Andrew at EOSHD.com has posted an opinion piece on the future of high spec video features in Canon DSLRs. I've had this conversation with people in the past, and I feel somewhat the way Andrew does, in that I don't see Canon speccing DSLRs as well as future Cinema EOS products. While I have been told a video focused DSLR is coming for NAB 2015, it won't be a high end professional product.
There was a year when all I saw on videographer rigs was Canon DSLR cameras, but it seems that time has passed. I now see a lot of Cinema EOS cameras as well as smaller offerings from other manufacturers, and I do believe Canon wants videographers using C100's as opposed to 5D Mark IIIs..
I agree with some of the points at EOSHD, but disagree with others. For Canon, it's about making money and understanding markets with growth potential and markets in decline. The professional high margin segment is probably where the best chance of growth lies. I think selling more cameras and lenses to Hollywood along with support services is a much better strategy to grow revenue, and more importantly income, than it would be to offer a $2000 4K mirrorless camera for enthusiasts.
We'll see how the next few years shapes up, and I expect 2015 will give us lots of hints of where Canon sees the future of videography & cinematography going.
From EOSHD
“If Canon announced that they were withdrawing from the enthusiast stills camera market, you’d be surprised. It’s a pretty big market. But withdraw from the enthusiast video market they almost certainly have at the moment, whether they meant to do or not.
Whilst we ponder Canon’s deeply uninspired 2014 in terms of technological innovation, consider this theory – Canon entered the enthusiast DSLR video market by accident and now they have pulled out of it by accident.
Whether they like it or not, Canon DSLRs are no longer 1st, 2nd, 3rd or even 4th best performing enthusiast options for video. Nikon, Sony, Panasonic and Samsung are all significantly ahead, and if we count Blackmagic (they’re actually more pro than enthusiast) Canon are down to 6th. Just 2 years ago they were 1st. What happened?”
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