Major Price Drop on the Canon C300 Mk II, C100 Mk II, and Cine-Servo Lens

In case you spent your holiday weekend grilling food with friends or hanging out on a boat to celebrate America's Birthday, you may have missed that Canon lowered the retail price on two of their hottest video cameras for professionals: the Canon C300 Mark II and the Canon C100 Mark II.

While the biggest price drop comes in for the Canon 17-120mm Cine-Servo lens at $5,000, most folks are taking notice of the $4,000 instant savings now being offered on the Canon C300 MkII, taking it from $16,000 to $12,000.

Just a quick reminder of the killer specs on the C300:

• Super 35mm CMOS Sensor
• 4K internally, with simultaneous proxy recording
• Canon EF or PL mount
• Dual Pixel AF
• 120fps at 1080p
• 10-bit 4:2:2 at 4K, 4:4:4 at 1080p
• 15 stops of DR (as advertised)

I've long considered $16,000 to be rather steep for this camera body, since that puts it into RED territory, but with this newly discounted pricing, it's a much more competitive option. Sony FS7 users have been enjoying in-camera 4K with decent range, and lots of features for filmmakers, for only $8,000, so the C300 is still 50 percent more in terms of cost compared to that.

If 4K isn't something you're after, the Canon C100 Mark II had its price lowered from $5,500 to $4,000, and it's a great option for a fully featured HD camera system. Like the C300, it's a bit more expensive than some of its competitors out there, but having personally shot with it, I can tell you that it's a robust camera with a great image, and is worth it if you need top-notch HD footage.