J,
RED is not overpriced. agreed.
Sony Pro is not overpriced. agreed.
Sony low-end/entry level documentary eg. FS5 is now at $5K and no one can talk about overpriced at $5K.
Sony FS7 is selling well.
The Sony A series are not making low-end users happy, because as you state the codecs and above all reliability aren't there and ergonomics are a nightmare. Of course, those who already own an Odyssey or Shogun or Pix bypass the internal codecs and an use the recorder as a viewfinder. I think every serious crew shooter now owns one of these.
Canon are a different story. I believe -probably wrongly- that until full dual-pixel AF and 4K is enabled on Canon's low-end the bleeding to Sony of single-shooters will continue - these are core features now.
Let me be blunter: I expect the C300II price to fall in due course to $5.5K +Canon 30% premium, because it is in effect a direct competitor to the Sony FS5. This is a price war, and Sony has set not only the price but the features point with 4K, built-in automatic gradual filter, and raw output to the Odyssey which can also do ProRes. The C100 pricing has become a joke, it is the C300 which has the features which the market now expects.
As regards your accessory VF - obviously it's a neat idea. I'm surprised some sort of EVF accessory is not already on Canon's product list.
Edmund
I don't think your correct on this, in fact I think your not really understanding the change in the market over the last few years.
I don't think that RED or Arri and the high end Sony F65/F55 try to overprice their cameras for status. They are in the serious movie making business where glitches just can not happen without horrible consequences.
In fact RED brought the price of serious cameras into the everyman range and rocked the industry, when you look back at the cost of 35mm film cameras and moved sony's high end eng cameras down to competitive pricing and changed their format and pricing strategy, especially the F55 which is under $30,000 (body only).
Without RED Sony would probably be selling the F55 for twice the price.
Now Canon seems to be caught out a little. Their cameras produce beautiful color, heck my 1dx in HD shoots really pleasing, easy to grade color, but since Canon just dropped the price of the 4k C300 II by $4,000 obviously Sony has moved the market price down for cameras in these lower specs and feature motion cameras.
Whether you shoot a Sony A7sII or an Arri motion work is much different than stills in the fact that two bad seconds in the middle of a take can't be cut out. In fact I think Sony really needs to up their A mount game as the lenses are tremendous and for our work the A7sII is just not robust enough in codec, bit rate that holds up in grading.
Sony needs a Canon 1dxII competitor and the new Canon will probably be the next camera I purchase. From all reports even at 8 bits it's high bit rate and the ability to quickly go from stills to motion makes it a very verseatile camera, especially for fast lifestyle imagery and motion autofocus for lifestyle is an amazing addition when working quickly.
What Canon should have offered is a clip on evf to the 1dxII, kind of like the small olympus cameras that you can add a higher def evf on the hotshoe and shoot low like a waist level finder or straight on.
But I don't think any of us know what the profit ratio is on a camera (except the makers).
IMO
BC