C300: Will Canon drop the C300 Mark II Price in the near future?

R

Rockstar2

New member
Hi everybody,

i´m about to upgrade my equipment with the c300 mark ii. In the last months i saved every cent i could spare to buy the new camera. I thought, be clever and wait until NAB is over, maybe Canon drop the price on the c300 mark ii to stay competitive to new announced/releases cameras. Every day in the last week i was looking for a sign from canon but nothing. Now NAB is over and i thought maybe the community has heard something?

Want to avoid to spend my money, only two weeks before canon drop the price. Any advices?

thanks
 
Very unlikely. I don't think there is gonna be a significant drop in price before end of this year. But I could be wrong.
 
I thought the same but since there was basically no new competing cameras introduced at NAB, why would they drop the price? I have been shopping and have seen a nice barely used C300 MKII in the Marketplace board here for $10k with cards and spare batteries, that was a good deal. Only problem was seller listed their location as London/Dubai and I would not spend $10k on a camera sight unseen and I am not flying to London or Dubai to buy a camera. http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?354003-C300-MKII-For-Sale

I have to say, people must really dig their C300 MKIIs because you rarely seem them for sale used anywhere. Keep looking, word of mouth with your network of shooting colleagues and one will pop up. But I agree with Doug, I see no reason for Canon to drop the price unless the new rumored Canon C200/C100 MKIII or whatever it will be called drops before the end of the year.
 
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My post-NAB guess is we won't see a price drop until around Cine Gear in June or IBC in September. There aren't many C300mkIIs up here, but the people who have them like them. And the two main rental houses have them. I'd guess Canon doesn't have a big inventory they're trying to move...

With Panasonic lifting the lid on the MiniVaricam/AF200 thing they teased at NAB during Cine Gear and rumors of a couple other camera announcements at that time (maybe one by Canon?) they might do something. But geez, it'll be a new competitive landscape then...

I'm totally interested in getting a camera like a C300mkII. But I might end up choosing a different camera...
 
Jim Feeley said:
My post-NAB guess is we won't see a price drop until around Cine Gear in June or IBC in September. There aren't many C300mkIIs up here, but the people who have them like them. And the two main rental houses have them. I'd guess Canon doesn't have a big inventory they're trying to move...

With Panasonic lifting the lid on the MiniVaricam/AF200 thing they teased at NAB during Cine Gear and rumors of a couple other camera announcements at that time (maybe one by Canon?) they might do something. But geez, it'll be a new competitive landscape then...

I'm totally interested in getting a camera like a C300mkII. But I might end up choosing a different camera...
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I'm in the same boat Jim. But the C300 MKII doesn't excite me as a business proposition for my company unless it is at least a little under $10k. It's a great camera but it's lack of 4K 60p and non-windowed 1080 above 60p mean it will be of more limited use to me as my market is shifting from EPK/BTS to original programming. A year ago, I was mainly shooting BTS and EPK content and higher frame rates and 4K for that matter were not a big factor. Today, the studios and the work from them for EPK and BTS seems to largely drying up so I am working hard on pitch packages and sizzle reels for my own branded and original content. 4K is becoming more and more in play as we pitch to certain outlets and while the C300 MKII has 4K covered, it does not have 4K 60p covered or high quality 80-120p 1080 without the windowed shooting and the softness. We are pitching a sports oriented feature documentary film that I will be shooting a sizzle for this Summer and I won't be using my C100/300 or renting a C300 MKII as sports/drama demand at least 80-120 FPS shooting for speed ramps and semi-dramatic slow motion and the C300 MKII cannot provide it. Not sure what we will rent to shoot it on but at least portions of it will not be a Canon or may have to possibly be a rented C700 as it can give me the 4K 60p and up to 2k 180 FPS and I think it will be easier to deploy in our shooting situations than an Amira. I have shot the C700 but not the high speed so I don't know if the 180 FPS windowed 2K suffers from the same softness. If it does, might have to rent an Amira for at least some of our shoots, 4K is not important for sizzle reels. Or perhaps the Varicam LT might be the right choice?
 
