all the time was a right pain in the ass. Sold it while it still had some value and moved to Blackmagic. No interest in shooting on Red again. If I ever wanna step up itll be to Arri or Sony.

lol in EU there’s a 6 year consumer law for manufacturer errors. Not sure they’d survive here

Great vid. I completely agree with your conclusions. I avoided RED based completely off what I heard from users. I'm not sure if I've ever talked with anyone who praised the cameras or the company. Always heard pretty bad things. That being said, the sensors are amazing. The color and latitude are so, so good. But, RED is just a shady and dishonest company. After watching the Jinni. Tech vids exposing RED's business practices, I was blown away. I think there's pretty good evidence that they do not make their own sensors even though they claim to do so. The real nail in the coffin though is what you already talked about in your vid. The freaking mags. The prices are so outrageous and its $100 Micron SSD. So dishonest and shady. I can't believe they treated you the way that they did. So disrespectful and infuriating. I hope more people watch this video. More people need to see this.

RED is pretty wack. Though a friend of mine sent a 24-70 to canon that was under warranty and their service was absolutely terrible. ARRI is nice but you pay a bundle for anything from them.

PS-- you’re still shooting on the red? You’re a little delusional. Get rid of it. They’re not the only game in town.

This is such a jarring video to watch after first seeing your glowing review of the Monstro video haha.

To be treated well by RED what you really need is to know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy at RED, and yes it’s a better call Saul reference 😂

does nikon own Red now ? you should contact them

The image is so good, but the camera so bad 🥵 😅 Seriously though, it’s been a nightmare. I’m Chance’s business partner and it’s infuriating when a camera continually breaks on set, especially during mission critical shots! We had a RED go down right as we set it up on the Movi Pro. It took us about 30 minutes putting our heads together and troubleshooting, until it finally worked, barely. The sensors are great, the colors are amazing, but if you want to use them as a professional tool, you better have a good repair budget ready to go, and multiple cameras on hand if you’re doing a paid gig. We usually have to bring the Sonys as backups on every shoot even ones that we were hired to shoot RED. I also love shooting to dual cards on Sony, way better for peace of mind.

Nothing but great experiences with three different Red DSCM2 bodies. So solid. Bummer yours weren't.

I love the colours but I hate their stragey to sell customers overpriced products ….buy Panasonic

I own a Komodo and didn't need support --yet. Only for a couple of screws I lost, for which they charged me $15 and forgot about it during 3 weeks until I remind them. Not very positive. But so far the camera worked like a charm -- it's built like a tank. It's not worst than other cine brands at the very least. To put things in perspective, I know first hand at least of two catastrophic incident on ARRI cameras. But ARRI service was very good.

Sorry for your experience. Red owner of Komodo, Komodo X, Monstro. No issues. Support has always been friendly and helpful. Sounds like there’s a pattern. Buying used Red cameras (or any other high end cameras or gear) on eBay is risky. So many people who have a defect or something to hide will sell their ARRI, Red, Sony gear on ebay and it’s hit and miss. Usually people with high end gear go through a trade in program or sell to a company that resells high end gear. And if there’s a problem, they’ll definitely find it.

All the RED insanity aside, I really love you present and explain. You made this super fascinating to listen to!

I bought my first RED a couple years. I bought a Sony FX6 a few months ago and since then my RED has been gathering dust.

I've never used red .Never wanted one, but know of two people who tried to sell me on Red's, Remember, your buying TRUST not a product.

Commenting so more people can see this video.

Beware of the RED Cult that may go after you for talking bad about the camera. LOL. I had a RED Dragon and two Red Komodos and had nothing but problems with them. I sold them and went with Sony FX6 and FX3, and now I have a deposit on a Burano. This is why nearly the entire film industry moved away from RED to ARRI and now to Sony Venice. Reliability and global service for Sony is the best in the business.

Sorry this has happened to you. I have heard from others REDs not working and wanting tons of money to fix. I have a couple of Panasonic S1H's that are total work horses for years with hundreds of hours filming and thousands of photos taken and never had a problem with either of them. I need reliability and from what others have told me REDs are not reliable. Great sensors but at end of the day they are a camera. You're not the only one. I might rent REDS but will never buy one. The fact that they have a board in them that they know is faulty and then charge the customer to replace it. It's BS and ripping people off.

