Matthews Studio Equipment has recently started building more products for indy filmmakers such as the Red Dolly, and added to their arsenal with the launch of Microgrip. It's a system of grip heads that are the size of a silver dollar, and arms/attachments for all. They are great to replace Noga arms or for tabletop lighting, etc. The basic kit starts at around $80, and you can purchase attachments seperately.
As an editor, I've always wanted to switch to a RAID drive system. But at a base price of $6500 or so, that just wasn't going to happen...until now. A small company out of Brea California called CineRAID showed off their affordable RAID systems, which definitely sold me. The system comes with the RAID card, which works with both PC and MAC. They produce the cards, which are resold to many other RAID resellers, which allows them to offer a much lower price. Their 4TB system sells for $1299 including the card, and they can create any size system. Each system is simple to set up, and comes pre-formatted so you don't have to be on the Geek Squad to set it up.
RED announced that Phase 2 of the Epic launch has begun. Now deposits are being taken from Red owners, and cameras are thought to begin shipping late this year. $5000 will get you on the list to receive your Epic....when they make them. This is great news for microfilmmakers because it means we are getting that much closer to the Scarlet! (or so we hope!)
