Sad but true.
Still the C300 is selling like crazy, & it seems Canon is about to announce more cinema cameras, one likely dSLR-style, & another much more expensive model.
Yea, I read that Sony is laying off, mostly because their televsion set business has lost money for years (also they took a large right down on their income for taxes).
For a while Sony and others counted on 3d, now they are counting on 4k tv's but I don't know what cable system or netwwork is going to adopt it. Sony doesn't make a lot of components for their set top boxes anyway, so they're is more issues at play than Sony making good product.
As far as the Canon c-300 selling, I guess so, especially from one large retailer in that specializes in Canon., but I don't really understand what impact that camera has on people like us. I'm not 100% sold on 4k footage, but I am sold on any camera that can shoot pretty and be 100% reliable and fast.
I do know with a few more options including a lower price, maybe a more robust or raw file I'd have given it a harder look. I aso know the 5d3 will sell a billion more cameras than the C-300 and if it really would track focus . . . they'd probably sell a few trillion more cameras.
Anyway, Sony's troubles (and I'm sad about them laying people off), could be good for our industry as all corporate earnings are down this month, mostly because companies can no longer make money in cutting costs, now they have to produce revolutionary product or at least damn good evolutionary product, hopefuly better advertising and every segment of every market must be taken seriously. In other words in the "new economy" you buy a camera almost because you have to . . . not because you just want to.
I still think the new Sony fs700 will be a hard camera to beat as long as they get it right and get it solid and whatever Canon does is fine with me. I hope it's also good, but if it gets past the cost of a Scarlet, it's off the table. If it's more reliable and Sony get's their message out . . . really gets it out and some famous director or producer uses one for a big time movie, they sell even more.
I think the market just can't sustain half a dozen manufacturer's making $20,000 or $30,000 cameras that are slow off the mark without everything available. At least not to the photographer that is "adding" motion imagery. It's more than cameras and lenses and tripods and computers and learning curve. It's other heavy hard costs like continuous lighting, different crew, sometimes larger crew and more importantly working in a way that takes a lot of very, very, very well managed pre production.
In fact I'm a little amazed that Canon or Sony or someone with deep pockets hasn't bought a bunch of 3rd party companies like Zaguto and made it a one stop all place to buy everything you need. See RED for reference.
I look at this cameras in two ways. First as a tool to use in my profession, which trumps everything. If they cost a lot, add crew, make life more difficult then they are not really a step forward.
I love the R-1's, not because they're raw, or because they're big, but because for me they're damn reliable (looking for some wood to knock on) and shoot pretty. Now the FS100 I find almost as good and for fast quick movement you can do things with them that would have taken a large team and a lot of equipment to pull off. The Scarlet . . . it scares the s&^t out of me. I've downloaded firmwares, read the manual a dozen times, (and I've never read a camera manual before in my life), shot 4 dozen tests, used them in big production and I still can't tell you that I'm 100% sure everything on the scarlet is 100% there. It always feels a little beta to me.
Maybe I'll postpone Von's trip to Canon Ranch or take a Ride in the RED Team van and get a lesson. (Von can you teach the Scarlet from the back of a van?
I also see these cameras in a way few of us want to admit. When you spend thousands, or multiple thousands of dollars you want to enjoy yourself and have fun. I know, fun is a word in short demand lately, but buying new shiny stuff is fun because if it wasn't we'd all drive a small white van with tiny cloth seats.
I just came out of a meeting yesterday with clients and we talked concept, delivery, script, schedule and everyone was very businesslike and serious until I said, "hey, no matter what, let's make this big fun."
Then everyone smiled because let's face it fun is fun.
To me since Sony has excellent autofocus and real professional xlr inputs for sound, now they need a simpler menu, a real post processing suite for dailies and most of all affordable fast lenses that work in auto and manual focus that don't cost 12 grand a pop. Some of that let's you shoot with fun.
I don't care if those e-mount lenses feel lightweight or weigh 5 lbs, but they need to be out there now . . . right now . . . oh yea . . . and be shiny and fun.
IMO
BC