I don't think URSA Mini even entered their mind. Cion is basically a dud from a sales perspective, so AJA may as well cut their losses and move on. IMO, this gives more validity to my thought that this particular hardware package was not as upgradeable as some here pondered. An independent like AJA and BMD have to hit it on specs to, at least, have a chance in the market dominated by large international conglomerates and AJA failed to do even that. But this doesn't mean that an improved product with new electronics - and mainly a new sensor - can not get traction in the future.
AJA CIon Try
- Thread starter oron cohen
- Start date
steve phillipps
Veteran
I think that's right, and I'd actually say that a small indie needs to hit the specs AND be cheaper than the big companies to compete - that has to be the appeal, that it's not the big name brand but it's really cheap so what the hell, give it a shot. When the FS7 was released it was much cheaper for a working package - and it was a Sony, and it was available much sooner.
It is a shame, the ethos of AJA and the Jon Thorn in particularly seems great and the design of the camera was lovely....they got the marketing wrong.
Steve
FrameFarmMedia
Veteran
And they hitched their wagons to a known problematic, low ISO, lower DR sensor which BM was already moving away from when they launched the Ursa with a swappable sensor.
combatentropy
Veteran
What was wrong with the marketing? If the CION had the LTN4625A, there would be no ads needed.
What's interesting is how much more dynamic range Apertus has been able to get from the same sensor by using clever logariithmic encoding. I get the impression that AJA chose linear encoding, which retains more detail in the highlights, but the trade off is harsher rolloff. Sony can apparently get away with it by having 14 stops of dynamic range.
Still, as AJA has mentioned, they've been working on this camera for five years. It's difficult to believe that they didn't plan for the fact that sensor technology would continue to advance, and that their initial offering wouldn't be state of the art, which would lead to the expectation that AJA has a plan for a sensor update.
Their own marketing has been emphasizing the ergonomics, which based on tooling around with the Cions at NAB they did a great job with, but that's not enough, especially with BMD's 4.6K sensor waiting in the wings....
And that adds to the risks of being a small company. One moment, you're looking at the currently available products and you think, "I can do something in this or that niche". Then, by the time you're ready, one of the Big'uns releases a comparable model and everyone flocks to it while you are ignored. In other words, Cion might have done well against F5 (say, $30,000 ready-to-shoot package) but when FS7 comes out at ~ $10,000 ready-to-shoot, then an independent needs much better specs to sell anything in the same price range.
BTW, I should have included KineFinity in the list of the independents too. Theirs look like decent cams but that's where marketing really fails before anyone could actually test it in the wild.
Jon explained his reasoning behind the log vs. no log approaches and far be it for me to argue against an engineer but ... there have to be various work-arounds the innate performance of the existing sensors. ARRI and now Canon C300 MK II are using a dual readout. Others are playing with frame rates and multiple exposures, et cetera. Either way, even matching the majors on specs doesn't guarantee a financial success. Come in short and you're certain for failure.
indiawilds
Veteran
It is good that AJA has made this huge price correction of the Cion. At 9k it was not finding takers. With some 100 cameras being tested by actual shooters and the price being 5K, I think there will be more adopters. These kind of companies are needed to put pressure on the other established companies.