Canon Rebate
 

As I recall, a common bit of wisdom in this Forum (or is it just an urban legend) is that when Canon offers a rebate on a product, a new replacement product is on the way. The New York houses are offering rebates on the XL-2 and other Canon camcorders. Any thoughts?

Steve Siegel,
Miami

Canon has already announce that the xl2 will be the last dv or sd camera for its targeted consumers. the next xl or new series will be in hd or hdv; im pretty sure as soon as any major company finishes a new product, thier already looking at ways to improve apon their prevouis products to stay with the competetion. Rebates are nothin but a way for a company to sell more products, while this benefits a consumer, it still greatly benefits the producer; so dont think rebates always mean old technology. I dont think its wisdom that lead anyone to think about rebates meaning a replacement for the xl2; Rebates dont really mean anything; its just common sense that within a year or half a year, canon will anounce somthing better then the xl2 to stay on top.

This probably dosn't mean much, but I asked the same question to my Canon dealer. I was concerned because I bought the XL2 with the wide angle and 16x servo lenses ($900 total rebate yippie). I was wondering if the lens mount was going to change on the next model.

The dealers response (which I take with a grain of salt, mind you) is that sales are slow, so any company wanting to change that would offer a rebate. Makes sense for me, but I also agree with Wes. I actually HOPE that they come out with a XL3 (or whatever) that is HD. Let's skip this HDV junk and get right down to it...
Not that HDV is junk, I just want it all right now! :) I've shot on HD, and it is sooo beautiful... espically for all the little details in nature (which is primarily what I shoot). My assistant's favorite expression about HD is that "you can see the nuts on a gnat 2 miles away!" (which is an overstatement, but you get the drift)

A rebate *can* signal end-of-life, but not always. After all, there's been a rebate on the GL2 for about eighteen months now and it hasn't gone away yet.

My favorite statement about HD is that when watching college football, I can tell which cheerleader forgot to shave her legs that morning. Seriously though, I love the look that CBS gets with their NCAA football...nice and crisp.

-gb-

I have to say I was a little disapointed about the rebate. I did think it was overpriced when it came out at $5,000. One of the sponsors of this site assured me there would be no price breaks for a year. Four months later you can pick one up for $4,000.

Now granted I've made that up in shoots but that completely screws my resale on it. $1,000 is still not in my pocket. I love the camera but I'm already losing clients who want to shoot with the Sony HDR.

Canon takes FOREVER to release new stuff. This rebate and price drop is because they aren't selling enough. If they come out with anything in the next 12 months everyone who bought an XL2 is going to get hosed on the resale. Sorry for the rant, I'm not sure if I'm more mad at Canon or myself for the overpay.

Kent, I'm curious. How are your lost clients having their HDV delivered? What are they watching on?

Jay

Actually Kent they told you that because at the time they thoroughly believed it to be true. Camcorders of all makes, models and price ranges generally tend to depreciate almost as badly as computer systems do. If you've made your money back and then some, well then you're doing all right in my book.

Most of my work is corporate gigs but I do occasionally work on shorts/features around town. This is where I'm losing the work. Not that I agree with them but that's what they want to shoot on.