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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Canon Surveys for 5D Mark III
« on: November 08, 2012, 03:10:14 PM »I guess it's Canon sussing out the perception of the competition, but it might give some idea as to the future of the 5D. Make of it what you will.My sense is that people always want more of everything. More features, better quality, greater durability, better sealing, faster speeds, etc. Improving anything requires greater investment by a manufacturer — in employees, research, development, materials, testing, manufacturing, quality controls, etc. — and of course charging accordingly. But when a manufacturer introduces the improvements that people said they wanted, there is inevitably much complaining — even outrage — about the price. "How dare they raise the price!?" It's as if we forget that all of the extra things we ask for actually cost money.
The 5DIII is the perfect example of this. Canon improved and upgraded just about every detail of the 5DII, as per many photographers' requests. Then there was no end to complaints about the price.
Don't completely agree with this. Technology improvements are expected from one revision of a product to another, but it doesn't mean it should increase the price everytime an improvement is made. Look at other manufacturers, like Apple that introduces an ipad almost every year with improvements while keeping the price the same. A more relative example would be the Nikon D700, which had an introduction price of $2999 which is the same as the D800, while Canon increased their price of the 5D3 from the 5D2 about $700!
You're right, not every improvement needs to increase the price. But many do. It just depends on the improvement and how much it adds to production costs. Apple products have much greater sales volume than cameras like the 5D3, so they can take advantage of greater economies of scale. And I'm guessing production is very different and labor costs are lower than for high end cameras.
Well apple is just an example. What I mean is Electronics in general will have improvements while keeping the price relatively steady or even declining. I'm talking about time in relation to technology. If the 5D2 and 5D3 were released in the same time periord, I would totally understand the price difference. But we're talking about 4 years of techology advancements! If this trend continues, we are looking at the 5D4 for over $4k and the 5D5 for about $5K!
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