Even for the Pro market, Canon is pricing themselves out of consideration.
Joe Marine, who writes a popular blog at nofilmschool.com wrote his observation at NAB this past weekend on the Pro video market. When it came to Canon at NAB, he was very un-enthusiastic. He wrote:
"What’s Canon doing? I’m not really sure, but they are certainly pricing themselves out of the market in features alone. Both of their new cameras are going to produce amazing images, but their top-of-the-line camera should really be much more comparable to the F65 or the Epic. If you’re going to make a camera that expensive, it makes sense to me that you would go all out and put the biggest sensor and the highest bit depth and frame rates that you can into it. The C500 fits much, much better as a $15,000 camera, and the 1DC should be half that price at around $7,500 (closer to the FS700). If they released those new cameras at those prices it would make a lot more sense. Sony’s offerings are cheaper and more fully featured. This is not a statement for Sony and against Canon, it’s merely an observation that on price alone, the specs just don’t add up."
Of course Sony, who is about to release the ground breaking FS700 at an amazingly affordable price has received heaps of praise on the internet forums from video people, while Canon has been bashed to death for their outrageous pricing and lackluster specs. Just goes to show that YES, consumers and professionals alike appreciate good value and can spot overpriced, under-spec'd products very quickly.
I really wanted to stay with Canon and I had about $8K or so to spend on a video camera, but I'm going to have to jump ship to the Sony FS700. I just can't wait any longer for Canon to release something in the $5K to $9K range that is worth buying. Thank God for electronic lens adaptors, so I can use EOS lenses on the sony.