GH1+5Dx7D+1D/Scarlet=1 hell of a Pre-math…

It’s official! Canon Rumors reported the official date for a press release scheduled for the 1st of September to announce the rumored new SLRs.

Expectations now split between the 7D and the 1D Mark IV, although some say that the 1D replacement should only come out in 2010, to complete Canon’s traditional 3 year life span of a pro model. Some even say both models will be announced…

The implications of such entries in the market could be significant. This could well be the reason why 5D’s stocks haven’t been replenished at the “big boys” like Amazon and B&H. But the truth is all this info falls in the speculations category…

Red’s Scarlet should also be popping in the market soon, if there aren’t any delay’s in the dates projected by the leader of the rebellion, Ted Shilowitz, in July: http://camerarentalz.com/scarlet-release-tracker/

Wonder if there will be any revelations at the Collision Conference, this weekend in LA? Which I’ll be attending and promise a full digest!

If the 7D brings the rumored specs at the same price tag as the 5D, it’s not crazy to assume there will be price shifts in the market.

The 1D Mark IV is supposed to target the more professional, or wealthy enthusiast market. If nothing else, its price tag dictates it. But then again, how many people jumped from a border line $500 Rebel to an over $2,500 5D MarkII?! Not to mention the ones that were finally compelled to jump on the DSLR world, since their last beloved film camera…

If the Scarlet is released at the anticipated prices, Canon will have a serious competitor in the hybrid camera market, which will make decisions for who’s in the market for the “ultimate indie filmmaking machine”, a whole lot harder… or interesting?!

I’m pretty sure Red is aware of the number of people that have been jumping on the 5D and GH1, with indie filmmaking in mind. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if they come out with even more optimistic specs on their final release of the Scarlet.

This is something we have grown used not to expect from the big corporations… yeah, they will throw us a bone, but never the whole ham… it’s just against their marketing strategies to keep the market rolling… in their favor, of course.

Many don’t think Red will be able to match Canon’s or Nikon’s years of experience in the stills world… but you should ask yourself then, how did they not only match, but surpass Sony’s, Panasonic’s and JVC’s in the motion picture world? Not to mention their “arrogant” plan to reinvent the art of “filmmaking” with their Epic Mysterium Monstro 617 sensor, for which there are even no lenses made yet… as far as I’m aware.

Dreaming is fun! Specially when there’s a good chance of it becoming reality… If you haven’t done it yet, go and do yourself a favor… click on this link: http://www.red.com/epic_scarlet/

The big question we all should be asking at this point is what do we really want out of our next camera? It feels like there’s way too many people concerned about the filmmaking capabilities of these cameras, so we’re either entering the richest period in filmmaking history or we’ll have a future affordable pre-owned filmmaking tools market…

One way or the other, all of us learn that the camera you shoot with is the smallest chunk of the budget you’ll spend to make a movie… the biggest difference these new cameras make, is for how long you can expand your shooting schedules, since most of us realize it’s smarter to buy them, then to rent, making pickups, re-shoots and over shoots a much easier and tangible reality.

For the majority of videos we see in Vimeo and YOUTube, it is my opinion, most people would be better off with a GH1 then a 5D. Simply because of it’s easy of use and “ready to roll capabilities” right out of the box. Think about it… A functional complete range auto-focus zoom lens, a flip-out screen, 24 fps, 60fps (at the cost of 720p), compatibility with virtually almost any lens and a few more precious factors… but of course it’s not perfect…

The 7D could bridge many of these short comings, but despite my wishes, I bet you it won’t be the full ham…

The bottom line is that the GH1 is a video camera at heart and the 5D is a stills! The whole mayhem is set loose because the 5D happens to have a phenomenal sensor that captures beautiful 1080 HD… shame it only shoots 30p, shame it records to a glossy CODEC and probably its biggest down fall is not granting us access to the full potential of the 21MP sensor inside. Which besides being a shame, challenges us with a plethora of problems to work around…

Both these cameras come from big corporations and yeah… they throw us a bone and we’ll only be happy with the whole ham… won’t we?!

The GH1, beating all the hard of use limitations of the 5D out of the box, also falls short by not letting us access the full power, of its nothing short of amazing sensor. Although not as big as the 5D’s, if we could plug directly into it, the possibilities would be astounding! But think about what would happen to all their other cameras up to $10.000 (to not exaggerate, but I can see the threshold falling bellow the Varicam)…

What’s really interesting is when you start analyzing and dissecting the possibilities of these cameras, you are always cornered from one side or the other, in a way you will not be able to create your so desired “ultimate camera”! The one you could actually settle with for a while, right?! Either by elaborate strategy or simple lack of insight, we keep being forbidden from getting what we want…

That’s why the Scarlet is so promising! If Red keeps up their promises and policies to make the best possible camera today’s technology allows, we might finally free ourselves from this tyranny at an affordable price…

Let’s hope the aftermath will be a little easier and “brighter”…

T  ; )~