FS7: Sony Price Increase Tomorrow on FS5, FS7, Z150 etc
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Danneskjold
Member
Doesn't make much sense to RAISE prices ahead of a release of a new version.
originalauthor
Member
A 'new' Version is about 8 months away at the earliest. Thats a fair amount of time. New cameras take years to tweak, its safe to say Sony has already started on its new version some time ago. Within in 12 months from now I see an update. If I was to Judge the response of FS7 users regardless of its popularity is that there is plenty Sony can do to make it even better, and it does not have to be a bunch of huge improvements. Sony has been hearing that for years on the FS7.
NorBro
Major Contributor
Didn't take too long...B&H is $8,499 now.
Nirv
Carbonite Member
The Japanese Gov have done everything in their power to keep the Yen as weak as possible but speculators are buying up Yen as it's a 'safe' currency. Thank the banksters.
FS7II, FS8 or FS9 it's going to have to be a hell of an upgrade for me to be interested. The replacement would have to shoot aliasing free 4K up to 150fps, see in the dark and fix all the little usability niggles before I'm interested. If a replacement appears the secondhand market will be flooded with FS7s and at that point I might buy another.
If the FS7s and FS5s had competition it would be a much more difficult ask to raise the price and they'd be taking much more of the hit themselves. Sony are out competing everyone in the low end professional sphere and there's no sign that it's going to change very soon. There is no pressure for Sony to bring anything to market because Canon has no answer.
I would think the next release would be F55/5 replacements and a year later that technology would filter down to an FS7 replacement.
FS7II, FS8 or FS9 it's going to have to be a hell of an upgrade for me to be interested. The replacement would have to shoot aliasing free 4K up to 150fps, see in the dark and fix all the little usability niggles before I'm interested. If a replacement appears the secondhand market will be flooded with FS7s and at that point I might buy another.
If the FS7s and FS5s had competition it would be a much more difficult ask to raise the price and they'd be taking much more of the hit themselves. Sony are out competing everyone in the low end professional sphere and there's no sign that it's going to change very soon. There is no pressure for Sony to bring anything to market because Canon has no answer.
I would think the next release would be F55/5 replacements and a year later that technology would filter down to an FS7 replacement.
dmitrizigany
Veteran
I've been expecting Sony to release a full frame FS series camera for quite a while now! I don't think it will be a replacement for either FS7 nor FS5 but an addition to the family. So will probably have a different feature set.
It's true about their US made autos with the Japanese brand names but the camera insides aren't necessarily made in Japan either. The sensors are but everything else is generally off-the-shelf and the related labor is a small component of the overall cost.
You mean nobody is buying C300 MKII or Red Raven?
The outgoing cameras prices are lowered to clear out the inventory but, if there's no inventory to clear ...
Sony has a ton of options here, from a low-light specialist based on the A7S/II sensor to an oversampled 4K with s35 and the AF features similar to C300 MKII. Considering that, they have brought out their GM series lenses out, they may as well capitalize on them.
deltoidjohn
Veteran
I think you've misinterpreted a little here - sure, there are people buying Red and Canon, but "going off to the competition" would suggest people are dumping their FS7's to move to other brands. I'm sure that's happened in some cases, but certainly nowhere near the extent as Canon has experienced with people moving from the C300 to the FS7, or, as another example, when FCPX was announced and massive amounts of people went "off to the competition" with Adobe or Avid.
If you want to get an idea of how many people are "going off to the competition", the best way is to monitor the used sales. It's not exactly easy to find an FS7 for sale 2nd hand right now.
From a market perspective, there is a finite number of units sold and everyone is fighting for his share. FS-7 is an extremely popular camera but it doesn't control hundred percent of all sales for models between, say, $6,000 and $15,000 (which is an arbitrary number, mind you) When FS-7 was $8,000 and C300 MKII was $16,000, the difference of $8,000 was deemed excessive by many. At a $3,500 gap, the demand curve changes. Red Raven can shoot (Red) Raw for about the same price as FS-7 can shoot Sony Raw and many many prefer the Red Raw look anyway. Granted, this is a Sony forum - the Red User is thataway - but the decision to up prices will disway a lot of people from opting for this particular product. IMO, what Sony has done is not a market friendly move.
But I will correct my assertion that Sony isn't raising prices across the board. R1MKII received a whopping $500 hike.
Is it shipping/production related? I would assume so. Hasselblad's 50 MPX Medium Format that was supposed to be on store shelves last month is being delayed again. The model is using the same Sony sensor that's inside the Pentax 645Z.
Nirv
Carbonite Member
Well, I've just ordered 6 more 128GB cards so you can pretty much guarantee Sony will release larger capacity versions imminently.
If an FS7 replacement has 4K up to 180fps and higher bitrate then 512GB and even 1TB cards are going to be necessary. 128GB would be near useless for next gen cameras.
Nirv
Carbonite Member
You seriously think the pricing of products is going to follow the exchange rate?
While the Yen's strength increases export pricing it also means imported raw materials are cheaper. Sony will also have stocks of long lead items manufactured and hedged bets on raw materials when the Yen was lower which will be factored into this price rise. Then there's the projected demand of each camera type to be factored in across the board which will reduce per unit costs. Some factors will increase the base price while other factors will reduce the price producing what looks like arbitrary figures.
The increase is primarily due to exchange rate but there's a lot of noise that sits on top of that signal.
No, it has scarcely anything to do with the exchange rate. The dollar has been falling steadily against the yen for months. There was no tipping point. The price increases are not across the board. It is a market price adjustment for selected items.