I'm a colorist with over a decade experience in the industry. I work on about one hundred projects a year (film/tv/commercial/music video) and about 1-2% are canon (dslrs or otherwise). 70% are Arri, 20% Sony (either Venice or FX line), and the remainder are red.
Canon has almost no presence in the professional market.
While I would never call myself a colorist, I would say colorist adjacent while I spent a few years in a professional color post house. This would reflect my experience as well. I spent a lot of time with the Sony F55 when it came out, and even with its abilities it was still considered less than Alexa and Red.
The only people that shot Canon in our market were a few that shoot time lapse.
Sony is big and gaining more traction by the day. RED is very popular, Personally I know an equal number of filmmakers with RED and Sony. Arri is the premium brand. Canon is almost exclusively used in documentary these days, they had their moment with the 5DMK2 years about but squandered it. Sad really.
Canon's 5Dmk2 "moment" brought large sensor/shallow depth of field, interchangeable lenses, and very affordable pricing to a market that was dominated 2/3"-1" sensors, wide depth of field (ENG look), and high price tags.
It also brought the high contrast and saturated look baked in as a very unfriendly in post MP4 format. It also tried to sell a photo camera to a video world where the body form factor and external device connectivity was a joke. Professionals HATE all of that. Canon instead released the 100 - 700 series "cine" style bodies that were all primarily still shooting some form of MP4. It was all again a slap in the face with the added bonus of much higher price tags.
Canon has consistently told the market it doesn't understand it, and will just do what it wants
I realize that my information is dated. Also, the company that I worked for, directly competed with Canon, and it's likely that Canon's influence may have been overstated.
dylan604|2 years ago
The only people that shot Canon in our market were a few that shoot time lapse.
rangewookie|2 years ago
Sony is big and gaining more traction by the day. RED is very popular, Personally I know an equal number of filmmakers with RED and Sony. Arri is the premium brand. Canon is almost exclusively used in documentary these days, they had their moment with the 5DMK2 years about but squandered it. Sad really.
dylan604|2 years ago
It also brought the high contrast and saturated look baked in as a very unfriendly in post MP4 format. It also tried to sell a photo camera to a video world where the body form factor and external device connectivity was a joke. Professionals HATE all of that. Canon instead released the 100 - 700 series "cine" style bodies that were all primarily still shooting some form of MP4. It was all again a slap in the face with the added bonus of much higher price tags.
Canon has consistently told the market it doesn't understand it, and will just do what it wants
ChrisMarshallNY|2 years ago
I realize that my information is dated. Also, the company that I worked for, directly competed with Canon, and it's likely that Canon's influence may have been overstated.