Canon 6d Review (1 of 1)

The Canon 6d bounces around in price quite a bit, but the average price up until recently has been around $1700. After the round of black Friday and cyber Monday sales started to taper off, the Canon 6d remains at $1507 with free shipping on Amazon. Is this the new standard price for a 6d body? To me it feels like Canon is trying to slot the 6d low enough in the pricing structure to squeeze in yet another full frame or Cinema body.

There have been rumors of lower price Cinema EOS bodies being announced in 2014, but there’s been a lot of arguments about whether this new camera would be above or below the 5d mark III in the pricing structure.  Is Canon cooking up a Cinema EOS body at the $2400 price level?

It would be nice to see the Super 35mm 8.3MP CMOS Sensor used in the Canon C100 adapted for a stills body. Sure 8.3MP isn’t game changing for stills, but i know many people that would be willing to take the megapixel hit to enjoy a completely usable 20,000 iso image, especially if the end result is bound for the web. It would also be nice if Canon introduced the C100’s XLR input handle, after all the adapter uses a simple plug on the side of the C100 which should be pretty easy to adapt to a DSLR style body. Sony is already doing this with their Sony XLR-K1M unit, a nice adapter that adds full audio features to many of Sony’s higher end DSLR cameras.

Canon has all the technology it needs to make a giant splash in the video market just like they did with the 5d mark II. Good sensor technology, audio capabilities, and the 50Mbps MPEG-2 4:2:2 XF codec used in their XF300 series cameras. Shove all that into a $2400 Cinema EOS body and cameras would be flying off the shelves.

Canon 1dc

So far the Canon EOS-1D C is really the only DSLR style camera in the EOS cinema lineup and the only one out of the bunch that shoots 4k in camera. But how many people are really going to spend $11,000 on a 1dc when you can pick up a used red one kit for under $7000 or a Blackmagic 4k cinema camera for under $4000. Both of the latter options shoot raw video (RED’s R3D format is arguably better than Cinema DNG) while the 1dc uses mjpeg.

Instead of trying to make a huge margin on cameras like the C300 and C500, follow the REBEL model. Give us a plastic bodied camera with great internals and a Super 35mm sensor in the $2000 range maybe a dash of 2.5k and you’ll own the market. Give the pro’s and the people with money a $6000 version made out of magnesium alloy with water sealing. You’ll make a killing in upgrade sales as people move from the 6d, 60d, and 5d mark II’s to this new camera. Sure you might loose a little bit of money from the high end markup, but guess what? All of those cameras use Canon EF glass and the more bodies you sell the more money you’ll bring in from lens sales.

The Canon 6d price drop might just be a sign of the times, but it sure would be nice if it was a shift in a new direction. I’m still all in with Canon, but it’s tempting sometimes to jump ship when I see some of the great things Sony and Panasonic have been adding to their cameras.

Tags: ,