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Yes they will drop the price!!!

Yes they will drop the price!!!

Rockstar2 said:
Hi everybody,

i´m about to upgrade my equipment with the c300 mark ii. In the last months i saved every cent i could spare to buy the new camera. I thought, be clever and wait until NAB is over, maybe Canon drop the price on the c300 mark ii to stay competitive to new announced/releases cameras. Every day in the last week i was looking for a sign from canon but nothing. Now NAB is over and i thought maybe the community has heard something?

Want to avoid to spend my money, only two weeks before canon drop the price. Any advices?

thanks
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Absolutely, Positively they will drop the price. Go back and follow the trends of how they've dropped prices in the past with the C300, C100, C100 MKII, 1DC and C500! There's a method to the madness and it always occurs!!! If you're patient, wait a little longer (if PRICE is most important to you)! If you have a major project, temporarily rent. Otherwise, wait, that price drop on the Canon C300 MKII is coming soon!!!!
 
Ya, high frame rates are such an expected (and needed) feature these days. We've had good luck with Twixtor and optical-flow software solutions in a pinch. But in camera is so much better. I recall when the 720p hfs option in the C300 was cool...but that was quite a while ago.

Someone's going to get my money by the end of the year. I'd be happy to hand it to Canon, but more than willing to hand it to someone else if the camera's right (and for me, "right" means $5-8K or so...otherwise, it's a rental item and someone other than me is operating. :-) )
 
Right there with you Jim! I have to say, other than my glass investment in EOS lenses, I wouldn't mind going back to Panasonic. I used to shoot the tape Varicam more than the F900 back in the day. I owned the DVX100A, HVX200, HPX170, HPX300 and rented the 2700 quite often. I just want nothing more to do with P2 but if this new camera can make good looking, not too compressed images, in 4K via something that is not P2, i would be interested. S35 imager and an EF mount and I might be sold. Varicam LT comes with an EF Mount. I would rather buy a C100MKIII or C200 or whatever it will be called that is in our price range (mine is the same as yours), but if Canon drags their feet, or cripples the features too much, and Panasonic looks better for the money, I would buy a Panasonic, no problem. I was tempted by the DVX200 but I find it hard to go back to fixed lens and I don't like that camera's color science at all. Great features though and a lot of bang for the buck. It will be an interesting Fall. I'd love if they gave this new camera the same color science as my HPX170 HPX300 had. I look at old footage I shot a few years ago and the colors still look great.
 
There are several rumors on Sony (upgraded FS5?), Canon (C200/C100MKIII) and Panasonic (AFXXX). Panasonic has announced its future announcement. Canon has teased.

Other cameras that might be useful at significantly lower prices are URSA 4.6 Pro Mini and Kinefinity Terra (if it's shipping).

Red Raven seems to have flown the coop and has an APB issued for it.

As to a price drop - maybe by September, depending on competition.
 
The C300 MKII really suits the corporate and documentary space the best I feel.

Yep, it doesn't have the 60p at 4K but I owned the FS7 for 2 years and although it is a workhorse, hands down, I much prefer the image on the C300 MKII and honestly the high speed element is a bit played out on these cams, I feel that if high speed is really important to a particular project then hire a Phantom Flex for the off-speed shots and use the C300 MKII for the on-speed shots, it's not a big deal unless budgets are real tight which is what dictates the production value.

The 1DC and C500 took years to come down in price and there wasn't too many of them on the used market either, the C300 MKII is hard to let go once you own and honestly the AF feature is so awesome I think that's the USP that is slowly gaining steam.

Like all the cams in the this bracket, none of them have it all, price vs practicality vs image vs features etc. RED SW looks great but the RED ecosystem is also pretty expensive for what it is, RED is unique in the market compared to the Japanese giants so it's expected to be the price point it is.

I tried the Red SW for a bit, but workflow felt slower when working on projects for me personally, this is where the Canon steps up and is super reliable and quick... it's an amazingly underrated camera.
 
