Canon could rule the camera industry if it buys Arri… but will it?

In case you haven't heard, cinema camera specialist Arri is for sale – and if Canon buys it, it has a once-in-a-century chance to completely transform the camera industry – think what happened when Nikon bought Red, but on a much bigger scale.

The 100-year-old Arri is one of the most historic and renowned makers of cinema cameras and equipment in the world. Its Alexa camera system is behind some of the biggest blockbusters and most celebrated works of cinema; Oscar-winning pictures like The Revenant, 1917, Life of Pi, Gravity, Birdman and Hugo were all shot on Arri Alexas.

So Canon buying Arri – or at least, buying its cinema camera division – would leapfrog it right to the top of the filmmaking tree, instantly making it a major player arguably on par with Sony.

But wait, you might be saying – doesn't Canon already make cinema cameras? Yes it does. Brilliant ones, in fact.

However, Canon's Cinema EOS lineup currently occupies a very distinct segment of filmmaking – largely for documentary and indepent productions – and has never been able to crack the higher-end segment dominated by the likes of Sony and Panavision.

Despite its capability, it's unlikely that Cinema EOS will ever penetrate that strata of filmmaking – much in the same way that, no matter how good a Nikon cinema camera might be, it will never get the traction needed to challenge systems like Sony Venice.

Thus, much in the same way that Nikon bought its way into that exclusive club by purchasing Red, Canon can get a VIP pass to the elite level of moviemaking by acquiring Arri.

It would be a brilliant move that eclipses Nikon's (Red is, after all, a significant but smaller player in the cinema industry) and would make Canon a Hollywood powerhouse overnight – not to mention give it a unique opportunity at growth in an increasingly challenging camera market.

Of course, there are challenges. Not just in terms of cost (Arri has been shy about its proposed sale or divestment, so I've no idea what all or part of its business would cost) but also business culture.

Canon is, after all, an incredibly traditional Japanese company with an incredibly Japanese way of doing business. While there may arguably be more cultural compatibility with a German company like Arri than an American brand like Red, it would nonetheless require a huge amount of malleability that I'm not sure Canon would embrace.

There's also the fact that Canon doesn't really acquire or partner with businesses in the same way that Nikon does (bearing in mind that the Big N has jumped into bed with everyone from robotics companies to telescope makers in recent years).

So just as Canon had no interest in buying, for example, Olympus' camera business, it may not have any inclination towards buying Arri.

Still, if I was sitting in Canon HQ right now, I would definitely be getting every lawyer and board member into the meeting room trying to work out the exhange rate between the yen and the euro…

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