In general, there is an accelerating rate of change in all electronics. 1st step is make something on a big chip, redesign the schematic to fit in ever smaller spaces, add more other somethings that have been similarly redesigned into small space all on the same size chip of the original whatever.
As Daniel and Starbucks noted - cannibalize yourself before someone else does. There is a real difference between Prosumer and Pro level 4k (soon 6k). The cost of equipment for the big productions is a very small portion of the overall budget so it is the best available at the time. Independent vid producers (lots of them) trying to get as close to the big budget output w/o the budget.
Is not production is easier to put together 1 assembly line and pump out a bunch of really functional chips than have 4 production lines with 4 chip designs? Takes someone w/ more expertise than me to answer.
There are a few thousand shooters at the world cup, olympics, etc and the major guys all have mini warehouses of stuff there for their shooters. Canon had a brilliant move to paint their lense white - you can see them at all the events and I get a shot of confidence that I shoot w/ the same stuff "the pros do"
All of this is to point that this is a retail business that has a couple of segments. P&S and dedicated "consumer" camcorder evaporated in less than 4 years (age of my granddaughter
). Consumer level HD is now the cell phone too.
The high end will be the high end and the mid-level i.e. Prosumer will get more and more functional (hooray for us). HBO used 5dII to vid the tight action shots with the horses in their series as losing a $2,500 camera was chump change compared to the $30,$50,$60k high end cameras they used for the stationary camera shots. They didn't use just 5dII for stationary camera shots on purpose. The 5dII was "good enough" for the tight/dangerous action shots but not for the stationary work.
The roiling and boiling will always be in the "mid level." Competition is always frustrating the product line planners by putting that next bit of function at price point X ahead of schedule.
Imagine if Canon really dropped the bomb on the mid-level and split it into 2 segments, the "mid high" a $10k camera w/ 6k vid, 0 rolling shutter, and 5:5:3 (or whatever whacked out number would be off the charts), a terabyte CF/CD card, with easy external recording options for Raw and offered it in both "C" and "D" body styles. Then "Mid Low" $3k ish, with 4k, minute amounts of rolling shutter, 4:4:2 or slightly better (perhaps even raw), in a "D" body style. Could Sony/Pano/Nikon even respond? 2-3 years latter there would be 0 competition? Canon would if they could. And within a few weeks - the high end would be even higher.
Canon doesn't' worry about the Independents not renting or buying C500s because 1Dc cannibalized the sale. They worry about the upgrade path to make it just worth it for you and me to retire our current and by the next mid-level camera. (And didn't even mention the MFT/APC sensor interplays).
Sometimes the product planners get it "right" and us consumers get a great set of functions at a good price point, sometimes they get it wrong on either end.
