Is it worth buying a RED DSMC2 Cinema Camera in 2020?

Everyone would love to shoot on RED DSMC2 Digital Cinema Cameras just like Martin Scorsese or David Fincher, but is it the right choice for you?

In today’s article we’re talking about whether or not it’s worth buying a RED DSMC2 Cinema Camera in 2020. Most of you will know that film director David Fincher shoots all of his movies on RED. Those movies include hit movies like ZODIAC, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, and TV series like House of Cards and Mindhunter. Or maybe you are a Martin Scorsese fan and love his latest movie, The Irishman, shot on RED and released be Netflix. At Beast video productions we have used a variety of cameras to shoot our TV Commercials and online video content, so we know a thing or two about them. We are going to look and see if you really need a Red Digital Cinema Camera, or if there are any other more affordable alternatives.

Have We Used Red Digital Cameras Before?

We have been shooting on RED digital cinema cameras for about ten years, back when the original Red Epic came out. So we have used them for a while and they’re still the same, the touch screen isn’t very good and the interface is still really bad. But, the thing that has changed is the image quality and it continues to get better and better with every iteration and it’s no exception with the RED DSMC2 Dragon X 5K S35 Cinema Camera (wow that’s a mouthful), which is using the same sensor from the Scarlett W which has been around for a while.

How Much Does A Red DSMC2 Camera Cost?

There’s a few upgrades and we’ll come to that later. There’s just something about that Red camera footage we don’t know what it is and that’s kind of the thing that we want to come back to later in the article. This camera is incredibly expensive, the body is starting at $15,000 and the kit for it is well over $20,000 when you add tax it’s definitely worth it if you can afford the camera and you have justification to use it but for most people shooting on red is just not necessary one camera that we recommend right now is the Nikon z6 with an animist recorder. You can shoot full-frame 4k 10-bit and shoot 4k raw for under $5,000. Compare that to $20,000 and it’s just like you could buy so much more than $15,000 but again there is something to the red image quality and that’s why.

Who Actually Uses Red Camera?

So many big youtubers and content creators choose to shoot on Red cameras. Marques Brownlee better known as Mkbhd shoots on red, not only the Red Dragon X but the 8k Monstro Vista Vision which starts at, body only $54,000. Again these cameras are very expensive and obviously these people are making enough money to afford it and to justify it but we think that’s the main point you can take from this article, if you can’t afford this camera then rent it for your video productions. You may be surprised at how cheap it is to rent give the cost of buying outright.

Made For Hollywood!

On the Red digital cinema camera you could turn on a continuous autofocus system, but if you think the Panasonic gh4 is bad then you should try the Red’s auto focus, it is just awful. It’s not something that you’re going to want to do and cinematographers don’t shoot autofocus they shoot on manual focus lenses, often with a team of people. That’s really what this camera is for. It is for traditional film sets where you have a camera operator, a focus puller and a person running the DIT to look at the footage and manage the media. The RED DSMC2 camera range are true Hollywood cinema cameras and that is kind of why it is so expensive. When you’re shooting a multi-million dollar movie $50,000 for your camera makes plenty of sense and in fact a lot of movies still to this day rent cameras, even though they could buy them outright, but this is just how it works this is how Hollywood works.

What’s The Quality Of  RED DSMC2 IPP2 Footage Like?

The truth is the image quality coming off of Reds cameras is truly amazing and the new DSMC2 body style has the new IPP2 colour space which if you’re not familiar with red cameras, IPP2 is the best colour science that we have ever seen from RED. It’s unbelievable and the fact that this camera has it at this price point is pretty incredible. That’s really what’s so great about Red cameras is the ecosystem of cameras, the flexibility of raw and the power of these cameras can do in terms of resolution and frame rates. Red cameras are able to do a 5k raw at up to 96 frames per second but we were able to go up to 240 frames per second in raw recording which is really amazing. Reds and RTS are really just beasts of cameras that are fun to play with and fun to look at obviously most movies and Netflix shows that you watch are shot on these cameras so when you shoot with these cameras you kind of have that subtle look of Hollywood films and that’s why.

Are There Any Affordable Alternatives To A Red Camera?

Perhaps an alternative to a Red camera is the BLACKMAGIC Pocket Cinema 6K camera for example. It provides that cinematic look with 12 bit colour when shooting in RAW and you can buy the body alone for £2000, which is a fraction of the price of the Red Dragon X 5K S35 kit. Of course the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K hasn’t got as much power as a Red Dragon X camera but it does have the same S35 Sensor size, so its a great option. Again it really comes down to what you value, what you want and whether or not you can afford the thing. A beginner most likely cannot afford $20,000 for a camera but potentially can afford three to four thousand dollars that’s why a lot of people shoot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K or 4K which is probably a more practical camera anyways, before stepping up to RED.

So there you have it, we personally think if you have the money then why not go for a Red camera. If you are a Director or Cinematographer that has plenty of work already then it’s really a no brainer. But bare in mind it might not be all that great for small budget video productions, as we mentioned it’s a Hollywood standard cinema camera with a cinematic feel and price tag. Here at Beast video productions we think that if you can afford it then always go for the best possible option in every aspect of your video productions.

Take a look at this article for some behind the scenes on The Irishman shot on RED