I've been blessed with my Komodo, the additional Komodo's we've rented as well as the V-Raptors we've rented. My personal Komodo body has been incredibly reliable and I use the heck out of it -- and as you know Chance, I film in tough environments (race tracks where there is intense heat with rubber, dirt, rocks flying all over). I've never had issues with the batteries being hot-swapped. I can't speak to RED's customer support but I can speak to other brands...without calling anyone out, I'll be nice and say that "none of them are perfect."

I would Not own a Red camera..a small niche company If you get down to it..nikon Only paid 85 mil or so for red which is small change for large companies..stick with large companies with good history..Blackmagic has a good reputation, I think Panasonic and sony does also..

After reading your responses to comments i am certain this is just RANT with hyperbola. I am also a DP and no i dont need 6 REd cameras, barely can handle 2.

Truth be told the Hollywood movies and Netflix series shot with Red cameras have on set support from Red with multiple backup cameras. The average DP doesn’t have that luxury.

I've seen a few side by sides of BM 6K vs Red Komodo X and I prefer the color and clarity of the BM over the Komodo. This is why I preordered the Pyxis.

Id get out of red asap of i were you. Unless you have a backup body, they are not reliable for paid jobs

Thanks for sharing your experience, Chance. I own a RED camera and thankfully have only had minor issues, but nothing drastic. I think the fundamental problem lies in buying used camera gear, and especially camera models that are +6 years old. In the digital cinema market, that is considered very old and from a still a young & small company like RED, the quality support just won’t be easily available/received for such older cameras. Have you had a RED certified service center QC your bodies when you first bought them used? That is important when you’re investing in a used body with a high price tag. I also worked at a rental house with its own service center and we used to get clients/customers come in all the time with various issues with their cameras of all brands. These digital cameras are more like computers and have many issues, and the key thing is being patient and respectful to those service center staff. They are people too, and the more you get on their nerves, the less they want to help you. The best way is to get on their good side and be understanding. A 2-month turnaround is not ideal, but 4-6 weeks turnaround for repairs is actually pretty common. Sorry to hear you had to go through this, but just know that there’s never a high guarantee on any camera body and that’s what insurance is for. Also, certain insurances will actually cover for your loss of your camera kit fee while your camera is in repair, just FYI.

I feel the lens connectivity issue is a reoccurring issue because they didn’t build a strong connection for that because most productions that would be using Red are using fully manual cinema lenses with iris and focus pulled wirelessly by a third-party device. The same with the lack of solid audio ports. But them trying to squeeze in fees for parts not broken is pretty messed up. If something is a part that tends to go that should be fixed by them free of charge under a “recall system”

Keep up the good fight Chance. I’m going through a similar situation with Samsung and their SSD’s right now…

I don't get your process..'I'm Chance and I'll shoot your project with a Red camera!'..? Sell yourself not your gear..shooting on red or any camera doesn't make you a good dp..a good dp can shoot on basically any camera..nowadays all cameras have great images..I use Panasonic and Blackmagic but I wouldn't say what type of camera I use unless asked, then I'd say 'either BM or Panasonic, I have both'..

Best to stay away from purchasing GM and buy Toyota #Sony. ;) 25:20 You should have (probably still can) disputed the charges for the repair work on your credit card after getting the camera back citing damages for not having it in a timely manner. :D 31:07 dispute the charges, bro. You have an emial chain for evidence and it caused damages to your business.

I have had good experience with RED however one time my camera glitch with the dates internally and when I put another project on the computer it overwrote the previous project. RED support couldn't recover it but they told me i had to plug it into the wall for 72hours to reset the internal time.

The v-mount batteries you bought can power any cameras you own not just your reds.

Thank you, I was planning to buy one RED this week, based on your video I will never buy one, I still using my old ARRI, Germans has an incredible customer support.

Now Nikon has taken over, I wonder if they will work on the corporate structure and product pipeline in RED to make the customer experience more in line with sony, canon, etc.

Blackmagics “compressed raw” is technically not fully compressed raw like everything about it seems like it is where you can set compression levels and stuff and control things like it’s raw but they did some technical reworking on the backend to workaround Red’s patent on internal compressed raw video recording. They do a partial de-bayer so not working with all the raw data. It’s just them trying to not get sued by Red who goes after everyone with internal raw that’s compressed.

RED is a patent troll. Don’t send them money. Buy Sony, Lumix, BlackMagic or Arri.

