You now have a further 2 cameras to choose from, the Canon EOS C300 and the Scarlet-X from RED. Scarlet for me has been the biggest let down not for anything other than their promise over 2 years ago that this would be a sub $5K camera and it’s now closer to $10K almost twice the price.

I did not know what to expect from Canon but recent reports have this camera now at $20K rather than the $16K which is now dearer than the current price of a Sony F3.

You have got to hand it to Canon it looks sexy and after seeing some of the short films Canon commissioned the EOS C300 certainly performs well.

One chap emailed me telling me that he had just ordered his Scarlet and that he hopes to have it within a YEAR…sorry but that timescale for a camera delivery is quite frankly unacceptable, who knows what will be available in less than a years time. I have since been informed we are talking a lead time of about 2 months for delivery.

“Ordered one today…hope it will be delivered within 12 months. Price for Scarlet-X with Canon AL Mount is $9750. PL is $1500 more Body ONLY!

Both Sony and Panasonic must be wiping their brows that Canon did not bring out a sub $6K camcorder so the AF101 and the FS100 are safe for now, Canon in my opinion missed a trick by not satisfying the majority of their cinematic community who all own EF glass and are looking to migrate from 5D2s to a camera that would take their EF glass.

They did give the DSLR crowd one hope by showing the EOS C DSLR, probably a 1DX with the badge replaced, this may satisfy the sub £6K Canon crowd as long as it’s more “video” and less photographic. This camera is still in it’s infancy so don’t go thinking it’s due anytime before the summer of 2012.

Two major surprises from the Canon camera…8bit and no 1080 50p, the 8bit is rather dissapointing for a camera of this magnitude as for the lack of 1080 50p it’s down to the fact that people will be using this in 24 and 25p mode for that cinematic look.

The “movie” glass will be superb and the prime lenses with the 24mm and 50mm at T2 (f2.0) will be very coveted by the cinematic community, no pricing as yet but I suspect will be nearer the PL prices.

Once again a small form factor that will not appeal to DPs that are used to working with ARRI cameras, shoulder mounts etc. Japan seems inherant on producing film like cameras that are not much bigger than a DSLR rather than spreading the load on a body that would have less finnicky switches and not look so stupid using bigger zoom lenses.

Canon could have made the C300 more user friendly with the EF lens by incorperating their auto focus capabilities, not for AF but for pull focus but then did they email me for advice !

Avid made a major blunder coming in on the 3rd of November to announce Media Composer 6 let alone the cost of £1799, present AVID users will get an upgrade for about £300 so if nothing else the AVID community will be happy.

Canon hope to start shipping late January 2012 while RED hope to ship Scarlet on November/December 2011.

More importantly will they sell, the Canon C300 looks the part, performs fantastic and will certainly have it’s followers, it may not hit the top ten best selling list but every rental house will take at least 2 cameras to start the ball rolling. The Scarlet on the other hand is the first on the ladder of owning a RED camera which has a steady following of cameramen/women and with a lead time of about a month as from last night (3 rd November) it will be interesting to here how users get on with their purchases.

I read this from Philip Bloom this morning and was rather surprised by his comments about his RED EPIC.. “I love my Epic but have had hideous reliability issues with it. Will RED carry on with having BETA firmware in the Scarlet or will they make it more stable. At the lower price point they are going to ship more so it will need to be. I expect the C300 will be super reliable straight out of the starting block”