Will Canon answer Sony's new cinema cameras

[Etienne]

Sony seems on a roll with video cameras:

1. The A7s ... a tiny FF low-light monster that can do 4K with a recorder, and almost fit in your pocket.

2. The Upcoming PXW-X70 which seems to beat Canons new XF200 on every spec, and adds goodies like HD-SDI, full size HDMI, wifi control and more ... for $1200 less!

3. The upcoming PXW-FS7 which seems set to clobber the C300 in every way at nearly half the price. Reviewers are saying that this camera will even compete against Sony's own very expensive, and much larger, F5 and F55 cameras.

Can Canon afford to wait? Or will Sony eat their cinema lunch? What do you think Canon will offer against these formidable Sony cams?

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Sony seems on a roll with video cameras:

1. The A7s ... a tiny FF low-light monster that can do 4K with a recorder, and almost fit in your pocket.

2. The Upcoming PXW-X70 which seems to beat Canons new XF200 on every spec, and adds goodies like HD-SDI, full size HDMI, wifi control and more ... for $1200 less!

3. The upcoming PXW-FS7 which seems set to clobber the C300 in every way at nearly half the price. Reviewers are saying that this camera will even compete against Sony's own very expensive, and much larger, F5 and F55 cameras.

Can Canon afford to wait? Or will Sony eat their cinema lunch? What do you think Canon will offer against these formidable Sony cams?

Canon had it all in the bag, but seems intent and giving it all away due being too conservative these days, having too much fear of internal cannibalization and too little fear of outside, too focused on milking things for too long.

The 7D2 is a prime example. The image quality is already completely out of date and the camera is not even on the shelves yet.

The worst thing that ever happened to Canon video is the second Canon marketing realized their engineers had accidentally stumbled onto something big (and I saw accidentally, because they were so out of touch that they didn't even imagine anyone would possible want manual controls for video on a 5 series camera! they have these tight little focus groups so all they heard from was some PJ who wanted ultra automatic, easy run and gun video and totally missed the clearly obvious bigger picture, but as soon as marketing realzied the bigger picture they went into we better make some new high end stuff and make sure to cripple the DSLR video as much as possible and proceed as slowly as we can to milk, milk, milk). And now, as you say SOny has a serious movie camera for the price of a 1DC that utterly blows the 1DC out of the water for serious filming. They have the A7S that blow away every single Canon DSLR for in camera 1080p quality (if you want to deal with RAW, the 5D3 with Magic Lantern RAW is good though, but that is only because of some brilliant hackers) and with a $2000 add-on can record a nicer 4k than the 1DC (so that is $4900 for A7S+NinjaShogun+Metabones lens adapter vs $10,000 and the lower priced SONY option gives you better video quality)!

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

PLus it is only a matter of time before an A7S2 arrives that doesn't even need the Ninja to record 4k.

 

[Etienne]

Sony seems on a roll with video cameras:

1. The A7s ... a tiny FF low-light monster that can do 4K with a recorder, and almost fit in your pocket.

2. The Upcoming PXW-X70 which seems to beat Canons new XF200 on every spec, and adds goodies like HD-SDI, full size HDMI, wifi control and more ... for $1200 less!

3. The upcoming PXW-FS7 which seems set to clobber the C300 in every way at nearly half the price. Reviewers are saying that this camera will even compete against Sony's own very expensive, and much larger, F5 and F55 cameras.

Can Canon afford to wait? Or will Sony eat their cinema lunch? What do you think Canon will offer against these formidable Sony cams?

Canon had it all in the bag, but seems intent and giving it all away due being too conservative these days, having too much fear of internal cannibalization and too little fear of outside, too focused on milking things for too long.

The 7D2 is a prime example. The image quality is already completely out of date and the camera is not even on the shelves yet.

