What if all camera companies made a cell phone?
So RED Digital Cinema is making a phone… What would happen if ALL camera companies made phones?!?
Canon – For 4 years web empires are built on speculating what the flagship phone will be and when it will launch. Riots ensue when a friend of a friend of a friend in the industry hears that it’s going to have a particle accelerator built in. Finally Canon announces and ships… a phone that would have been cutting edge 4 years ago. Still, the menu is nice and the buttons have advanced clickyness.
Nikon – Makes a great phone that has the prime selling point of being backwards compatible with the telegraph.
Panasonic – Announces and ships phone promptly. Phone has fantastic tech and is higher quality than most phones. Only it’s ½ the size and who wants a ½ size phone? No one. A weird niche of core users hack it and become able to travel through time.
RED Digital Cinema – Announces phone with an ad comprised of nothing but a black velvet nude Elvis painting and promises of teleportation. May possibly be able to make phone calls as well. Pre-order sells thousands in the first hour. Charger cable costs more than Canon’s phone. Ships without ability to make phone calls but will on a later firmware. No one notices or cares and is sold out for years.
Blackmagic Design – Announces a similar phone to Red for 1/3rd the price. Takes a year and a half to ship. Is both figuratively and literally a cinder block. Has more glitches than Red’s phone but includes a free paperback copy of Encyclopedia Britannica. Develops a cult following from people who are jealous of Red owners.
Sony – Already makes an awesome phone that no one really cares except that one weird guy in every office who swears by it. Makes 6 variants within the first week. mkXVIII version launches 8 weeks later.
Lytro – Actually makes and delivers a holographic phone but no one buys it once they realize a holographic phone is completely pointless. Their follow up phone is living room sized and sends criminals to the phantom zone.
GoPro – Makes a mediocre phone but pays NASA to let someone bungee jump off the ISS with it while fighting Godzilla. People lose their minds assuming owning the phone will let them do the same thing and they sell like hotcakes. No one remembers the Contour or Drift phones.
Leica – Paints Panasonic’s phone black and puts a red dot on it, doubles the price.
Hasselblad – One-ups Leica, puts a wood handle on a Sony phone, triples the price.
Samsung – Gets bored of crushing the phone market and makes a decent camera that no one really cares about. Tablets start catching on fire. Ditches cameras and goes back to making phones properly.
SIGMA – Makes a pretty good phone… but runs Windows, so no one gives a crap about it.
DJI – Makes a great phone, but the phones tend to crash frequently and each time require being sent back to the factory for a month for repair. Next gen has anti-crash technology. They still crash.
Fujifilm – Makes such a good phone that it’s totally sold out anytime people go to buy one so people just go back to buying Canon’s 4 year old tech flagship phone.
JVC – Makes a new phone with great ergonomics. People aren’t sure whether it runs Windows, Android or IOS so just go buy 4 year old Canon tech instead.
ARRI – Makes a phone with the best call quality on the market. Costs the same as a nice car and weighs about as much. Lacks the teleportation abilities of the Red phone, but is embraced by everyone who wouldn’t dare be seen talking on a Red.
Kodak – Basically invents the telegraph, telegraph pole and telegraph wires. Decides no one will want a wireless phone. Goes out of business in 17 seconds. Licenses name to selfie sticks.
Polaroid – Makes a comeback from certain death by printing text messages on square paper. Minds blown.
Canon 5DmkIV in Vancouver
About 4 years after the 5D mkIII, the 5D mkIV is here! Which given Canon’s product cycle, makes it exactly on time. Now, I’m not going to pretend for a second that I haven’t been a Canon fanboy since the late 90’s and the XL1, through my first DSLR, the Canon 10D through the game changing 5D mkII. When you’re dating Canon for a long time, you learn to wait. Forget all the rumour sites, unless you really like disappointment (8k 5Dmk4? REALLY??) all they will do is waste your time and keep you from actually shooting.
Which brings me to pre-answering the most interesting question… Canon 5DmkIV vs Sony A7sII ? Actually… wrong question. The real question is Canon 5Dmk4 vs Sony A7R2. Because no matter how much all of us want Canon to make the 5D into a video monster… it’s not. It’s a still camera designed for still photographers that just happens to have some video capabilities. And the A7r series is a closer match up to that.
I’ll be honest, even though Canon has had more time at the plate, the 5D4 loses on most counts. No IBIS. No LOG. 4k only in APS-C mode (though Super-35 has always seemed to be good enough for feature films.) It loses in resolution to the A7rII and in ISO to the A7sII. Dual Pixel AF vs Phase Detect? Near tie. Dual Pixel RAW? Don’t convince yourself that this has any Lytro-esque capabilities, go read DPReview’s article on it.
So does it beat either of Sony’s top offerings? No. Definitely not. However…
It feels good in my hands, I like using it – and that’s not to be underestimated. As much as I’m in awe of the Sonys, I don’t like using them. I like the Canon. It feels like what a photo camera should feel like. It makes me want to take it with me on a trip. Like an old favourite hat, I already know it’s got a place in my backpack. It’s got that great solid grip that has been with me since my old EOS 35mm cameras (but better!) The buttons make the night right clicking sounds, the shutter snaps like a shutter (cameras have those) should snap. And of course, all my Canon lenses work without fail.
I like it. I dig it. I’d buy it.
Wait… $4500cdn?!?
Nevermind. Keep your 6D and for the price difference just buy an A6500 for shooting 4k video…
- Published in Reviews