Canon Cinema EOS C500 Mark II Camcorder In The Works

Little secret the Cinema EOS C500 is not a big seller for Canon. It is over-priced and a bad value for the money. Unlike the highly successful C300 Mark II 4K camcorder, which had its price lowered to $9,999 recently.

So back to the labs for Canon. The C500 Mark II version is in the works and will have resolution higher than 4K but not 8K, although Canon had previewed an 8K Cinema EOS prototype camera in late 2015. The new C500 Mark II camera will command a premium, perhaps in the $13K to $15K range.

Canon EOS-1D C Mark II Camera with 8K Video?

Canon EOS-1D C 4K DSLR camera

When the Canon EOS-1D C camera was announced back in April, 2012 and made available for sale in March 2013, the list price was $15,000. Now you can buy a new one for $3,899.

Nowadays, every camera manufacturer offers cameras with 4K video. Some are selling for just a few hundred dollars. Of course, not all cameras with 4K video or high Megapixels are created equal. To causal observers, they may not know the difference and wonder why one should pay thousands of dollars for a camera like the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II when a Point-n-Shoot model has more megapixels and cost a fraction of the price.

Canon announced their 8K camera development during the Canon EXPO in September 2015. This is their next big product announcement to differentiate itself from the competition. The EOS-1D C Mark II or something equivalent may be the camera to take up that mantle.

The upcoming movie, Guardian of the Galaxy, Volume 2 was shot with 8K cameras. Canon is bent on being the first company to offer state-of-the-art equipment to filmmakers and videographers to enter this new universe.

Canon Debuts 8K Prototype Camera at Photokina 2016

At the Photokina 2016, Canon displayed a modified Cinema C300 Mark II camcorder prototype with a 8K Super 35mm sensor. It shoots 8K RAW files at 60 fps. One hour of footage will generate over 10 TB of data. Read my earlier post on Canon's 8K camera projects.