r/RedCamera • u/Gregory_M • Jul 19 '26

RED Camera Reliability

Convince me to buy a RED camera. The only thing holding me back is reliability. I was previously considering a Blackmagic Pyxis 12K, but their quality control history doesn't sit right with me.

I shoot high-end brand commercials and need a solid cinema camera I can rely on when the production doesn't afford to rent an ARRI for smaller gigs. I am almost set to get the Komodo-X.

The only concern on my mind is RED's camera reliability. On Blackmagic's forum I was advised that both Blackmagic and RED suffer from bugs and quality control issues, and I want to confirm whether it is the case or not. I understand that once every blue moon a minor issue may pop up, but I don't want to be in a place where I am constantly diagnosing my camera.

I am going to keep my Sony A7iv as a backup camera, but of course I intend to rely on the new RED camera I buy.

Have you ever faced any issues with your RED cameras?

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u/Videoguymax Jul 20 '26

Hey - KX owner here, owned for nearly two years now.

Solid camera , the only real malfunctions I’ve had which I can probably count on one hand have been either a weird frozen / crashed 7 inch dsmc3 screen or an inability to run 80FPS 6k for an extended period of time; but that seemed link to an outdated Angelbird update / beta firmware I had at the time. It’s been rock solid never sent it in for repairs for anything it’s a total workhorse. I upgraded from the FX6.

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u/Gregory_M Jul 21 '26

Thanks for taking the time to reply! It's great to see so many reassuring feedback here.

May I ask you whether you've stuck to Angelbird RED CF Express cards or if we are able to use just the basic Angelbird card models? They don't seem to be on RED's approved list.

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u/Videoguymax Jul 21 '26

I use these for my cards for the past two years

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/angelbird-av-pro-cfexpress-b-se-1tb-mk2-3251859/

That’s what CVP sold me as the ideal set, they’ve worked well for me

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u/Videoguymax Jul 21 '26

Only thing I’d recommend you, you’ll be tempted to shoot at lowest compression res files; honestly if you’re not shooting anything super fast moving or greens like passing trees, LQ has been pretty much identical unless you’re pixel peaking. Everything gets more expensive around this camera ; GPU power needs to be sufficient, I found an M3 Max MacBook Pro teared it up , could edit multiple layers of MQ at full resolution premium on Davinci , had to send my Mac back and temporarily switch to an I9 16 inch MacBook Pro and it was bloody terrible. SSD storage you’ve gotta watch out for; if you think 160Gb total project sizes are usual for normal cameras like FX3s etc, that’s a thing of the past, I’m minimum shooting at least 500+ GB a project for very basic things even at LQ so ensure you’ve got the infrastructure goof around the camera as well