Lets be honest the question we need to ask is... where is the professional sector going? The professional sector has been struggling for years. With the event of everything turning digital it has made it even easier for people to get into the industry and be good at it. Also making it very hard for pros to make as much money. Look at other companies that are struggling in their professional line up:
Apple - Apple's success and saviour was its professional following, they have now pretty much deserted these customers with pro hardware and software that is taking 2-3+ years to replace/update infuriating customers (2-3 years is a long time in the computer world). Instead they are concentrating on their consumer products, macbook pros and imac outsell mac pros 1000:1 the market isnt as strong in this sector anymore so putting money into it isnt as worth it. Upgrading them every 6s months makes sense and costs alot less because of the volume sales.
The same can be said for most companies, there isnt enough innovation to create a very secure product range in the camera world. This has been extremely obvious by most pros leaving the 1D market and moving to the 5D or 7D. Nearly half the set up costs and these cameras more than produce adequate imagery for newspapers and magazines.
The 1Ds on paper doesn't offer a stupid amount more for its price tag compared to the 5D, £6000 compared to £1500 is a large amount for weather sealing and 45 AF points (as main selling points). Now in practise this is very different and these cameras feel and perform very differently and the 1Ds is a superb camera. But we are in the middle of recession and everyone wants to save money so in my opinion and obviously alot of others the switch was obvious!
What is the definitive factor that makes you buy the camera? It used to be a large factor between the amateur/semi/pro ranges but now they are tiny electronic factors that most people either um and arr about for ages untill the product is so old a new one is inevitable and the process starts again, the blog is filled with it! or people who arnt too bothered about it and will part with the cash. Most others will live without it and go with the cheaper option like we have seen apart from the die hard pros with the breed becoming thinner. The semi pro/pro line seems to be merging in every sense, the tech has got so good that people can do without the most expensive pro equipment because they offer very similar features.
People are complaining about the AF in the 5D yet alot of pros switched from the 1Ds, it must say something. Cost most probably and the fact the 5D will do! the extra £4500 goes along way! Canon will not put 45 in a 5D because that is the definitive feature that will finally kill the sales of the 1Ds range.
Now we see very similar features throughout the amateur/semi/pro ranges its hard to justify the cost. Now everyone has their needs but in the recession and if you could get by, by reducing your cost by 3/4s and you can still do the same job without all the bells and whistles people will.
Something big has to happen to jump start the pro scene, and at the moment in every sense it is dying because innovation is lagging. The other factor is how far can you go! what else can they pack into a DSLR? video is available from the £400 DSLRs all the way to £6000 the only difference is the quality, but higher up the quality is less distinguishable.
Like in my previous posts I dont see the DSLR market to be the best market for video. There is only so much you can do. A new product range which is more ergonomic for the video user with fully fledged features based on the EF system would make more sense. I think the rumour about the 5D being split is ridiculous, but the more i think about it the more i feel that canon will go along this line but the rumour about it being split from the 5D to be slightly wrong not split but a new product range. Call it the 3D or what ever, it will use the same system but designed to incorporate all the essential equipment a videographer needs but also keep the small form factor of the DSLR.
A new homologation product.
