With Fujifilm's recent video camera announcement, we now have a (mostly) resolved view of how each of the still camera makers bridge to the continuous world of imaging:
- Canon — Canon's Cinema line still leaves me a little perplexed, mostly because they are still straddling EF and RF, plus they haven't really made it to 8K yet outside the still cameras ;~). Still, it's clear that the Cinema line is their answer to higher end video; the remaining question is "how high?"
- Fujifilm — Last week's development announcement for the GFX Eterna starts the company in a portion of the video realm with no real competitors: medium format dedicated video cameras. The company has long been making Fujinon lenses for video cameras of various mounts (B through E), but it appears that they've now decided to put their own stake in the ground, starting with GFX. The current still-oriented GFX cameras only make it to 4K/60, so I'm curious to see what the new Eterna is going to actually be capable of. Along with the new camera we'll initially get a 32-90mm power zoom, and a PL mount adapter. So, an initial, very high end stake in the ground. We'll see how much territory they really want to expand into. We'll also see if that slows the still camera development.
- Hasselblad — Not playing video games. (Hasselblad owner DJI does, but mostly in drone/vlog space.)
- Leica — Not playing video games.
- Nikon — Buying RED gives Nikon the well-proven Raptor and Komodo video cameras. Once the RED offerings go Z-mount, this effectively makes Nikon a player from small (Z30 with rolling APS-C) to large (Raptor-XL with 8K global shutter). Moreover, Nikon suddenly is in play to have very clear messaging: still, hybrid, and dedicated all in one mount.
- Olympus — Not playing video games.
- Panasonic — The most confused of the major players, as they have a sprawling lineup from the G series (m4/3 sensor) to network broadcast cameras, with just about everything in between and no (current) commonality in lens mount, design, anything. They're simply not leveraging their own customers because of that. The internal politics and turf wars are holding them back.
- Sony — The E-mount has been their savior, in almost every respect. Their early decision to move their entire lineup of both still and video cameras to a common mount gives the Sony lineup a huge breadth and depth that everyone else is now trying to catch up to. You can't really say that you outgrow what you've got in the Sony lineup on the video side, as there's always something better you can move up to.