The worst thing that ever happened to Canon video is the second Canon marketing realized their engineers had accidentally stumbled onto something big (and I saw accidentally, because they were so out of touch that they didn't even imagine anyone would possible want manual controls for video on a 5 series camera! they have these tight little focus groups so all they heard from was some PJ who wanted ultra automatic, easy run and gun video and totally missed the clearly obvious bigger picture, but as soon as marketing realzied the bigger picture they went into we better make some new high end stuff and make sure to cripple the DSLR video as much as possible and proceed as slowly as we can to milk, milk, milk). And now, as you say SOny has a serious movie camera for the price of a 1DC that utterly blows the 1DC out of the water for serious filming. They have the A7S that blow away every single Canon DSLR for in camera 1080p quality (if you want to deal with RAW, the 5D3 with Magic Lantern RAW is good though, but that is only because of some brilliant hackers) and with a $2000 add-on can record a nicer 4k than the 1DC (so that is $4900 for A7S+NinjaShogun+Metabones lens adapter vs $10,000 and the lower priced SONY option gives you better video quality)!

I agree, and I hope this is just part of the leapfrog game, because when Canon gets it right they can hit it out of the ballpark. But Sony seems to be reaching for the stars with these new releases.

 

[Etienne]

BTW ... I am still hoping for an all-in EOS-M mark III that can be a APS-C version of the A7s

The Sony PXW-X70 seems like it will have no competition for some time since Canon just released the XF200.

My hope against the PXW-FS7 is that Canon gets a killer C100 mkII on the market soon, at or less than the Sony. Include DPAF accross the entire sensor and they'd have a differentiator. The DPAF would be extremely useful when doing interviews as a one-man-band.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Sony has been in the digital Cinema camcorder business for a long time, they created a company in conjunction with Panavision called CineAlta.

Canon is a relative newcomer in Cinema, but strong in broadcast equipment. Now that they have their support center in Hollywood, they are proceeding to move into Cinema. It will take time and $$$. The Hollywood support center is a statement to the Cinema industry that they are serious.

 

[Ebrahim Saadawi]

Concerning the cinema line, I don't think will see a the C300 successor right now. Expect it in 2015, and of course it will have 4K and 10bit.

If you need 4K now, buy the FS7 and shoot with it, better than wondering why your C300 doesn't shoot 4K. If you don't need 4K right now, keep shooting beautiful 1080p with the C100/300 until their replacement is due sometime next year.

 

[Loswr]

Sony has been in the digital Cinema camcorder business for a long time, they created a company in conjunction with Panavision called CineAlta.

Canon is a relative newcomer in Cinema, but strong in broadcast equipment.

If you look at many of Sony's marketing materials for their broadcast cameras, you'll see them attached to Canon DIGISUPER box lenses (with the Canon logo masked, of course).

 

[mkabi]

You know what Canon should do... they should introduce 4K stuff in their Rebels (trully disrupt the industry). I mean everyone is quoting Jobs on "If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will..." so do it... but this will just piss everyone else (meaning the companies) off too.

And, their cinema equipment should start with 1080p (forget 720p), 2.5K, 4K & 6K.
Thats if they have the tech.

 

[Tugela]

You know what Canon should do... they should introduce 4K stuff in their Rebels (trully disrupt the industry). I mean everyone is quoting Jobs on "If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will..." so do it... but this will just piss everyone else (meaning the companies) off too.

And, their cinema equipment should start with 1080p (forget 720p), 2.5K, 4K & 6K.
Thats if they have the tech.

No it won't. Other camera companies are already introducing 4K into their consumer product lines, so Canon doing it later would still be a dollar short and a day late.

Real leaders don't do it from behind.

 

[mkabi]

You know what Canon should do... they should introduce 4K stuff in their Rebels (trully disrupt the industry). I mean everyone is quoting Jobs on "If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will..." so do it... but this will just piss everyone else (meaning the companies) off too.

And, their cinema equipment should start with 1080p (forget 720p), 2.5K, 4K & 6K.
Thats if they have the tech.

No it won't. Other camera companies are already introducing 4K into their consumer product lines, so Canon doing it later would still be a dollar short and a day late.

