Still Anticipating a Spring Shipdate for the Camera

In response to the growing anticipation of the release of the Red Digital Cinema Camera, the Red team announced that it will offer another opportunity make a reservation for the camera from January 21-24. Red had stopped taking reservation in Oct. 2006 with close to 1,100 reservations according to Ted Schilowitz of Red. The same reservation agreement applies with a $1,000 refundable deposit required.
The first Red cameras are expected to start shipping sometime in the spring.

Schilowitz was quick to point out that despite the numerous rumors and accusations by detractors regarding release dates Red has met all of its development targets.

“We’ve never had a hard ship date,” Schilowitz notes. “There’s all kind of talk about this product, everyone wants to add to the speculation. The only thing that we discussed is that we have engineering targets that are working towards having the cameras in the first half of this year. That is still on schedule. We had the target of the end of 2006 to have machine bodies made and working prototypes and we pretty much hit those dates. So now the first generation prototypes are proceeding with all the electronics and all the DSP and everything necessary to turn this camera into what it will be in its final form factor. So that’s pretty much on schedule. Certainly by the springtime we expect to have people using these cameras and products shipping out the door, along with the 300mm prime lens. The zoom will come a few months after that.”

As an interesting look back, read the interview with Red president Jim Jannard on the eve of NAB 2006 here.