Nikon’s recent acquisition announcement of RED Cinema may turn out to be a tectonic shift in the world of both photography and cinema. A merger of the rather traditional, relatively stills-oriented Nikon with the young, passionate, even disruptive RED Cinema is bound to affect both stills-hybrid and cine markets, if this segmentation is even relevant anymore. In this article, I’ll try to describe the specific effects such a merger might have on the hybrid market which, in my eyes, facilitated such a shift. Hybrid cameras have been a prominent creative tool for the last decade. These cameras combine the technical traits and design philosophy of stills cameras with ever-improving video capabilities. Some manufacturers maintain both hybrid and cine lines of cameras, lenses, etc. Canon and Sony are the starkest examples, and also the biggest players in the stills-hybrid market. With every hybrid camera launched by one of these two major players, a wave follows, which includes countless comments criticizing the lack of certain video-oriented features in the latest model. It may be the lack of shutter angle, waveform, codecs, etc, and it is usually fact-based and true. There’s also an immediate suspect: Cannibalism Cannibalism is the term describing the scenario in which one product is eating away at another product’s target market. For example: The Sony a7 III was originally aimed at photographers and hybrid creators, but its unique feature mix, combined with very competitive pricing, made it the choice of many videographers, eating away at the a7S II target...
Published By: CineD - Friday, 29 March