Real leaders don't do it from behind.

I didn't know that $1500+ was a consumer product line.

 

[Etienne]

Concerning the cinema line, I don't think will see a the C300 successor right now. Expect it in 2015, and of course it will have 4K and 10bit.

If you need 4K now, buy the FS7 and shoot with it, better than wondering why your C300 doesn't shoot 4K. If you don't need 4K right now, keep shooting beautiful 1080p with the C100/300 until their replacement is due sometime next year.

I think the Sony PXW-FS7 has caught a lot of people by surprise, including Canon, and they probably don't have anything ready to compete at that price point.

You're probably right, we won't see a new Cx00 camera for another year, maybe more. In the meantime this FS7 will be all alone in this class. Don't get me wrong, I am a Canon fan, and I became a fan because of the enormous bang-for-the-buck that Canon provided. But these latest Sony's are very compelling.

If the reviews bear out the specs, then the PXW-X70 will win over the Canon XF200 for me this year. And I was thinking C100 soon as well. Although it is a really nice camera, now it will be a matter of whether Canon introduces something that can compete with the FS7 in the next 6-10 months (provided that independent reviews confirm what the specs promise).

 

[dgatwood]

No it won't. Other camera companies are already introducing 4K into their consumer product lines, so Canon doing it later would still be a dollar short and a day late.

Canon doing it now is a day late and a dollar short. After all, with the right ($1,000) software, you can capture 4K video on a freaking iPhone 5S. The fact that so many multi-thousand dollar DSLRs sold today can't even do what a <$100 cell phone (with 2 year contract) can do is an utter embarrassment, IMO.

It's way past time for Canon to step up their game and quit treating decent video quality as an excuse to squeeze more money out of their customers. It's not an opportunity for an upsell anymore; it's basic functionality.

 

[Policar]

No it won't. Other camera companies are already introducing 4K into their consumer product lines, so Canon doing it later would still be a dollar short and a day late.

Canon doing it now is a day late and a dollar short. After all, with the right ($1,000) software, you can capture 4K video on a freaking iPhone 5S. The fact that so many multi-thousand dollar DSLRs sold today can't even do what a <$100 cell phone (with 2 year contract) can do is an utter embarrassment, IMO.

It's way past time for Canon to step up their game and quit treating decent video quality as an excuse to squeeze more money out of their customers. It's not an opportunity for an upsell anymore; it's basic functionality.

Canon's XF Codec is already integrated into a lot of company's workflows. Very few channels broadcast 4k and it's very expensive to post in 4k.

There's a market for 4k in the consumer sphere (youtube distribution), not so much in the professional sphere, that's all 1080p except at the ultra high end. This isn't a consumer device, it's a professional one, and thus it's build on reliability and integrating into conservative workflows, not specs or features alone.

Look at how Arri is destroying Red in broadcast tv and in film... It's not because Arri has the better format (the Alexa does have a better image)... it's because it has an easier to handle, "lower end" codec in a lower resolution.

Consumers want the best of the best. Professionals want the worst (easiest/cheapest/etc.) that's good enough. If your 2 year old phone does it, stick with the phone.

 

[Etienne]

No it won't. Other camera companies are already introducing 4K into their consumer product lines, so Canon doing it later would still be a dollar short and a day late.

Canon doing it now is a day late and a dollar short. After all, with the right ($1,000) software, you can capture 4K video on a freaking iPhone 5S. The fact that so many multi-thousand dollar DSLRs sold today can't even do what a <$100 cell phone (with 2 year contract) can do is an utter embarrassment, IMO.

It's way past time for Canon to step up their game and quit treating decent video quality as an excuse to squeeze more money out of their customers. It's not an opportunity for an upsell anymore; it's basic functionality.

While I agree that Canon is slipping behind Sony in recent video releases, it's not near as bad as you imply.

I can do 4K natively on my Samsung Note 3, but not all 4Ks are equal, and 4K is not necessarily better than 1080p. Specs often don't mean much, except to the marketing department. I'd like Canon offer some pro video to compete with these new Sony's. Do it right, and do it soon. For some reason, I'm attached to the Canon brand, but that only goes so far.

