I am tired of all this doom and gloom crap. I want to hear more stories of american ingenuity, entrepreneurship and plain old hard work.
We all know about Erik and the 200 against the hordes of the orient.
and congrats to our very own hexangler for being able to move forward with his patents.
Here a story from my line of work:
You all have heard the stereotype that the japanese are way ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to electronics. Here is something that goes against that assumption.
The past few years I have been going to NAB (http://www.nabshow.com/) It is the yearly showcase for all TV/Film/Radio gear. Everybody is there. The big boys (Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon, Fuginon, Arri, Angénieux etc) have massive booths. If you don't know these industry titans are japanese and european. At NAB 2006 a small U.S. company calling themselves "RED" said they would be delivering a SUPER DUPER camera. It would blow away everything else and be a great deal cheaper. Only a handful of people halfway believed in them. They started delivering on their promises shortly after that.
This year at NAB I was on a mission to buy some more cams for our shop. I met with all the big boys again. They still are struggling to compete with this little american company. This year JVC IMHO has gotten the closest to a RED cam. I saw a prototype cam @ the show. No estimation on delivery of a production model and still more expensive than the red. This year RED announced it is in the lens business in a big way. I was going to buy a set of canon lens for 130k, but now I am proud to say I will be getting a far superior set of RED lens for 19k. It was kinda fun seeing the camera and lens manufactures squirm.
Competition is great for everyone, but it is especially sweet we a small group of hard working folks can muster up that gold old american ingenuity and entrepreneurship to blow the doors of the rest of the world.
Recently they have made more announcements for every more mind blowing cameras that are being developed. One of which is 261 mega pixel digital cinema camera. 261MP @ 30 frames per second.
The top RED execs have titles like "Leader of the Rebellion" and "Madman"
Barker, I have been eyeing the RED gear for a while now myself. My father freelances in the same biz as you and he has been unyielding in his support for this company.
I do agree completely... the right gear in the right hands transforms everyday life into art. Brilliant work with a fantastic design.
Give him my regards. As a US Marine, I know how hard it was or still is to get support for his type of work for both historical and creative values it brings from the DOD.
Barker, you have my dream job and your coworker my minds eye. I look forward to seeing many more choice pieces from both of you.