Company of the year 2006 + conspiracy theory

LuckyStudio 13

LuckyStudio 13

The Tapeless One
Well, if there is a nomination for company of the year, I will pick Canon.

Kudos to Canon for providing nearly the same (~99%) optic performance on their $3699 XH-A1 cam vs their $ 8999 XH-H1 cam. Not only that, they made A1 more tweakable and also add iris adjustment on the lens barrell itself. They sacrificed the Xh-H1 for the sake of their customer.

In digital camera, we see the same practice. Canon offers the full 35mm frame Canon 5D at more than half the price of the Canon 1D (pro full 35mm frame SLR).

OTOH, Panasonic has a bunch of their 2/3" and above pro level camera to protect. I am sure they could have made the HVX200 way better (higher sensor resolution, better lcd ....etc). The DVX100b after 2 revisions is still not 16x9, standard def ...etc, what is up with that ? To me, they are protecting their own products to the bone unlike Canon.

I dont know why, but it is more expensive to buy the same camcorder in europe vs in the US. Maybe it is the US consumer's economic of scale, more disposable income or what not, or maybe its the extra cost of having the europeans go for a 2 hour lunch, i dont know.

Sony, with their Z1u, capable of both 60i and 50i. How many would bet that if theres a Z2u, this feature wont be there anymore. If these companies offers a multi format camcorder PAL/NTSC, consumers from other countries will flock and buy their cameras from the US thus making Sony Europe, Panasonic Europe or Canon Europe to suffer financially. Already companies like BHphotovideo offers grey market PAL camcorders.

But it is simply a matter of enabling a function on the firmware for PAL/NTSC compaitability. Panasonic and Sony doesnt offer this feature at all. And, hey panasonic how hard is it to offer 25p in the array of the variable framerate already available on the HVX?.

Canon charges $500 for their technician to "turn on" the 50i/25p feature in their firmware. Again, companies purposely dumb down their product in order to protect their own behind.

Companies also should put a warning label on their product, "DO NOT USE OUTSIDE OF YOUR HOME COUNTRY", as they will not service their own product in a different region. So what if people moved or have a job overseas? I say they should service their own product regardless of where you are in the world and then just BILL the charges to whatever region the product was purchased from. Again, company's subsidiary that wanted to make their numbers look good.

At the end, I am very happy with the company, Canon. They certaintly give a lot to their customer. Too bad they dont have the Panasonic "film look", variable framerate and DVCPRO HD codec. Therefore, I still love my HVX200 :beer:

end of rant..

DX (who sold the Canon XH-A1 for the HVX, also previously owned a DVX100b) , so save your hate mail :Drogar-Love(DBG):.
 
yeah, i am just upset coz i cant keep both the Canon XH-A1 and HVX200. As much as i love the HVX200, it is like a 6 megapixel cam vs the 14 megapixel A1.
Both has its own strength. The HVX looks more like 16mm film with its softness while the A1 screams HIGH DEF.
 
I hear that!
Sucks that "the perfect" camera hasn't hit the market yet but in a few yrs I think the majority of them will be "perfect". right now we have all these trade offs due to price points and stuff but at least we have good technology to choose from.

Can't wait until RED hits the market and then cools off so I can rent one for cheap! :)
 
Dxmetal said:
But it is simply a matter of enabling a function on the firmware for PAL/NTSC compaitability.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's true. Have you heard that from any reliable sources? I think Barry said something about it a long time ago, that it has to be done from the beginning of making the CCD or something liket that.
 
Shiet. You own both the cameras. That's like having two different Film Stocks to choose from at all times. Use the HVX in well-lit scenarios, slow-mo shoots, effects. Use the A1 in lowlight situations.

