I'm struck by how closely the current video camera competition resembles the computer rivalries of 30 years ago. At that time, the computer industry was split into several camps with radically different perspectives:

* Mainframe companies, notably IBM, well established in the corporate world.

* Minicomputer companies, notably DEC, who had successfully targeted the small business market.

* Apple Computer, whose Apple II emerged as the leader of the pack of late 70's home computers.

* The PC-clone industry, leveraging its wide-open platform with dramatic leaps in microcomputing power and versatility.

The video world's mainframes are the Arri Alexa and Sony F35, with well-earned professional reputations and industry-standard workflows.

Much like DEC with its relatively inexpensive stand-alone minicomputers, RED's upstart marketing won over the hearts and minds of independent filmmakers, delivering a fresh alternative to the hidebound corporate studio system.

Following in Apple's footsteps, Canon emerged as the winner of the DSLR video sweepstakes, with a product that wasn't originally designed for film making. In both cases it was a cottage industry of add-on enhancements that made the Apple II and 5D Mark II into useful semi-professional tools.

As with the IBM PC, the Panasonic GH1 was marketed by a major corporation as a generic mass consumer product based on an open technology platform. Both products attracted swarms of Far East cloners and DIY hackers whose turbo-charged results far outstripped the foresight of their corporate godfathers.

It's also interesting to reflect on the strategic moves the major computer manufacturers made at a comparable point in computing history:

* The mainframe companies continued with business as usual, oblivious to the long-term threat posed by the rapid evolution of their smaller competitiors.

* DEC produced the VAX, the first 32-bit terminal-based minicomputer of its era. The RAW 4K capabilities of REDs Epic platform evokes the affordable raw computing power that was the VAX.

* Apple produced the Lisa, the first consumer PC with a graphical user interface, targeting the small business market with an expensive, yet underpowered box. Will the Canon C300's high price tag and mediocre technology consign it to the same fate as the Lisa? Will the 1D-X become the Macintosh of the DSLR world?

* Spurred on by the accelerating market pressure of the unconstrained PC-clone industry, the PC mutated out of IBM's control into a do-it-all computer that could be cheaply configured to suit your own needs. As with the hacked GH2, PC-clones were widely disparaged as unreliable and unprofessional, good for little more than personal entertainment...