Andrew Machado

Canon recently announced their new 5D Mark II 21 mega pixel camera and it the first camera in 5 years people should get excited over.  For the first time a user can shoot FULL HD video with a camera.  All 1920 x 1080 lines of 1080p resolution can be shot at 30 frames per second.  This can be done for 12 minutes straight before the camera will need to record the file…I’m sure that will improve over time as all technology does.  Now that in itself is pretty cool because as we all knew video cameras were becoming obsolete by camera phones with video mode and movie mode on most standard point and shoot cameras.  Well with this Canon you can use all of your lenses which means much better low light performance than video cameras.  You ever shot at night with a video camera?  The video quality is terrible, with spots in your video and lots of grain.  Hopefully Canon solves this problem with the 5D Mark II.

How much is it?  The body is only $2700 which to me seems cheap for what it does.  If you want the body with a lenses for $3500 Canon will throw in a 24-105mm kit lens.  You will see this camera on shelves in November and get ready Hollywood because it looks like the days of using huge video camera to film could be over.

I remember back in January of 2007 when the UFC announced it would be broadcasting pay per view events in High Definition 1080i. To my delight I called Comcast to make sure UFC 67 the UFC debut of Cro-Cop would come through in HD. They said not initially, but it would be coming…

As I write this it is September 2nd at 1am and Comcast still does not offer high definition pay per view. Meanwhile Direct TV subscribers have had access to this service the entire time I have been waiting. So this Saturday for the upcoming UFC event I will go over to a buddies house with Direct TV to enjoy the 1080i greatness that is High Def PPV. So here is my question…Why is Comcast not offering Pay Per View in High Definition?

The basic cost of a UFC pay per view it is $44.99, but if you want it in High Definition it is $10 to bringing the cost to $54.99. Now I realize Comcast is big on their In Demand Service because they are taking the middleman out of the PPV business, but there is an extra ten dollars in income to be made off offering these pay per views in High Def. The extra ten dollars adds over twenty percent to the revenue on a per buy basis, 20 percent! Comcast get your head out of the sand and offer pay per view events in High Definition. You have the delivery mechanism, the target market has the equipment and the share of wallet to make it worth your while.