RED Promises to “Clear the Air” After Nikon Acquisition Announcement
In what might already be the biggest film and video industry news of 2024 (and despite tons of AI advancements already out and more undoubtedly to come), Nikon’s acquisition of RED Digital Cinema is truly ground-shattering. It’s perhaps the biggest camera manufacturer shake-up we’ve ever seen, yet it has revealed pretty much nothing about what might change for the two brands in the future.
Despite lots of speculation, we haven’t gotten much info from either side so far. That is until RED Digital Cinema just released an update on their social channels that provides a promise to “clear the air,” and reaffirm that they plan to “remain fully committed to our products.”
RED Digital Cinema Clears the Air
In a short 11-second video shared to their social channels like Instagram and X on Friday, March 22nd, RED Digital Cinema has released its first major statement since the news broke of Nikon’s acquisition of their company.
Here’s what it reads in its entirety:
We figured we’d clear the air. We’re excited about the future and remain fully committed to our products, the RED brand, our team, and our customers. There are no changes to product support, warranties, or policies. Keep Creating.
Not a lot to sift through here, but some key points seem worth reviewing a bit more.
RED Promises “No Changes”
At first glance, this is a pretty encouraging notice shared by RED. It promises to clear the air and address what are some of the biggest concerns of RED users. They let us know that they’re excited about the future and planning to remain fully committed to their products, team, and customers.
This seems to lend itself to sounding like they’re saying that there will be no cameras will be discontinued, there will be no layoffs, and that customers will still have the full support of RED, at least for support, warranties, and policies.
What RED Has NOT Said Yet
What this statement from RED Digital Cinema does not say or confirm yet is what RED’s future will be with Nikon. This is a bold statement at least for its commitment to the RED team, which could mean that jobs are safe and that RED will still operate autonomously for some time.
However, we still don’t know how long this might last and to what degree RED will be integrated into Nikon. Are we going to see new RED cameras in the future? Or will RED technology slowly begin to creep into Nikon cameras as many of us have perhaps speculated?
There’s still a lot to be seen here, but with this first message from RED being largely positive and open, it’s a good sign that RED isn’t going to be taking the money and disappearing off the map, instead, it sounds like RED will be around a bit longer and possibly be more open about their transition into part of the Nikon brand.