 

[Policar]

Sony seems on a roll with video cameras:

1. The A7s ... a tiny FF low-light monster that can do 4K with a recorder, and almost fit in your pocket.

2. The Upcoming PXW-X70 which seems to beat Canons new XF200 on every spec, and adds goodies like HD-SDI, full size HDMI, wifi control and more ... for $1200 less!

3. The upcoming PXW-FS7 which seems set to clobber the C300 in every way at nearly half the price. Reviewers are saying that this camera will even compete against Sony's own very expensive, and much larger, F5 and F55 cameras.

Can Canon afford to wait? Or will Sony eat their cinema lunch? What do you think Canon will offer against these formidable Sony cams?

Canon had it all in the bag, but seems intent and giving it all away due being too conservative these days, having too much fear of internal cannibalization and too little fear of outside, too focused on milking things for too long.

The 7D2 is a prime example. The image quality is already completely out of date and the camera is not even on the shelves yet.

The worst thing that ever happened to Canon video is the second Canon marketing realized their engineers had accidentally stumbled onto something big (and I saw accidentally, because they were so out of touch that they didn't even imagine anyone would possible want manual controls for video on a 5 series camera! they have these tight little focus groups so all they heard from was some PJ who wanted ultra automatic, easy run and gun video and totally missed the clearly obvious bigger picture, but as soon as marketing realzied the bigger picture they went into we better make some new high end stuff and make sure to cripple the DSLR video as much as possible and proceed as slowly as we can to milk, milk, milk). And now, as you say SOny has a serious movie camera for the price of a 1DC that utterly blows the 1DC out of the water for serious filming. They have the A7S that blow away every single Canon DSLR for in camera 1080p quality (if you want to deal with RAW, the 5D3 with Magic Lantern RAW is good though, but that is only because of some brilliant hackers) and with a $2000 add-on can record a nicer 4k than the 1DC (so that is $4900 for A7S+NinjaShogun+Metabones lens adapter vs $10,000 and the lower priced SONY option gives you better video quality)!

I agree, and I hope this is just part of the leapfrog game, because when Canon gets it right they can hit it out of the ballpark. But Sony seems to be reaching for the stars with these new releases.

Aye, I think Canon's lagging farther and farther behind the packs (yes, it's plural now. )

I think Canon could have reached for the stars with the 7D II, delivering a home run on every single technology front. Instead, they did the same old thing...improve a couple key features, threw in *** (seemingly as an afterthought, otherwise I think they would have had both *** and WiFi and possibly even NFC), and called it a day. Oh, wait...they threw in another layer if microlenses on the sensor as well.

A "reach for the stars" home run would have had a kickass wicked new sensor based on radical new technology (or maybe just technology as good as the competition), ***, WiFi, NFC, Dual CFast 2, 4k video, basically all the bells and whistles. The Samsung NX1 sounds to me, technologically, what the 7D II should have been...a high resolution ISOCELL BSI sensor with high FPS, and all the bells and whistles. The only thing the Samsung lacks is a lens lineup and awesome customer support.

And an optical finder. And a tested, reliable AF system.

Without lenses and a decent finder (never seen an EVF that even compares), bells and whistles are just... bells and whistles. The 7D II is an actual, useable dSLR, which most dSLR buyers want. If all you want is specs, why are you going with the manufacturer that cares least about them? It's like getting upset when Apple doesn't put the fastest chip in their new rMBP and makes it thinner instead or something.... Canon is about the experience and creating useful tools, not necessarily the highest-specced ones.

 

[Etienne]

Sony seems on a roll with video cameras:

1. The A7s ... a tiny FF low-light monster that can do 4K with a recorder, and almost fit in your pocket.

2. The Upcoming PXW-X70 which seems to beat Canons new XF200 on every spec, and adds goodies like HD-SDI, full size HDMI, wifi control and more ... for $1200 less!

