A little company named JinniMag is causing RED to sweat. JinniMag uploaded a compelling video stripping down a $1,850 RED Mini-Mag showing that it’s just a consumer-based off the shelf SSD which is worth no more than $250. Why are RED users pay ten times more?

Nothing against RED

It all started in 2016, when a small company named JinniMag, manufactured a much cheaper and affordable SSDs to use within the RED cameras. According to JinniMag, it was (and still is) 100% RED Mini-Mag compatible. The slogan of JinniMag is: “Affordable Media for RED Digital Cinema Camera.”

I don’t think there are one filmmaker and especially RED user that will deny the fact that RED Mini Mags are an ultra-expensive piece of essential accessory to the RED camera. The question is, why is it so expensive?

First and foremost, let me emphasize that this is not an article against RED. You must (yes…MUST) watch the video below titled as “RED MINI-MAG – Things you only thought you knew” because it will enlighten you a lot of stuff regarding an essential accessory of the RED camera.

Behind this 18 minutes long video, there is a 3-years history of lawsuits and accusations, between RED Digital Cinema and JinniMag, the company that made this video.

RED vs. JinniMag | JinniMag vs. RED

RED sued the company for patent infringement, and right after, JinniMag sued RED for false accusations and slander. Moving three years forward, RED withdrew their lawsuit. However, the JinniMag lawsuit against RED is still going on. Anyway, we are not going to dive deep into the legal details of both lawsuits, as we are filmmakers and not lawyers.

In the video, you will explore what’s inside the RED Mini-Mag, and you will see that the ultra-expensive RED Mini-Mag is made from nothing than a consumer-based off the shelf SSD that costs no more than $250.

Watch the video down below:

It’s important to mention that the video indeed shows a cheap consumer based off the shelf SSD recognize by the RED camera, but the video doesn’t demonstrate any media being recorded. Furthermore, RED has updated its info regarding price and capacity of the 480GB Mini-Mag.

As for the price… as I said previously, yes, RED MAGS are expensive. The millions of dollars of R&D around media recording, the testing, the support for issues and firmware updates, etc., along with the hours of no charge media recovery we do every single day for customers needs to be paid somehow. That get’s rolled into the cards, and that’s why they are so expensive Jarred Land, RED President

Many of RED shooters were pissed off by this video, which made them feel cheated by RED. However, RED president, Jarred Land posted some logical explanation for this overpriced piece of simple (and cheap) hardware. Let’s summaries the critical points of RED’s clarification:

RED’s clarifications

RED never claimed to make its media. RED never claimed all parts of the media were made in the United States. RED make their firmware to write to the media. The RED patent covers encoding and decoding REDCODE to media. RED embraces third party solution that even compete with their products. RED can’t take responsibility for unauthorized malfunctioned media. RED admits that RED MAGS are expensive. RED invests millions of dollars of R&D around media recording, testing firmware update and support.

As stated by Jarred Land as a response to JinniMag’s video: “As for the price… as I said previously, yes, RED MAGS are expensive. The millions of dollars of R&D around media recording, the testing, the support for issues and firmware updates, etc., along with the hours of no charge media recovery we do every single day for customers needs to be paid somehow. That get’s rolled into the cards, and that’s why they are so expensive.

So basically, you’re paying for the support of the media recovery RED does daily, which means you’re paying extra for the warranty of the Mini Mag.

Conclusion

RED Mini Mags are indeed very straightforward and cheap consumer based off the shelf SSDs, with dedicated patented firmware and expensive warranty.

Have you been persuaded to pay that much for a media? Let’s know your insights in the comments section below.