Betst of both worlds man.
 
kudos to that message. Canon has done some amazing things in the past two years. On the DP side of it (spec. the 5D), its amazing such a great camera can be produced at such a "prosumer" level. A buddy of mine has one, and its just an incredible camera, no complaints at all. I'll be using it to shoot my next time-lapse short, and I can't wait. Still havent gotten my hands on an A1 yet. Jay make sure you holler at me next time your in production for it. I'm working now @ concretepictures in philly as an intern/production coordinator, hopefully full time when i Grad. So i'd still be avaliable on weekends and such, but good thread and good job canon.
 
MiniMan said:
I don't think that's true. Have you heard that from any reliable sources? I think Barry said something about it a long time ago, that it has to be done from the beginning of making the CCD or something liket that.
Click to expand...

On the NTSC Canon XH-A1, XH-G1 and XH-H1, it is just a matter of going into the firmware to enable that PAL function. In that same firmware you can also enable or read the actual "head usage time" on the camcorder.

If you ask me, Canon disable the Head usage time to cover their own behind. Like the Canon DSLR, they only guarenteed their more expensive cam to a certain shutter life (e.g. 100,000 on the 30D).

A camcorder is slightly more complex andmay be subject to different usage/abuse. I know of some people that use their cam as a deck ! Therefore it is better for Canon if the consumer dont know how many hours had been used when their head gave/crapped out.
 
oh I see what you mean.... but do you think they intentionally did that? either way wouldn't warranty cover any malfunction pertaining to the heads if it's within time scope of the warranty?


yo Joe, wassssssup! yeah man, i'll hit u up during the 1st week of jan. as that's when I start pre-prod my next VERY short film.
 
I think Canon purposely do it to discourage the 2nd hand/used market. Would a production house buy a fleet of used cam without knowing the "head hours" ? But with tapeless acquisition, head wear might not be that relevant anymore.

I think its more like Canon would rather not let you know the amount of hours you had on the head once the head give out (outside of warranty).

For example, how do you feel when the head on your A1 gave out after only 68 hours while your friends A1 is still going strong at 165 hours? This will give you the perceptions of inconsistent Canon's quality control.

I heard they are going to have 2 Canon 5D replacement in marxh 07. One for the more consumer oriented and one for the PROsumer (to close the gap between the 1d and 5d). WIth canon double rebate you can buy the Canon 5d from authorized dealer for around $2200 !
 
I really don' think dissabling the user hour count has anything to do with head wear. FIrst of all, how many reports have you heard of people actually wearing out their heads on any camcorder. I have over 700 hrs on my DVX and it's still going strong. If a camera wore out after 60 hrs you would know there is something wrong whether you saw how many hours you had or not. Personally I think head wear is way over rated, and people are being way to parinoid over something that really is not an issue. Now granted I'm not talking about dirty heads, or people that insist on putting all sorts of different tapes in their cameras, but I'm talking about normal wear and tear on the camera. How many times have you heard about that compared to
-battery falling off camera, clips broke (HVX)
-FCP erased my P2 (HVX)
-Backfocus goes out (XL2- DVX)
-Burned fire wire port (DVX)
-Dead pixel (JVC HD100)
-Camera simply DOA (All cameras)
etc

If you compare problems, tape transport problems only seem to arrise due to the user themselves.
 
There is only one camera ever made anywhere near this price bracket that does both NTSC and PAL, and that's the Sony Z1.

To support both modes requires different hardware crystals. What makes you think that Canon just has to flip a firmware switch? I would expect that $500 fee includes installing a new hardware board.

Frankly, I think the way Canon is doing it is the right way. How many of us NEED 50/60hz switchable? How many of us want to pay an extra $500 for something we don't need? For those who need it, they make it available at an extra cost. Same attitude they took with the G1 -- how many of us actually need HD-SDI and genlock and TC in/out on an HDV camcorder? For those who do, you can buy the functionally identical but HD-SDI/TC/Genlock'd G1.
 
now,after the revolutionary A1 how about the HV20 ?? 24f/p at MSRP 1099 ???

This will certaintly promp other companies to offer progressive to consumer level/Bcam. Canon ROCKS !!
 
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