Canon wakes up and smells the coffee - HUGE price drops on C100 Mark I, C300 and C500 Cinema EOS cameras!

Click on the image for price cut details!

With the beginning of a new year, the dam is starting to burst on Canon's ridiculous Cinema EOS prices. As of this morning, the PL mount Canon C500 is $15,999 (down from $30,000), the EF mount C300 (with the dual pixel AF upgrade) is $11,999 (down from $18,500) and the C100 Mark I is $3,999(!) (down from $6,499).

The headline news from these price cuts is that Canon seems to be taking the threat from Aja, Sony and Blackmagic very seriously. In a world where shooters can buy a PL mount 4K/120p APS-C Aja Cion and record to 12-bit 4:4:4 ProRes for $8,995 or an EF mount UHD/80p Super 35mm Blackmagic URSA and record to losslessly compressed CinemaDNG RAW for $5,995 - it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend $18,500 for a 1080/30p Canon C300 that records to a maximum 8-bit 4:2:2.

My guess is that this reality was starting to show up in Cinema EOS sales - and Canon, to its credit, responded. Time will tell whether these price cuts will halt the slide - or if it's a case of "too little, too late".

Shooters who bought these cameras in the last few months and are outside of their return windows aren't going to be happy, but, overall this is very good news - especially for Canon DSLR upgraders. With the cost of a C100 with XLR inputs and a top handle now just $1500 more than a sale priced 5D Mark III, it's almost a no-brainer.

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