Is the CION ever going to ship?

The main thing they said is they will not bring out the camera until it is 100% ready....which I agree with....me guessing here but I'd say around Dec 1st...that me just sayin'

Jim Martin
 
That makes sense. It's pretty tough out here. Witness the FS7 "gotchas" thread. Sony really seemed to shoo that one out the door. December would be good for me because I really want to make some purchases this year for tax purposes and have been holding out for the Cion. I could go out and buy the EVF and handles and stuff but I won't need that stuff unless I need the Cion and that would be too grand a leap for me ;) I still want to see the finished camera. So, finish already!
 
Wouldn't it be nice if a new camera company announced a new camera in January 2015, then brought it ready to release in April 2015 at NAB! That's how I would do it. I'm talking about marketing strategies, not complaining about any particular company or organization. What we've seen in the past is a HUGE announcement, everyone gets excited and then product loses interest over time. It clearly effects sales (no matter what the company or organization tells you).

I'm all for a company releasing a viable working product (with everything working as it should). But I'm also aware of statements and deadlines and how they effect revenue.
 
So true. It is difficult to create things but to be successful you need to sell them as well. If people can get out their credit cards during the hype you stand to sell a lot more than 6-9 months later when another early product announcement is already being delivered... Great to see so many cameras coming out though!
 
To be fair, bringing out cameras before they are done was started by RED, continued by Sony (F5,F55) and BlackMagic......it's not something I'm a fan of. I too would like to see the cameras arrive complete. Now that's not to say one could not add improvements & fixes, but promising that a camera will arrive complete (or almost), then have them show up with 50-60% complete is disappointing to say the least.

Jim Martin
 
I agree completely.
It is why Canon has earned their prices for their cameras - when they arrive, they're solid, dependable work horses with proven IQ and wonderful glass.

As much as I was attracted to the BM IQ and philosophy, we waited a good while to get into them and were rewarded by a solid camera with evolved firmware and great industry compliments (Metabones) that finally realized the original potential of the unfinished cameras.

There is one thing in particular that, like the BM cameras, make the Cion more attractive to me than Canon right now and that's ProRes 422 HQ - it's simply the best day to day production and post friendly codec I've ever worked with and I really wish Canon would adopt it.

If they did I probably wouldn't have any other brands in our kit.
But once a gain my eye is wandering to another company and it will be great if the Cion is as finished a camera as I'm sure the new C100 will be, for instance.
 
RED may have pioneered the "beta release camera" but they certainly are not to blame for any company announcing a product and then it taking forever to come to market, or never coming at all. That's been happening for decades and there are several reasons for the strategy.

Sometimes a product announcement at a big show is done to measure interest and to see if the concept is headed in the correct direction for what clients want. A good example of that is our Athena recorder, which we showed as a "product preview" at NAB. We received tons of meaningful, valuable feedback from it and smartly went into major conceptual redesign of the product. What will eventually hit the market will share some of the Athena concept's functionality but will also have a vast array of additional performance. That's just how these things evolve.

There is also competition in the market, and often product announcements are done as spoilsport moves. Tell the world "Hey, we've this cool thing coming. Don't buy anyone else's stuff until we get ours out there." Of course then it's a long wait until that product arrives because it really was not yet ready.

On rarer occasion there is the "mike drop, walk off stage" announcement, which is like Apple confidently stating "Here's the new iPhone that you ARE going to buy. We'll have it in the store on Friday so start lining up." Don't expect to see those too often. ;-) It's my goal to be a part of as many of this type of release as possible moving forward.
 
jimagine said:
I agree completely.


There is one thing in particular that, like the BM cameras, make the Cion more attractive to me than Canon right now and that's ProRes 422 HQ - it's simply the best day to day production and post friendly codec I've ever worked with and I really wish Canon would adopt it.
Click to expand...

The Sonys are adopting it.

I've been shooting 4:2:0 8 bit on my camera. (more lately renting) I was really hoping just for 4:2:2 10bit in camera so these output options are pretty lush.

I was on an 2 cam Alexa shoot a couple of weeks ago and they had to hang a camera for some overhead inserts - BMCC for ProRes.

The ProRes is a big deal. It's the right choice for Arri. Not to compare the not-yet-available Cion to an Alexa but one thing I notice an awful lot is that there many TV shows and smaller movies that shoot ProRes 4444 on SxS on Alexa. That's what they chose, just saying. All those version of ProRes to an AJA recorder on reliable media and a Raw option. The Cion, feature-wise is just so strong on the output side.
 
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hscully said:
... I was on an 2 cam Alexa shoot a couple of weeks ago and they had to hang a camera for some overhead inserts - BMCC for ProRes.

The ProRes is a big deal. It's the right choice for Arri. Not to compare the not-yet-available Cion to an Alexa but one thing I notice an awful lot is that there many TV shows and smaller movies that shoot ProRes 4444 on SxS on Alexa. That's what they chose, just saying. All those version of ProRes to an AJA recorder on reliable media and a Raw option. The Cion, feature-wise is just so strong on the output side.
Click to expand...
Rodney Charters was on the Newsshooter IBC'14 webcast and he was asked about the codec and he said something like, "ProRes all the way. Don't even think about anything else".
 
Hot Rod Cameras is an authorized AJA Cion dealer and today we received our "shipping notice" that cameras will be shipping before the end of December. We are actually sending Cion technical and shipping information to those who sign up for our highly infrequent e-mail list on our website.
 
Yep. I think we'll start seeing Cions out there pretty soon. They say the end of the month for delivery.
 
Yeah, I know that's what they said, just gone so quiet again since, and now with Christmas coming everything tends to grind to a halt with deliveries etc. We'll see, hopefully I'll be proved very wrong, and hopefully the camera will amaze - be so good to have another option in this arena.
Steve
 
Like many here I am watching and waiting. Confident? Good question, since I am not in a rush I guess I can say patient rather than confident. I tried to get a simple question answered twice with AJA and got a non answer, so I'm hoping they are busy getting it built for the market and didn't have time to answer. But I put it up here since Jon watches the group.
Is it possibles do if so do any of the 3rd party lens adapter builders have plans to make a behind the lens variable ND Canon or other lens adapter for the Cion?
 
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