I was once told by Red customer service that all companies making RF mount cameras were suffering from the same issues I was having. To which I asked 'What manufacturers other than Canon make cameras with RF mounts?' Still waiting for a response to that one. This was in response to the Red Komodo not functioning properly with RF lenses. It has been mostly fixed via firmware updates at this point. Mostly. But my support experience definitely left something to be desired. My biggest issue is that this is a known issue, but Red does not mention it in the 'List Of Compatible Lenses' list for the Komodo. They just say these lenses are good to go. It is better now but at one point some of these lenses were not usable for run and gun content and I felt like Red was falsely advertising and released a product that did not work properly with it's native mount. Video included. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HmwjmTU6ugg.htmlsi=JOaGld8GH5dRDtUT

Bruh love my monstro and Komodo x was at nab love what’s coming for the future and this coming from Sony

Man, I was about to buy into the ecosystem after months of putting a package together. This video was the final decider. I'm definitely not going red. Thank you for sharing all this. It's very valuable. Sorry for the trouble. You have all the right to be this upset. Kudos to you for taking all the notes and sharing them with others. Thanks for helping me dodge a bullet.

I would sell that monstro too. Liability at this point

The invaluable lesson of this video is: never ever buy a 2nd hand RED camera.

I didn't watch your whole video, but I did watch up to around the 24 minute mark. All I'd say is sometimes with electronics it's much more cost efficient to replace a number of boards, rather than meticulously go through each board and fault check every single one. You're talking way more than 2 hours of labour to work out which component(s) on multiple complex PCBS are faulty. Also, they might not have the workshop hours available to facilitate such a deep diagnosis. The repair they offered is the repair they offered..

I’d love to see RED try and correct this, if they do please do a follow up else for now I will defo treat RED with more skepticism.

Lost out on a Red Komodo on EBay, so I picked up a Zcam that I’m delighted with. This makes me feel not so bad.

And this is why RED almost went bankrupt and sold to Nikon

Red support has been so awesome and kind to me personally. But to each his own

I shot 11 shorts and numerous music videos over 3 years with my BMPCC 4k. Zero problems. Moved to a panasonic s1h a year ago, and have been shooting a feature with it since then. In all kinds of environments. Zero issues. To spend the kind of money you spend on a RED to have these kindsbif issues, is unacceptable.

Thank you very much for sharing your experience, for those of us who work independently this type of information is very important, we are making high-risk investments all the time, Today I understood that if I invest in a Network it is for my experimental RU-vid channel with few subscribers, and with a lot of luck I will be able to shoot many clips and documents for non-profit purposes, until it completely breaks down, :D :D :D, just for fun It is one of the best advertisements I have seen for using RED ;D 🔥🔥🔥

This is fair. My Komodo has failed twice in 3 years. Lost out on shooting days and time. I was out of luck. The 12g sdi on a camera screwed out users so they make record profits. No professional camera has failed as much. My background - big tv. 14hrs a day for years. Never saw Panavision, Arri, or Sony fail as much. And if those fail rental house it replaced asap.

thanks bro, you've convinced me to not get a RED camera.... I'll stay with Sony

dsmc 2 aka old camera stop whining reds are expensive

Not being able to disclose email information within a customer support instance seems kinda weird to me. I wonder if that would even hold up in court.

LuL i bought a gemini for fun but now iam thinking about selling it again🙈

Arri all day

As someone who *WAS* interested in RED, thank you for posting this!

Commenting so this gets more views

Can allegedly confirm (oh shit don't sue me). Shady company. Embarrassing hype advertising with so many fanboi's that i don't want to be associated. Everyone i know has had to fix their cameras. Built in "user error" failure points so they can charge for repairs (who really needs 12g SDI on the komodo...?). The DSMC2 cameras were great cameras from a size and image perspective and yes at the time a #change-gamer but with a bunch of issues to overcome. New DSMC3 line sucks in the market now IMO and the image is not nice for a cinema camera unless you work really hard to create a look with lenses and filters. Red makes fashion accessories at this point. Buy 4 FX6's and shoot till you drop. All of the above is fictional information :).

You can get the same quality image with the FX3. The raptor doesn't even have internal ND filters.

RED is only popular because of MKBHD & Peter McKinnon. Everyone hates that brand, but it gets insane promotion on RU-vid.

The dsmc 1 don’t have scratch mics

Very interesting video, I’m quite scared my dsmc1 red might fail in the future 🥲