By technical editor Matt Allard:
In a surprise announcement AJA has reduced the price of the CION from $8995 US to $4995 US. The CION received a lot of fanfare when it was first shown at NAB 2014, but has largely failed to attract the attention of buyers. With the release of the Sony FS7 and Blackmagic’s low pricing on the URSA Mini, it seems that AJA has made an aggressive move to attract more potential buyers.
The CION was designed to be not only ergonomic but lightweight as well. The camera is capable of shooting at 4K/UltraHD and 2K/HD resolutions. It records in-camera directly to the Apple ProRes family of codecs, including 12-bit ProRes 444, to AJA Pak SSD media at up to 4K/60p. CION can also output AJA Raw at up to 4K 120 fps via 4x 3G-SDI or up to 4K 30 fps via Thunderbolt.
I liked the design and the concept of the CION when I first saw the camera, but you need to use proprietary SSD media and an external EVF which push up the price of a working camera package.
For those who already purchased the CION production camera before May 26, 2015, you will receive two AJA Pak 512 SSDs for free, directly from AJA (valued at $2498).
AJA has also lowered the price of the Ki Pro Quad, Ki Pro Mini and Ki Pro recorders. The Ki Pro Quad is now $2995 US, Ki Pro Mini is $1495 US, Ki Pro is $2495 US, and Ki Pro ND is $2295 US.
It will be interesting to see if the new CION pricing will help boost sales in an already competitive and crowded camera market.
