50 Caliber Revolution

[vmaxnick]

One interesting point; the .50 cal debate surfaced briefly mid last year on the UK rec-ball, Scenario, Walkon forums and is now largely forgotten.
I cannot see how a different caliber is going to make economic sense to anyone but the suppliers if it divides the market.

I've just done a quick search on the 3 main UK sites catering for "The others" and cannot find a current post.

 

[Reiner]

One interesting point; the .50 cal debate surfaced briefly mid last year on the UK rec-ball, Scenario, Walkon forums and is now largely forgotten.
I cannot see how a different caliber is going to make economic sense to anyone but the suppliers if it divides the market.

I've just done a quick search on the 3 main UK sites catering for "The others" and cannot find a current post.

Yeah, it seems to be dying down everywhere. It's not too far from a year since the first announcements were made, but unless I'm mistaken, nothing is available yet (please enlighten me if it's easily available in Europe). Seems to be a bit of a marketing flop.

 

[dam-dangerous]

.50 Caliber Revolution.. errr no thanks.
Lets think of the costs to change to the new 50 caliber paintballs? New marker, new barrels, new hoppers... .68 caliber will always be around because everyone will have the markers ect. Why would a site want to change if they have to replace 100+ markers.

betamax to dvd
dvd to blue ray
4 star petrol to unleaded
vinyl records to cd
change happens, no matter how much you've spent in the past or how much you like the current format in any thing.
if the manufacturers of any prodyct want you to change your mindsett then they just have to stop the current format.
your only choice is to accept it or pack in.
if this format takes off i recon it will happen faster than you want.
one question i have is with a smaller therefor lighter ball will it be more seceptable to wind etc?
what are the marking capabilities, cos we all know how easy it can be to hide or lose a mark from a 68 cal ball and that contains double the paint.

 

[Gadget]

betamax to dvd
dvd to blue ray
4 star petrol to unleaded
vinyl records to cd
change happens, no matter how much you've spent in the past or how much you like the current format in any thing.
if the manufacturers of any prodyct want you to change your mindsett then they just have to stop the current format.
your only choice is to accept it or pack in.
if this format takes off i recon it will happen faster than you want.
one question i have is with a smaller therefor lighter ball will it be more seceptable to wind etc?
what are the marking capabilities, cos we all know how easy it can be to hide or lose a mark from a 68 cal ball and that contains double the paint.

Change normally occurs only when there is a benefit to the consumer - we're yet to see if the benefits of .50 will outweigh the negative aspects. Given that paintball is a competetive environment, people will opt for whichever format gives them the edge - if that's .68, then people will pay the extra to use the best tool for the job.

New does not always equate to better, especially in an industry such as paintball, where we have more than our fair share of snake oil salesmen.

 

[Reiner]

Change happens if there is a mandated change by virtue of changes in laws or a governing body forces a change or it's a change for economic reasons. Product lines can be added to or even changed if consumers can see value in the new product. Change will not happen just because someone feels it should change. Having said that, value does not have to be real, it can be perceived value. That's where marketing comes into play.

 

[Robbo]

one question i have is with a smaller therefor lighter ball will it be more seceptable to wind etc?
what are the marking capabilities, cos we all know how easy it can be to hide or lose a mark from a 68 cal ball and that contains double the paint.

There is obvoiusly less inertia in a 50 calibre ball because of its smaller mass but this is somewhat offset by the 50 cal's surface area.
If you think about it, the 50 cal [in terms of surface area] is going to be less affected by wind turbulence because the wind has less surface area to act upon.

I haven't yet done the math to see to what degree this reduction in surface area offsets the inertial mass reduction but I doubt it's gonna be a long way off from parity.

As far as the 'mark' the 50 cal leaves, Piper can probably put me right here but there is little difference between the two from what I have seen.

 

[John C]

There is obvoiusly less inertia in a 50 calibre ball because of its smaller mass but this is somewhat offset by the 50 cal's surface area.
If you think about it, the 50 cal [in terms of surface area] is going to be less affected by wind turbulence because the wind has less surface area to act upon.

I haven't yet done the math to see to what degree this reduction in surface area offsets the inertial mass reduction but I doubt it's gonna be a long way off from parity.

As far as the 'mark' the 50 cal leaves, Piper can probably put me right here but there is little difference between the two from what I have seen.

Read up in the thread. The maths has already been done.

The .5 cal needs to be either ~1.5g. Or shot at ~400fps to acheive parity with a regular 68 cal.


The marking tests look very similar on hard targets for obvious reasons. Soft targets or ones in motion may be quite different.

 

[dam-dangerous]

many are talking about the price of kit adaption, replacement and so on.
in the tourney scene especially, we all know the majority of players are gear sluts and change markers quicker than there pants so why are you all commenting on it like its some kind of forced slavery?
a high percentage of the general population of ballers are so obsessed with new and shiney things that the oldest thing in your kit bag is liable to be the batteries in your hopper!
top and bottom of things is that the vast majority of tourney players could be geared up for it within a season and not even notice any change in spending.
think about it, how many barrels, hoppers, markers, packs, pots etc have you got duplicated in your kit bag?whats wrong with the old ones?
quite often nothing, other than a new one came out in another colour or with new shiney bits or so on.
i know this 'cos for more years than i can remember i've spent more on gear than i would care to count up,
some on updating stuff, some on replacing worn out kit and some just on better looking gear but i would say that on average most players replace every bit of the kit we use over the space of a couple of seasons at the most any way.

 

[Robbo]

Nice post Ian .. just about sums it up mate.

 

[dam-dangerous]

Nice post Ian .. just about sums it up mate.

thanks
i just think the price issue is getting blown out of proportion.
we will spend a small fortune on having the newest shiney thing, to get another few % more shots per fill and so on, and at no point complain at what were spending and in quite a few cases wasting.
whats more important is will it improve something, accuracy, shots per fill range etc. a saving on price per game can only be a bonus.