3. The upcoming PXW-FS7 which seems set to clobber the C300 in every way at nearly half the price. Reviewers are saying that this camera will even compete against Sony's own very expensive, and much larger, F5 and F55 cameras.

Can Canon afford to wait? Or will Sony eat their cinema lunch? What do you think Canon will offer against these formidable Sony cams?

Canon had it all in the bag, but seems intent and giving it all away due being too conservative these days, having too much fear of internal cannibalization and too little fear of outside, too focused on milking things for too long.

The 7D2 is a prime example. The image quality is already completely out of date and the camera is not even on the shelves yet.

The worst thing that ever happened to Canon video is the second Canon marketing realized their engineers had accidentally stumbled onto something big (and I saw accidentally, because they were so out of touch that they didn't even imagine anyone would possible want manual controls for video on a 5 series camera! they have these tight little focus groups so all they heard from was some PJ who wanted ultra automatic, easy run and gun video and totally missed the clearly obvious bigger picture, but as soon as marketing realzied the bigger picture they went into we better make some new high end stuff and make sure to cripple the DSLR video as much as possible and proceed as slowly as we can to milk, milk, milk). And now, as you say SOny has a serious movie camera for the price of a 1DC that utterly blows the 1DC out of the water for serious filming. They have the A7S that blow away every single Canon DSLR for in camera 1080p quality (if you want to deal with RAW, the 5D3 with Magic Lantern RAW is good though, but that is only because of some brilliant hackers) and with a $2000 add-on can record a nicer 4k than the 1DC (so that is $4900 for A7S+NinjaShogun+Metabones lens adapter vs $10,000 and the lower priced SONY option gives you better video quality)!

I agree, and I hope this is just part of the leapfrog game, because when Canon gets it right they can hit it out of the ballpark. But Sony seems to be reaching for the stars with these new releases.

Aye, I think Canon's lagging farther and farther behind the packs (yes, it's plural now. )

I think Canon could have reached for the stars with the 7D II, delivering a home run on every single technology front. Instead, they did the same old thing...improve a couple key features, threw in *** (seemingly as an afterthought, otherwise I think they would have had both *** and WiFi and possibly even NFC), and called it a day. Oh, wait...they threw in another layer if microlenses on the sensor as well.

A "reach for the stars" home run would have had a kickass wicked new sensor based on radical new technology (or maybe just technology as good as the competition), ***, WiFi, NFC, Dual CFast 2, 4k video, basically all the bells and whistles. The Samsung NX1 sounds to me, technologically, what the 7D II should have been...a high resolution ISOCELL BSI sensor with high FPS, and all the bells and whistles. The only thing the Samsung lacks is a lens lineup and awesome customer support.

And an optical finder. And a tested, reliable AF system.

Without lenses and a decent finder (never seen an EVF that even compares), bells and whistles are just... bells and whistles. The 7D II is an actual, useable dSLR, which most dSLR buyers want. If all you want is specs, why are you going with the manufacturer that cares least about them? It's like getting upset when Apple doesn't put the fastest chip in their new rMBP and makes it thinner instead or something.... Canon is about the experience and creating useful tools, not necessarily the highest-specced ones.

Video/cinema cams don't have optical viewfinders.
AF is another big difference, although Canon's new DPAF system looks extremely promising for cameraman-interviewers.

 

[Policar]

Sony seems on a roll with video cameras:

1. The A7s ... a tiny FF low-light monster that can do 4K with a recorder, and almost fit in your pocket.

2. The Upcoming PXW-X70 which seems to beat Canons new XF200 on every spec, and adds goodies like HD-SDI, full size HDMI, wifi control and more ... for $1200 less!

3. The upcoming PXW-FS7 which seems set to clobber the C300 in every way at nearly half the price. Reviewers are saying that this camera will even compete against Sony's own very expensive, and much larger, F5 and F55 cameras.

Can Canon afford to wait? Or will Sony eat their cinema lunch? What do you think Canon will offer against these formidable Sony cams?

