Blackmagic was essentially started by a hacker in Grant Petty, and you can tell. RED took the existing ethos of the industry that says everything must be expensive and reserved for the elites. Sony is just Sony, and Alexa came from Arri which doubles the price of anything to put its name on it. BMD is the ultimate in "disruptor" category to me. Fuck your Uber or Musk examples, Grant Petty is a gawd! /s Really, though, he's pretty damn cool. Urban legend says that he even wrote the first drivers of his competitor AJA boards.
When BMD bought Da Vinci, they got a huge acquihire leg up on color science. Recording RAW at the sizes cinema cameras do requires fast storage that just wasn't cheap when RED/Alexa came about. Even with cheap storage, neither of those companies are going to debase themselves by lowering prices. There's a lot of technical reasons why BMD cameras can be cheaper, but the main reason is corporate ethos at BMD is totally different than other players.
BMD does amazing work for the price, but it's decidedly still not Arri quality and only Sony is competitive there. I work with footage from all these cameras as well as celluloid etc and have for over a decade. While BMD absolutely can look fantastic, it's typically much more work to get it there. If you're in a difficult situation, then it's not even close to how superior Venice or Alexa are.
I mostly work in Resolve so I'm partial to BM and appreciative of their work if it helps to establish neutrality (though I'm also experienced in baselight, flame, etc).
Reach for the tools you can! BMD can create great looking imagery when treated properly.
When the Red One was released in 2007 it started at $17500. Arri's Alexa started closer to $65000 at the time.
What they're doing with pricing today, I have no idea, but when Red hit the scene in 2007, not only did the price get a lot of attention, but it motivated the entire industry to take 4k digital video seriously. Every major manufacturer of professional cinema cameras would soon release their own competitive cameras with similar features to the Red One.
They make the sensors found in nearly every Blackmagic camera and are now taking a large part of the market with Venice and the FX9. No one has ever accused Arri of being arbitrarily expensive because their product is simply the best, perfectly manufactured, and totally reliable
Blackmagic is excellent for the industry and I use Resolve professionally
When BMD bought Da Vinci, they got a huge acquihire leg up on color science. Recording RAW at the sizes cinema cameras do requires fast storage that just wasn't cheap when RED/Alexa came about. Even with cheap storage, neither of those companies are going to debase themselves by lowering prices. There's a lot of technical reasons why BMD cameras can be cheaper, but the main reason is corporate ethos at BMD is totally different than other players.