AJA CION Gets $4000 Price Cut. Is The Price What’s Holding You Back?
Today AJA announced that the CION will be on sale for $4995. Thats $4000 off! WOW right? Last year I checked out the CION and since I had shoulder surgery I wasn’t able to put it on my shoulder. Bummed but I did like the look and layout of the camera. It really went in the right direction ergonomics wise and no one else at the time was, but some issues did get in the way of me lusting to get one a year later.
The big one for me was the PL mount. I sold off my PL lenses a couple years ago and now have Canon EF mount for use on Canon Cinema EOS and even Sony A7s with an adapter. I also have a few MFT and Sony E Mounts lenses for their respective cameras. The Metabones adapters are not the best with AF performance.
Sure I could buy a EF mount but it was around $700 and wasn’t really fully electronic. That was a miss. AJA claims this is a production camera and production folks use PL. Never assume what we use. Trust me. We use a lot more cameras that aren’t PL these days.
If you want to use EF lenses then you will need to spend $1800 for a MTF EF mount and MTF EFFECT electronic control box that needs to be powered with a D-TAP connection from the CION or battery. This is a very messy alternative that I just wouldn’t do. Could you imagine changing your f-stop with a control box? No way.
MTF Services Ltd MTF EFFECT Canon EF to AJA CION Mount $786.00
MTF Services Ltd EFFECT Canon EF Control Unit with D-Tap $1019
No native viewfinder or on board monitoring. More expense. No Log mode. Why? Strange. Expensive proprietary media. I can go on but you get the point. Yes the camera has a nice image but to be honest I haven’t seen anything that blew my mind. Yes it sounds like I’m down on the CION and maybe it’s not fair since I haven’t used one yet but like any camera it has to fit in to how you work. Thats a big one for me. I don’t want to fight the camera I just want it to work the way I do so I can concentrate on getting the shot. That’s a big deal to me.
So now we can pick one up for $5000 through summer. Not bad at all if you had your eye on one. If you buy a CION before May 26, 2015, and receive two AJA Pak 512 SSDs for free Thats a $2495 value. After purchase submit a request to cionpromo@aja.com.
Lots of deep discounts going on other AJA products too.
The recorder market is getting very full and AJA is very much in it but I’m not sure if the pricing today is going to sell a lot of them. With options from Convergent Design and Atomos. I like AJA cards like the KONA. They are great solid workhorse products and customer service is amazing.
I’m not sure what the future holds for the CION. Will a MKII be coming? or is this a one and done camera. I hope it isn’t. I think AJA is a great company that makes solid dependable high quality products.
For starters I would like to see a more universal camera for all not just “production” folks with big PL lenses collections. A actual EF mount with electronics built in and controlled by the camera not a 3rd party box. A grip would sure be nice too.
The summer sale on the CION with the $4K price reduction is really competitive, but does it stack up to the URSA Mini it’s closest competitor? For me no. My money is still swaying to the Blackmagic URSA Mini for now but if you lusted for the CION and I’m sure it’s a solid camera with great customer service this might be the best time to pick one up.
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
- 4K APS-C CMOS Image Sensor
- Internal DCI 4K/UHD & 2K/HD Recording
- ProRes 4444 & 422 to AJA Pak Media Cards
- AJA Raw via 3G-SDI Output up to 4K 120p
- AJA Raw via Thunderbolt Out up to 4K 30p
- Electronic Global Shutter
- PL Lens Mount with Back Focus Adjustment
- 12 Stops of Dynamic Range
- Remote Operation over Ethernet
- Contoured Shoulder Pad & Top Handle
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Filed in: Aja • Featured Post • Production
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