Z Star Eats the Video Queen

WestEndFoto

All this yapping about video has me thinking. It occurs to me that the video equipment producers are in the same position today as the camera equipment makers were in in 2012.

Consider that video is a very small market, perhaps a tenth the size that digital cameras are today. If you thought the digitial camera market was getting smaller, you should look at the digital video market to see what small looks like.

Digital cameras lost the bottom end to phones. I think that video equipment makers are going to lose the bottom end to digital cameras like the Z6.

This won't mean that the digital video equipment makers are not going to disappear just like the smartphone is not going to cause the digital camera market to disappear. However, I am sure that Panasonic is thinking about this as they introduce full frame video cameras in the $5,000 price range. Not sure what a company like Red is going to do though.

PB_PM

The video market has always been smaller than stills, it's no surprise. The difference is that the pro market for video is growing, while the pro market for stills is in rapid decline. Most of the pro video camera companies are the same ones that make stills cameras, Sony, Panasonic and Canon are the big three in that arena.

Pistnbroke

Seems strange to me that you buy an expensive "stills" camera liimited to 29 min and then load it up with viewfinder microphones etc (and its still difficult to shoulder mount) when you can buy a "proper" video camera complete ready to go for about $2000.

PB_PM

It’s all about import fees, video cameras that can record over 20 minutes have a higher fee when entering the EU. Camera makers would have to make separate firmware for different markets to get around that. That and they want to protect the sales of high end large sensor video cameras. A real high end video rig is more like $6k-10k, without a lens.

WestEndFoto

PB_PM said:

The video market has always been smaller than stills, it's no surprise. The difference is that the pro market for video is growing, while the pro market for stills is in rapid decline. Most of the pro video camera companies are the same ones that make stills cameras, Sony, Panasonic and Canon are the big three in that arena.

Fair enough. Then you will see a downward shift in product as high quality video becomes available to the masses.

Symphotic

WEF: today I had to do a teleconference overseas and I realized the shelf behind me was a mess, so I started organizing it so my lab wouldn’t look quite so messy. I found a rather expensive video camera sitting on the shelf behind some books. I haven’t used it in years. And I have no desire to buy another one. It was, at one time, my main axe for recording training videos, but now I do all that with a D850 or Z7 and an external mike.
I think you hit on the truth here. As for limited recording time, I can’t recall ever shooting a scene that lasted more than a few minutes at the most.
As you recall, I sell video cameras for use underwater. We couple them with Atomos recorders and they go for hours at a time recording underwater inspection or search missions at sea. That market is still strong (for me at least). I’m delivering two systems in the next two weeks. Just in time to pay for a new 70 - 200 F/2.8 S.

WestEndFoto

Yes, I was wondering what you would have to say about this topic Symphotic.

I have also wondered about the limited recording time. My suspicion is that is the complaint of someone who has never actually used a video camera. I suppose Vloggers might, but sometimes that is probably even because they are not experienced. I can't imagine a scene lasting more than 30 minutes.

But I have bit my tongue until now.

And any lens noise that is left for people to complain about is neutralized with an external mike.

So my suspicion is Sony will be fine as they are in both markets, Canon has to figure out their mounts, but they will be fine too and Panasonic is most worried as they have to find a way to make the L-Mount alliance work. Their latest offerings are very strong, however.

PB_PM

Indeed, most people will not be recoding long takes. I for one rarely record more than 10 minutes at a time, with most being around 7 minutes. The only time it might be an issue is recording interviews for documentary purposes, but it would depend on the flow of the interview. Most people shooting video seriously will have an A roll and B roll camera, giving them time to stop and start different takes from a given body,

Pistnbroke

Try shooting a Greek wedding with a time-limited recorder or even a Catholic service .No chance.

WestEndFoto

Good point. Also, if you are shooting in 8k, a 1tb card my not be enough.

PB_PM

Indeed, data storage is going to be the biggest issue shooting at 8k. Using an external recorder would allow the use of external SSD with greater capacity than what you can put in the camera.

Pistnbroke said:

Try shooting a Greek wedding with a time-limited recorder or even a Catholic service .No chance.

Which is why someone doing that isn't going to be doing it with a DSLR/Mirrorless camera. Even with a grip the batteries wouldn't last long enough. They are going to be using dedicated video cameras so they don't have to worry about it. Even if you did use a device with a recording limit, having only one camera would be a huge mistake, you really must have an A&B roll camera for different shooting angles and focal lengths, because you are not going to be zooming or walking around while recording high end video in that scenario.