XF300 and XF305 instant discounts now at B&H
 

I was just on B&H and they are offering $300 off the XF300 through 9/30/2010.

They are also offering $500 off the XF305 through 9/30/2010.

Let the price drops begin! ... which is good for me because I haven't bought one yet!

Thanks for the info Kyle!

That $300 discount should go toward a Hoodman CF card; or a Manfrotto 504HDV tripod; or a mattebox; maybe a Porta Brace case...Hhmm. Maybe Canon should've given us a $1,000 discount intsead :)

Was just surfing on B&H ans noticed that they now have new prices on the XF300/305.

$6,595 and $7,595.

So, just out of interest, are those up or down from what they had before? - hopefully the latter!

I actually think they are about $100 more than they were last month with the rebates that were offered...

Hi Andy,

Like Kyle said, they're definitely up from before.

I just put the order in last week as I wasn't sure if Canon was going to continue with the discount. And B and H confirmed that they were not. Really, the hardest part was convincing the wife that it was a good deal :)

Best,

They're about $200 and $400 cheaper respectively than when they were first released. This does not include the discount price.
I wonder how these cameras are moving?

I know for sure that B and H will be shipping at least one XF300 :)

Canon is continuing this promo at least to the end of this month (October)

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com

I wonder how sales are going for them? My EX1 is in the shop... if it's deemed 'totaled' I'm debating whether to use the insurance money to buy a new EX1r or get this Canon? I love my EX1 so much though. Applying it to a Scarlet or Epic doesn't appear to be an option yet.

The only reason they would lower the price is because the product isn't selling as well as expected against the competition and they want to sell more.

Wrong......these cameras are still in very short supply until later this month....This is a Canon promo that the pro dealers can take advantage of... or not.

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com

FWIW from the BH website.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/684199-REG/Canon_4457B001.html(6 reviews)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/589903-REG/Canon_3238B001.html(68 reviews)

Used Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder 1191B001 - B&H Photo Video
(from the used store 135 reviews)

Jim, short supply does not translate to mean good sales. No one anywhere is keeping inventory on their shelves like they did before the recession. I would like to see (but will never see) some hard data on XF300-305 sales compared to Canon's expectations when they set the initial pricing.

One measure I use to determine a camera's popularity (at least industry buzz - which is woefully inadequate and I'm not suggesting it's accurate in any way) is to see how many people are in the online forums under each camera.

Usually a new intro camera creates a lot of buzz and there are lots of people in those forums (going by the "currently viewing" numbers listed on the forums), and industry standard cameras also consistently have lots of current visitors on the respective forum subgroups.

It just doesn't seem this new Canon is packing the online forum houses. How that translates into 'reality' I have no idea.

I view things the way you do, Buck, I hope CANON is also checking the posts and lowers the prices accordingly.

Sorry but it doesn't translate into reality very well at all. Trust me, as I have
been in the forum business for well over a decade. The most forum activity
comes along when there is some sort of perceived tech problem. Otherwise
outside of the dedicated forum audience that actually uses it on a day to
day basis (bless you all), a message board to the rest of the world is a lot
like the police department... they don't call upon it unless there's trouble.

On top of that, only a small fraction of camera owners are online talking
about their cameras -- too small of a base to draw any real conclusions,
and that applies to photo, video, etc., online anywhere.

Chris would certainly be more knowledgeable than me regarding this, so I will concede his point. I shoot Canon stills and have a 5D MK II so I am all for this camera rockin' it.

I hope Canon notes that the 51,000 views about the Sony videocam with interchangeable lenses in the Digital Video Industry News section isn't because of a technical problem. Get with it CANON!

Lower prices??? The 300 & 305 pricing is right where the EX1 & EX3 are. Why should they be lower, especially, among other features, with a higher codec......this whole line of discussion has been gone over in other posts.....too much. The $6500-$7500 range is right where the top cameras in their class have been landing for a while.

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com

At that price , and with the lack of a firewire output for secondary backup, and low-light performance not generating particular excitement in the forums, I'll be checking out Sony products for the first time.

To be fair Galen, there are plenty of other outputs that (component, HDMI, HDSDI on the 305) that allow you to record to an external device uncompressed - personally I don't consider firewire an omission.

True, it's not a low-light king, but it's not bad performer in this respect either, about par for the course.

The XL-H1 went for considerably more ($9000) when it first came out and these new cameras beat it on every level. If you're making money from the camera - which I expect most XF users are - the price isn't really an issue.

It provides enough benefits over the EX to justify the cost; this camera actually drew me back to Canon (I had a Z5 prior to the XF). I think most people buying the XF are doing so based on features, not price.

Even when Canon does come out with a DSLR/camcorder crossover, there will continue to be a market for the XF.

Completely different market. The Sony you refer to isn't even worth contemplating for the work I do, and I expect it's the same for most XF buyers.

Josh, I was not comparing the two cameras, I was pointing out the kinds of things that get customers excited.

To be fair Galen, there are plenty of other outputs that (component, HDMI, HDSDI on t
 

Josh, then why did you make this post in another thread on October 8, which discusses the omission of a firewire port, you sounded sympathetic to Michael there?



I have the same concern as Michael. Tapeless = great. Having to rely on a single CF card to perform flawlessly during a critical shoot = worrying.

I had a CF card fail on me when recording to the 5DII last year - it was a new, undamaged card - there was no indication of a problem while recording but back in the studio several files were unrecoverable.

Each time I record an interview for a client on the XF I do cross my fingers that my cards will perform. I'm using Sandisk Extreme - after reading Doug's post I'll consider switching to Hoodman. The Nexto unit is useful but doesn't solve the issue of card failure - something like the Ninja or Nano makes sense...

The XF100/105 has the ability to record to both cards at once... does this seem like something Canon could address for the 300/305 with a firmware update? It makes a lot of sense - for critical work I'd definitely like that insurance.

My post makes no mention of Firewire - it was about the reliability of CF cards (just yesterday I bought hoodman cards as these are said to be most secure).

For backup or external recording, superior options would be uncompressed output to the Nano, upcoming Ninja and Kipro Mini or an equivalent device; these are options I am considering.

Is there any firewire only recorder that can record 1920x1080, 422@50mb+? If not we're discussing backing up to an inferior format: once more, not something I would consider an omission on Canon's part, though I guess if someone has a legacy device this may be handy as an emergency backup.

Back to your comment, "Get with it CANON!" rather speaks for itself. Yes, the large sensor cameras are getting people excited at the moment (I bought a 5DII the moment they came out so I'm not immune to the buzz), but that doesn't make the XF any less relevant; these cameras are built for a specific market to do specific work. They serve this purpose very well indeed.

I was expecting its price to drop near the $5500 line by now.

Dream on! First, for what the camera actually does performance-wise it's only got a couple of direct competitors and is right in line with those. It's far better than the crowded $2k-$5k camera segment and really can compete with cameras in the $10k range. (in my humble opinion!) Would it have been nice to pay less? Of course! But Canon isn't going to drop pricing significantly til they have a direct replacement. If you cant afford the 300/305, as I mentioned, plenty of good cameras in the next segment down.

Canon has rebates for other products like lenses. I'm thinking of a promotion; not permanently.