Canon had it all in the bag, but seems intent and giving it all away due being too conservative these days, having too much fear of internal cannibalization and too little fear of outside, too focused on milking things for too long.

The 7D2 is a prime example. The image quality is already completely out of date and the camera is not even on the shelves yet.

The worst thing that ever happened to Canon video is the second Canon marketing realized their engineers had accidentally stumbled onto something big (and I saw accidentally, because they were so out of touch that they didn't even imagine anyone would possible want manual controls for video on a 5 series camera! they have these tight little focus groups so all they heard from was some PJ who wanted ultra automatic, easy run and gun video and totally missed the clearly obvious bigger picture, but as soon as marketing realzied the bigger picture they went into we better make some new high end stuff and make sure to cripple the DSLR video as much as possible and proceed as slowly as we can to milk, milk, milk). And now, as you say SOny has a serious movie camera for the price of a 1DC that utterly blows the 1DC out of the water for serious filming. They have the A7S that blow away every single Canon DSLR for in camera 1080p quality (if you want to deal with RAW, the 5D3 with Magic Lantern RAW is good though, but that is only because of some brilliant hackers) and with a $2000 add-on can record a nicer 4k than the 1DC (so that is $4900 for A7S+NinjaShogun+Metabones lens adapter vs $10,000 and the lower priced SONY option gives you better video quality)!

I agree, and I hope this is just part of the leapfrog game, because when Canon gets it right they can hit it out of the ballpark. But Sony seems to be reaching for the stars with these new releases.

Aye, I think Canon's lagging farther and farther behind the packs (yes, it's plural now. )

I think Canon could have reached for the stars with the 7D II, delivering a home run on every single technology front. Instead, they did the same old thing...improve a couple key features, threw in *** (seemingly as an afterthought, otherwise I think they would have had both *** and WiFi and possibly even NFC), and called it a day. Oh, wait...they threw in another layer if microlenses on the sensor as well.

A "reach for the stars" home run would have had a kickass wicked new sensor based on radical new technology (or maybe just technology as good as the competition), ***, WiFi, NFC, Dual CFast 2, 4k video, basically all the bells and whistles. The Samsung NX1 sounds to me, technologically, what the 7D II should have been...a high resolution ISOCELL BSI sensor with high FPS, and all the bells and whistles. The only thing the Samsung lacks is a lens lineup and awesome customer support.

And an optical finder. And a tested, reliable AF system.

Without lenses and a decent finder (never seen an EVF that even compares), bells and whistles are just... bells and whistles. The 7D II is an actual, useable dSLR, which most dSLR buyers want. If all you want is specs, why are you going with the manufacturer that cares least about them? It's like getting upset when Apple doesn't put the fastest chip in their new rMBP and makes it thinner instead or something.... Canon is about the experience and creating useful tools, not necessarily the highest-specced ones.

Video/cinema cams don't have optical viewfinders.
AF is another big difference, although Canon's new DPAF system looks extremely promising for cameraman-interviewers.

Tell that to the Alexa studio (and every 35mm camera before that), but both the Samsung and 7DII are stills camera anyways.

Fwiw, "cameraman-interviewers" don't use AF, either!

 

[Etienne]

Sony seems on a roll with video cameras:

1. The A7s ... a tiny FF low-light monster that can do 4K with a recorder, and almost fit in your pocket.

2. The Upcoming PXW-X70 which seems to beat Canons new XF200 on every spec, and adds goodies like HD-SDI, full size HDMI, wifi control and more ... for $1200 less!

3. The upcoming PXW-FS7 which seems set to clobber the C300 in every way at nearly half the price. Reviewers are saying that this camera will even compete against Sony's own very expensive, and much larger, F5 and F55 cameras.

Can Canon afford to wait? Or will Sony eat their cinema lunch? What do you think Canon will offer against these formidable Sony cams?

