After almost a year in development, CINELUX’s NEXA-MAGs will be entering a pre-launch phase on Thursday 20th March 5pm GMT. The NEXA-MAG is claimed to be a reliable replacement media solution for DSMC2 and DSMC1 cameras.
If you own an older RED DSMC2 or DSMC1 camera and have been looking for more media, this might be a good option. They will be available in capacities of 480GB and 960GB.
With REDMAG and MINI-MAG SSDs having a limited lifespan, CINELUX wanted to create a solution to help keep these cameras alive. With so many older RED cameras still being used, and the lack of RED support for older DSMC2 and DSMC1 models, a solution like this makes sense. With RED having moved onto non-proprietary media, I don’t think they care too much if someone starts making media for cameras that have long since been discontinued.
You can actually still purchase a RED DIGITAL CINEMA RED MINI-MAG (480GB) for $1,450 USD on B&H, but you can no longer buy the 960GB version.
Reverse Engineering a RED MINI-MAG
Part of the process of developing the CINEMAG was getting the internal PCB inside all RED MINI-MAGs reverse-engineered.
To do this, multiple PCBs were sent off to a specialist company that could accurately reverse-engineer them by grinding down the MINI-MAG PCBs layer by layer to figure out exactly how everything was laid out. Each layer was carefully removed with a CNC machine to trace the exact paths and connections.
These 1mm-thick PCBs might look simple at first, but once you break them down, you realize just how much is packed into them. Every SMD component was also tested to identify the exact values and types, so a perfect replacement PCB can be manufactured.
To the best of my knowledge, RED never officially allowed anyone else to make or sell REDMAG and MINI-MAG SSDs.
A company called Jinni Tech started making its own JinniMags, which were lower-cost media for RED cameras. Jinni Tech claimed that their JinniMags have faster write speeds than the RED MINI-MAG.
The JinniMags were sold in a variety of capacities.
After threats of legal action, Jinni Tech posted a series of YouTube videos where he opened up a RED Mini-Mag and then proceeded to claim the price RED was charging was highly inflated.
Despite the JinniMag website still being operational, if you go to the store page, it says that the store is closed for maintenance. Jinni Tech is very careful to clearly mention on its website that they have never been affiliated with RED.com LLC or RED® Digital Cinema Camera at any stage. JinniMag® is designed and presented as a third-party compatible accessory replacement for the original ones. Jinni Tech Ltd. respects other parties’ IPs and trademarks.
Back in mid-2019, RED dropped the prices of its media after the whole JinniMag controversy.
During the pre-launch phase, the drives will be 30% off, and they will be shipped in mid-May.
Further details, and a full product page, will be available on Thursday 20th March at www.cinelux.co.uk
Who is CINELUX?
Cinelux is run by David Morgan Jones and it is currently a single-person operation based in the UK. David’s personal background in filmmaking has been, and continues to be working as a camera operator on smaller but high-quality productions.
This is his biggest source of inspiration for product ideas, as there are so many constraints when you are working on these types of productions. You always want to achieve the highest quality results but you have limited resources and time to do so.
You learn quickly that the effectiveness of anything you use is crucial to achieving that. After every shoot he does, David always makes notes of what would have made that shoot better and he researches solutions. This usually results in swapping, renting, or buying new equipment to try out and see if it improves the quality of the next shoot.
But certain solutions either don’t exist, are implemented poorly, or are simply too costly to purchase and that’s a big part of why he created Cinelux.
