There’s been coverage all over the web today about the announcement from RED guru Jim Jannard that RED has scrapped the plans for the still not shipping and still not taking pre-orders $3,000 3K handheld camera know as Scarlet. So why not have some more! I know there’s quite a few people who shed a tear at the news as they were counting on that camera to make them a better filmmaker. We can all look at recent announcements from Nikon and Canon and the addition of HD video shooting to their DSLR cameras, and even ponder RED’s other somewhat announced DSLR-killer, and try to read something into the death of Scarlet and what it might mean for whatever comes along in its wake. But why even try? I certainly don’t have any idea … I’m an editor! So why even mention this development at all? No matter what your opinion on the RED hype machine, the multiple product announcements and aluminum prototypes behind glass, the drolling fanboys who gush creamy praise at every Jannard post on Reduser, the changing specs and ship dates or the second-class attention RED has given to the post-production of their product, you have to really admire a company (and a RED leader) that can instantly change the direction and focus of a good chunk of their product line with one swift Internet post. Yea … Scarlet wasn’t shipping (or even taking orders for that matter) and it has only been seen in the general public behind a display case and via computer renders but there has to have been a lot of R&D time and dollars spent on the camera thus far. And don’t forget they have invested enormous amounts of energy in generating that buzz that RED has become so famous for only to have it all change in an instant. Who knows if the Scarlet replacement will even be called Scarlet? Can you imagine Canon or JVC or Sony announcing a new camera only to take the product in a whole other direction after nearly a year of debate and speculation?  It would never happen. RED is a much smaller and much different company that any of those three beasts and they have a lot more people to answer to than just one CEO but it’s also the culture of a companies like Sony which would never let that happen. They would just go on to release a hobbled camera that was out of date in the market the day it shipped. Apple used to be a company that might do something like that but not any more. I can’t wait to see what RED will pull out of the hat as they develop this new Scarlet. It’s exciting to have a camera maker like this out there shaking things up. If only there was someone doing it in post-production …