The fact that Canon chose to release its new camera on the Paramount lot in Hollywood should be a big clue as to how it is positioning it's new baby. Scorsese was there! Ron Howard was there! Though it records to the same video codec as previous Canon cameras (50Mbps 4:2:2 Canon XF) 'video camera' would be a misnomer. Digital cinema camera would be more appropriate with the S35-sized 4K sensor designed to appeal to budget film makers and episodic TV producers. Canon sees an opportunity to sell the equivalent of an Arri Alexa for a third of the price and compete with Sony's CineAlta F3 large sensor offering. Of course, Canon has a bit of a psychological advantage in this regard.

Whilst a number of 'Heath-Robinson' arrangements were available for shooting film style on small sensor video cameras, it was the addition of a video mode to the Canon 5D MkII that really popularized the '24 frames per second, shallow depth-of-field' film style that's all the rage these days. Of course, if you had some money and wanted to seriously go down the digital cinema route you bought a RED One - but that's another story.