This will level the field? If you think Canon's cine options are equal to Red maybe it levels it. However, I think this tilts the field away from Canon to Nikon's favor while leaning more toward Sony as well than Canon. Maybe Canon can tilt it back in their favor if they were to buy Alexa.
Canon absolutely owns the video market, in many ways. Different context from RED, but you see Canon DSLR video cameras everywhere, especially consumer-level stuff, like streamcasters. Most videos you see, by semipro influencers, and whatnot, are recorded on Canon kit.
Also, the TV and movie industry makes heavy use of Canon DSLR kit for their work.
It’s an interesting acquisition, and I wish them luck. The rub will be cultural clash. I don’t know anything about RED’s culture, but I know a bit about Nikon’s. They are … less-than-flexible. Culture clash has been the fly in the ointment, for most of Nikon’s partnerships.
I'm a colorist with over a decade experience in the industry. I work on about one hundred projects a year (film/tv/commercial/music video) and about 1-2% are canon (dslrs or otherwise). 70% are Arri, 20% Sony (either Venice or FX line), and the remainder are red.
Canon has almost no presence in the professional market.
While I would never call myself a colorist, I would say colorist adjacent while I spent a few years in a professional color post house. This would reflect my experience as well. I spent a lot of time with the Sony F55 when it came out, and even with its abilities it was still considered less than Alexa and Red.
The only people that shot Canon in our market were a few that shoot time lapse.
Sony is big and gaining more traction by the day. RED is very popular, Personally I know an equal number of filmmakers with RED and Sony. Arri is the premium brand. Canon is almost exclusively used in documentary these days, they had their moment with the 5DMK2 years about but squandered it. Sad really.
Canon's 5Dmk2 "moment" brought large sensor/shallow depth of field, interchangeable lenses, and very affordable pricing to a market that was dominated 2/3"-1" sensors, wide depth of field (ENG look), and high price tags.
It also brought the high contrast and saturated look baked in as a very unfriendly in post MP4 format. It also tried to sell a photo camera to a video world where the body form factor and external device connectivity was a joke. Professionals HATE all of that. Canon instead released the 100 - 700 series "cine" style bodies that were all primarily still shooting some form of MP4. It was all again a slap in the face with the added bonus of much higher price tags.
Canon has consistently told the market it doesn't understand it, and will just do what it wants
I realize that my information is dated. Also, the company that I worked for, directly competed with Canon, and it's likely that Canon's influence may have been overstated.
Canon has a good share of the market but not to the extent that you are suggesting. Sony is massive particularly for semipro influencers, Panasonic some share, Nikon very little.
Source: Managing 150PB+ of customers video content.
The 5D definitely grabbed the industry by the lapels, and gave it a good shake. Black Magic followed a few years later, and did their own version of it. For the price of that 5D, you now have the BMD cine cameras. We're pretty much to the point that the lens mount and the physical size of the sensor is the limit to how small a camera can get. It is fun times indeed.
I don't work with anyone who's streaming specifically, but when shooting tourism content for social media and web everyone I've noticed has been Sony - either the Alpha bodies, or FX6/FS7 for more career video guys.
What Canon bodies are you thinking of? Something like R5 or C70?
I am a streamer/content creator: Most of what I encounter in order is Sony, Canon, and sometimes time Lumix.
Sony has held the crown for the best auto-focusing system for a long time now which for content creators can be very important. Canon is also pretty good, but Sony really has gone all in making sure their system works really well for many scenarios.(People, animals, face and eye tracking.) Lumix's auto-focus system is passable and only if the lens itself works well with it.
Personally I use a mixture of Sony and Canon lenses on a Sony A7S III along with a Sony A7R IV. I used to have a Lumix S1H that I loved the image rendering, but buying lenses for L-Mount was difficult since it is such a new mount. I would love to use Canon exclusively since their button layouts are far superior to Sony's absolute mess.
Yes, that is my understanding also regarding the autofocus preferences for content creators. Even accounting for people picking their body and then graduating to shooting manual focus afterwards.
FWIW, my wife shoots Sony after moving from Canon, and I have a Lumix S5ii and GH5.
Even after reading other people's comments, this statement is absolutely mind boggling to not respond to it.
> Also, the TV and movie industry makes heavy use of Canon DSLR kit for their work.
I'm going to need citations for this claim. Nobody in the TV/movie industry likes the DSLR workflows. The record format is shite. The form factor of the camera is shite. The photo lenses with a maximum rotation of 90° for pulling focus from one end to the other is absolute shite. The DSLR movement was a godsend for prosumers and the wedding photographer being taxed with also capturing video.
Hey, thanks for the sack dance. I already stated twice, that I was wrong, and thanked the posters for the corrections. This was all long before you wrote this.
And now you've said it a third time. It doesn't matter. You made a bold comment that was inaccurate, and people will call you on it to set the record straight. Nobody called you names, nor are they picking on you. It may feel that way, but I don't have any emotions toward you at all. The emotions are on your end.
Actually, I don't really care. I always promptly admit when I'm wrong. Just the way I live.
I just felt like being a bit of a pedant, by pointing out your unnecessary, unkind, and inflammatory comment. I took it exactly the way that you intended. You admit that you read the comments, but made the decision to post this, anyway (sack dance).
There's a better than even chance that we would actually find a lot in common, but I guess that's not to be. I also happen to have a fairly unique perspective, here. Not everything that I wrote was wrong.
RED, Canon and Sony's cine equipment fills different niches, Sony having the broadest spectrum in the bunch. They're an audiovisual company for decades, which can handle/design/build the whole pipeline from acquisition to production to reproduction.
However, from what I see, Canon is filling a very specific niche and they're good at it. RED is the same.
So, it will not level the big three "capability" wise, but Nikon will have a hand (and feet) in cine market, which will provide them great feedback, development avenues and some cash hopefully.
So, they'll be able to compete in one way or another.