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To me, the RED cameras are for shooting features, TV, music videos and commercials. For most of my work, long form documentary, BTS/EPK, the cost of RED media talks me out of even considering an SW or a Raven when that was a shipping camera. I routinely shoot 4-5 hours of interviews plus a few hours of b-roll per day, sometimes for weeks at a time. I would have take a second mortgage on my house to be able to afford enough RED media for my work. Thank goodness for the Atomos Ninja Blade. A ton of 4:2:2 10 bit high quality media really cheap, that's partially what has kept me from springing for the C300 MKII. I cannot afford a pile of 256 GB CFast cards and I really am not enamored of the 7" Atomos products, I don't want something that big and heavy hanging off of my camera when running and gunning, jumping in and out of vehicles, etc. I hope that the costs of CFast plummets as many predicted it would but it doesn't seem to be happening. That's one thing that is genius about the Ursa Mini Pro, that SSD recording option.
 
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CFast cards have dropped in price a lot. I bought a Sandisk 128GB card for the URSA in late 2014 for $1200.

The company now sells a 128GB version for $350 and it's faster (the other one was discontinued a while ago).
 
NorBro said:
CFast cards have dropped in price a lot. I bought a Sandisk 128GB card for the URSA in late 2014 for $1200.

The company now sells a 128GB version for $350 and it's faster (the other one was discontinued a while ago).
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True, but when I compare the costs of enough CFast to shoot 410 Mbps 4K for five hours a day, that's still a chunk of change (about $1,700.00 to $2,000.00?) in comparison to Compact Flash, SD or SSDs. And I might need two sets, depending on who is downloading media and how long it takes.
 
DLD said:
... As to a price drop - maybe by September, depending on competition.
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And, if by September, one means May* ....

*Granted, a lens is part of the deal but it's a ~ $5,000 price break on the package.
 
DLD said:
And, if by September, one means May* ....

*Granted, a lens is part of the deal but it's a ~ $5,000 price break on the package.
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For the 300mkII package that Terry posted, they are damn near giving you the lens for free.
 
Run&Gun said:
For the 300mkII package that Terry posted, they are damn near giving you the lens for free.
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How's that?
On B&H, the C300 mkII has been priced at 11999$ for quite some time. So no, they are not close of giving the lens for free.
 
Run&Gun said:
For the 300mkII package that Terry posted, they are damn near giving you the lens for free.
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It's not quite a big as advertised, what with the camera being on a "promotional price" for a long time now. So, I made a bigger mistake in today's post.
 
Doug_EX said:
How's that?
On B&H, the C300 mkII has been priced at 11999$ for quite some time. So no, they are not close of giving the lens for free.
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This was what Terry posted:
Canon C300 Mark II EF $15,999.00
Canon Compact-Servo CN-E18-80mm + $5,225.00
Canon ZSG-C10 Zoom Grip Unit + $ 474.05
Canon C300 Mark II Instant Rebate - $4,000.00
Canon Compact-Servo Bundle Rebate - $ 800.00
Final Price: = $16,898.05

SO... If you go by those numbers, the camera itself is $16K and the package price is $16,898.05, so you would be getting the lens and grip for less than $900. But the $4K rebate is available for the camera by-itself. I'm not in the market for a mkII, so I haven't been keeping track of the prices.
 
Run&Gun said:
This was what Terry posted:
Canon C300 Mark II EF $15,999.00
Canon Compact-Servo CN-E18-80mm + $5,225.00
Canon ZSG-C10 Zoom Grip Unit + $ 474.05
Canon C300 Mark II Instant Rebate - $4,000.00
Canon Compact-Servo Bundle Rebate - $ 800.00
Final Price: = $16,898.05

SO... If you go by those numbers, the camera itself is $16K and the package price is $16,898.05, so you would be getting the lens and grip for less than $900. But the $4K rebate is available for the camera by-itself. I'm not in the market for a mkII, so I haven't been keeping track of the prices.
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I read Terry's post. But like I said, the C300 mkII price has been at 11999$ for quite some time.
 
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