Canon had it all in the bag, but seems intent and giving it all away due being too conservative these days, having too much fear of internal cannibalization and too little fear of outside, too focused on milking things for too long.

The 7D2 is a prime example. The image quality is already completely out of date and the camera is not even on the shelves yet.

The worst thing that ever happened to Canon video is the second Canon marketing realized their engineers had accidentally stumbled onto something big (and I saw accidentally, because they were so out of touch that they didn't even imagine anyone would possible want manual controls for video on a 5 series camera! they have these tight little focus groups so all they heard from was some PJ who wanted ultra automatic, easy run and gun video and totally missed the clearly obvious bigger picture, but as soon as marketing realzied the bigger picture they went into we better make some new high end stuff and make sure to cripple the DSLR video as much as possible and proceed as slowly as we can to milk, milk, milk). And now, as you say SOny has a serious movie camera for the price of a 1DC that utterly blows the 1DC out of the water for serious filming. They have the A7S that blow away every single Canon DSLR for in camera 1080p quality (if you want to deal with RAW, the 5D3 with Magic Lantern RAW is good though, but that is only because of some brilliant hackers) and with a $2000 add-on can record a nicer 4k than the 1DC (so that is $4900 for A7S+NinjaShogun+Metabones lens adapter vs $10,000 and the lower priced SONY option gives you better video quality)!

I agree, and I hope this is just part of the leapfrog game, because when Canon gets it right they can hit it out of the ballpark. But Sony seems to be reaching for the stars with these new releases.

Aye, I think Canon's lagging farther and farther behind the packs (yes, it's plural now. )

I think Canon could have reached for the stars with the 7D II, delivering a home run on every single technology front. Instead, they did the same old thing...improve a couple key features, threw in *** (seemingly as an afterthought, otherwise I think they would have had both *** and WiFi and possibly even NFC), and called it a day. Oh, wait...they threw in another layer if microlenses on the sensor as well.

A "reach for the stars" home run would have had a kickass wicked new sensor based on radical new technology (or maybe just technology as good as the competition), ***, WiFi, NFC, Dual CFast 2, 4k video, basically all the bells and whistles. The Samsung NX1 sounds to me, technologically, what the 7D II should have been...a high resolution ISOCELL BSI sensor with high FPS, and all the bells and whistles. The only thing the Samsung lacks is a lens lineup and awesome customer support.

And an optical finder. And a tested, reliable AF system.

Without lenses and a decent finder (never seen an EVF that even compares), bells and whistles are just... bells and whistles. The 7D II is an actual, useable dSLR, which most dSLR buyers want. If all you want is specs, why are you going with the manufacturer that cares least about them? It's like getting upset when Apple doesn't put the fastest chip in their new rMBP and makes it thinner instead or something.... Canon is about the experience and creating useful tools, not necessarily the highest-specced ones.

Video/cinema cams don't have optical viewfinders.
AF is another big difference, although Canon's new DPAF system looks extremely promising for cameraman-interviewers.

Tell that to the Alexa studio (and every 35mm camera before that), but both the Samsung and 7DII are stills camera anyways.

Fwiw, "cameraman-interviewers" don't use AF, either!

Obviously film cameras have optical viewfinder, but not many can afford those, probably no one reading here. Alexa studio is an exeption, but still not affordable. Everything from Sony F55 on down, you know: the cameras mere mortals use, have LCD screens and/or EVF's.

Cameraman-interviewers don't use AF NOW because there isn't a good system available. Canon's DPAF can change that, and many one man bands are already touting the 70D, and C100, for this very reason. So, what was true yesterday, won't be true tomorrow, and some of it isn't even true today.

 

[Loswr]

Cameraman-interviewers don't use AF NOW because there isn't a good system available. Canon's DPAF can change that, and many one man bands are already touting the 70D, and C100, for this very reason. So, what was true yesterday, won't be true tomorrow, and some of it isn't even true today.

Careful now...it sounds like you're dangerously close to suggesting there's something innovative about Canon's newest CMOS sensors. You might get some flak for that wild idea...