I admit it. I don’t always attend NAB, the big digital/broadcast/gear get together in Vegas every year. Like Apple and Avid, who both dropped out of the show this year, I’m finally finding that the amount of information I can grab online matches what I get out of actually going to the show in person.

That said, there have been some interesting developments at NAB this week. Most notably, for me, is the introduction of RED’s new products: the Epic, Scarlett, and some sort of media player thingamabob.

Like a lot of video shops, we’ve been waiting on delivery of our very own RED ONE camera for quite some time. The ONE is a very revolutionary camera, and we decided it was something we needed to jump on. But now, even before our camera is ready to ship there’s a new and better RED camera system announcement. Whereas the ONE has 4K recording, the EPIC has 5K. Whereas the ONE has tiny weird little mini-XLRs for audio input, EPIC has full-sized XLRs.  The sensor in the EPIC kicks the ONE’s butt. And the biggest difference to me: the ONE is pretty heavy. The EPIC is 30% lighter in weight.

Of course, the EPIC costs twice the price of a ONE.

RED’s being pretty cool about things, though. If you own a ONE, you can turn that in for $17,500 in credit towards an EPIC. What other camera companies would even consider doing this?

So, the question quickly becomes: does one forgo getting a ONE and wait for EPIC, renting a ONE in the meantime as needed? Or does one suck it up, buy the ONE and figure on a later “trade in” if the EPIC becomes RED’s new main product?

The decision shouldn’t be a light or emotional one. Many numbers ought to be crunched in many spreadsheets. The bottom line for us and any other video shop is: will the ONE now pay for itself and the accessories to support it before it must be upgraded to an EPIC?

Part of our decision hinges upon RED: will they support the ONE indefinitely? For a lot of us, the 4K images are, quite frankly, way more than enough for the foreseeable future as long as RED continues to support the camera and offer software improvements.