OK let’s take a moment – Sony didn’t announce a new a7S camera today at their press conference but they did have a surprise of a different sort.
If you’ve already got an HD Sony camera but want to move up to 4K production, Sony Europe will now offer an official trade-in program to reduce the price of new 4K-capable kit.
Sony upgrade program – qualifying cameras
The program will be valid across Sony’s broadcast and cinema lines of cameras – the examples that Sony’s Claus Pfeifer gave to Erik in the video above are HDC 1500 and 1700s, PMW400 and PXW X400s and F5 and F55s. After an individual assessment of your kit, you would then be able to redeem that amount off the price of, for example, a new Venice camera.
Your old camera will then be whisked away to a UK based factory, refurbished and then sold on as an approved graded product for second users.
Used camera prices being what they are it might be best to reality check your expectations for how much of a reduction you might receive – but if you have kit that would otherwise be sat gathering dust this might be a good way to give it a new lease on life while saving a few pennies yourself. It’s also a good, traceable way of recycling and reusing the complex electronics embedded in a modern camera.
Do you have a camera you’d be tempted to sell back to Sony? Let us know in the comments below…
