NAB 2014 Wrap-up. Top 10 Products. AJA’s CION.

AJA’s CION
By Sean Davis

Hello sexy!
If I had to pick a camera to shoot strictly based on camera body aesthetics it would be this camera—a throwback to the years of ATON film cameras and Arri 416s. So AJA decided to make a camera, and make a camera they did. It’s a cinema camera that actually looks like a cinema camera, feels like a cinema camera and operates like a cinema camera.

CION – The New Production Camera from AJA from AJA Marketing on Vimeo.

It’s got the prerequisite feature set to compete in today’s crowded camera marketplace: DCI compliant 4K, quad HD, 2K and 1080 P recording internally to AJA’s proprietary SSD the AJA pak in Apple prores. It will also do up to 120 frames to an outboard recorder via the 4 sdi outs on the camera. Any RAW recording is also done in outpolled recorder.

The images are recaptured on a super 35 CMOS sensor with the global shutter. AJA also added a high-quality optical low pass filter to the camera so we all can stop worrying about aliasing (the talent can dig out their favourite herringbone jacket and throw it on for the shoot—the camera can handle it!).

Since this camera costs under $10,000 (actually an MSRP of $8995.00) the global shutter and optical low pass filter will cost you some light sensitivity. Although the AJA reps did not have an exact number for the base sensitivity of the sensor, native ASA is being speculated to be somewhere between 200 and 320 ISO.

Even with this I’m still impressed because I view these tools from the perspective as someone who has been shooting proper video cameras and proper digital cinema cameras—I remember what I paid for my first serious camera, the HVX200, and what I paid for my Sony EX3, less than four years ago. The Sony EX3 cost me approximately $9,000 and did not do a third of what the AJA CION does.
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For more in-depth technical articles visit Sean’s company Across 100th Media and follow him on Twitter (@across110media)