China's in the game

Kieran Scannell · September 2, 2011

John Sprung · September 2, 2011

Interesting -- a price/performance point between Red and the Panasonic AF-100. The big difference is that those are from strong well established companies with substantial installed bases. Support and resale value are what would scare me away.

-- J.S.

Kieran Scannell · September 2, 2011

Absolutely John! But one does wonder how this thing would perform! Given a price of around $7,000! I really wouldn't be too bothered about resale.

Support of course is crucial! I can't afford a Red or Alexa but this I could stretch to, and I think I may be there target :-)

georg lamshöft · September 11, 2011

It's not difficult to build a cheap camera, it's difficult to build a good camera! If I remember correctly, a "S35-sized" (read: standard APS-C CMOS) sensor can be bought for about 50$, add some cheap slave labour and voila! we got another piece of crap flooding the market.

As long as the manufacturers don't outsource their know-how (like they did in other industries) they have to fear very little.

Martin Hong · November 28, 2011

If you know China's industry you wouldn't even bother to check on that camera

Phil Rhodes · November 28, 2011

What do you mean by that?

Stuart Brereton · November 28, 2011

I shot in China a few years back. Our local crew told us to double up all the components we were buying for various lighting gags, the reason being that 50% of them wouldn't work. I take it that a lack of QC is what Martin is referring to.

Martin Hong · December 7, 2011

Well, the thing is, the industry in China is known by copying other brand's products, as you can see they dont really have a good quality control or design. What they are aiming is having the lower cost and sell as much as possible. Hence quality = poor. I am talking about China's own brand here, i can ask if you have seen a good reliable brand with good reputation from China? Well i have never had faith in their products. Of course, you have to see the performance of this camera first.. But my first impression on this camera, is.. that.. well you know.

Will Montgomery · December 12, 2011

Inexpensive is good, cheap however... Guess we would need to test one to know.

Here's another one: Zeiss ZF lenses re-housed into CP knockoff case by a Chinese company. They seem cheap compared to CP lenses but I guess you should look at them as ZF glass that hasn't been "carefully sorted" with an upgraded housing. Basically they add about $300 to the price to get the ZF glass in a more cine-friendly housing.

http://www.pchood.com/film%20lens

Jim Ross CinematixHD · March 19, 2013

Why avoid Chinese goods? Just think about anything you've bought in Walmart. Products you used to buy years ago that would last a lifetime now fall apart in two years. If that. These products are not only made with cheap labor they are made with inferior raw materials. They have to be. It's not economically possible otherwise. They simply cannot use the best materials and make money. That's why your stainless steel tableware from China rusts in the dishwasher. They short on the chromium. They have to. Otherwise they can't produce it.

But Americans have voted. They voted with their wallets and sent many American manufacturing companies out of business. They voted to buy things cheap and throw them away sooner. That may be fine with a frypan, but not with a camera!

Think about it - would you buy a Chinese car? Probably not. Because you may not mind the cheap frypan or the inferior vacuum cleaner, it was cheap so that's okay that it is pretty crappy. A car on the other hand is a safety and status thing. We won't sacrifice there. We'll spend as much as a house on a car!

Me? I don't even buy knockoff lights. I shoot with Arri, Westcott, Kinoflo, Mole. I bought some knockoffs earlier in my career. None of that equipment remains. It all fell apart. My Mole 2Ks are probably 25 years old or older. I bought them used. Probably have them another 25 years!

Jim Ross, Cinematiographer

http://www.cinematixhd.com/

Phil Rhodes · March 20, 2013

Strangely enough some of the Chinese manufacturers of electronics (particularly lab and test gear) have started rather consciously not using chinese parts. Outfits like Applent (no prizes for guessing who they're definitely not trying to be) have a tendency to use non-Chinese parts even where it wouldn't matter over-much, things like power supply controllers and noncritical capacitors.

Of course this alone isn't enough to stop it being junk, and I'm obviously not defending the tidal wave of feebly-built crap that's coming at us from the far east at the moment. But it may be a little misleading to work solely from the assumption that it's always crap. It isn't, not any more. Which is even more worrying from the standpoint of a major western economy.