C300 Discussion

[Henry Coll]

Originally Posted by Barry Goyette

I'm not sure if this is the polite statement you are referring to

--"We found ourselves using Zacuto EVFs with the camera and the new Marshall monitors with built in waveform graphs with excellent success." -- (sorry if that's not it...but I couldn't find any other mention of the monitors on his blog...but maybe he said it on stage with the canon folks...I missed that :-) )

No, that's not the quote. It's not written anywhere, it's on a long phone interview -somebody posted the link here-.
He was directly asked about the quality of those and why they never used them (as can be seen on the BTS video) After some laughts, he said something like, "er.., let me put it this way. They're nothing you'll be going to use to shoot with". He tried to be polite about it, understandably as he's on Canon's payroll.

[Steve Kimmel]

Originally Posted by Henry Coll

No, that's not the quote. It's not written anywhere, it's on a long phone interview -somebody posted the link here-.

Was there supposed to be a link in your post? Thanks.

[Henry Coll]

The RC #100 C300 with Dir. Laforet & RED ScarletX | fxguide

the podcast is rather long at 2hrs, there's an interview with Laforet somewhere there.



Here are the exact words, when asked about that and been told by the interviewer that F3's VF was the worst thing about it, how whas it on the C300:

"I'm going to bite my tongue on that one… I.., I don't think people will use C300's VF or LCD screen as much as they'll be using external EVFs and Monitors. Let's put it that way"

[Brian Drysdale]

I suspect that's no great surprise, unless you're using it in their basic hand held mode you'd be needing the 3rd party V/F accessories. There all kinds for mods now out for the F3, so the C300 would be in the same position.

On a sunny day the RED One LCD screen can be a bit difficult to view at times and you need to have very good close vision in order to use it for shoulder hand held, so I'd assume that the Canon has similar limitations.

[Brian Drysdale]

Perhaps the C log is more hypergamma than a pure log curve. With the Sony cameras, even those curves that are intended for grading in post are pretty viewable on the set.

[Barry Goyette]

Originally Posted by Henry Coll

[url=http://www.fxguide.com/therc/the-rc-100-c300-with-dir-laforet-red-scarletx/]The RC #100 C300 with Dir. Laforet & RED ScarletX | fxguide[/

Here are the exact words, when asked about that and been told by the interviewer that F3's VF was the worst thing about it, how whas it on the C300:

"I'm going to bite my tongue on that one… I.., I don't think people will use C300's VF or LCD screen as much as they'll be using external EVFs and Monitors. Let's put it that way"

Fwiw.. He goes on to say that these were prototype cameras and that canon may have changed the monitors prior to release. I don't know that they did. But I can tell you that canon had zacuto's evf mounted on several cameras at the event and so the comparison was quite easy to make-- the onboard monitors are in a completely different league. My very first impression of the camera when I walked up to the stand was that the 4" LCD was quite focusable. The evf too. When compared to a larger standalone monitor like the Marshall sure, they might be found lacking...as they should...mostly due to size. But useless? Ill have to say I highly disagree.

Thanks Henry for steering us towards that very candid interview. Laforet spent much of the time singing this camera's praises and talking about its place in the market between the f3, Alexa and the red and points out some of the distinct advantages the c300 has.

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

A question for those who have seen the camera in person. From the pics it seems that all the playback functions rest on the monitor/XLR attachment. Can you control the playback functions without it?

[Don Miller]

The Laforet interview is interesting as he compares it to the Alexa. He speaks as if the IQ is clearly better than the F3. I wonder if he has shot with the F3? The F3 images are very sharp. Which some people take as ideal, others as not film like.

I realized that the C300 ergonomics designed to be able to shoot stills. Put metering and autofocus in that body and it's a hybrid camera. Canon was clearly thinking of rails as optional. A design choice perhaps not appreciated by the core group who aren't interested in normally using the camera that way. Laforet calls the camera ugly. But look how the handgrip works with the EVF. Would he rather hand hold the C300, F3, or Scarlet?

Canon is clearly thinking ahead with the design of the camera. I wonder if there's space for FF35 sensor?

[Tim Le]

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Plakiotis

A question for those who have seen the camera in person. From the pics it seems that all the playback functions rest on the monitor/XLR attachment. Can you control the playback functions without it?

Yes you can. On the side of the camera below the second selector wheel are two buttons. One is for Index/Stop and the other is for Play/Pause. Pretty much every button on the monitor/XLR unit is duplicated on the camera (except for the audio controls for the XLR input channels -- I believe).

[Roger Shealy]

*** Larry Thorpe of Canon is planning to talk on a live webcast tonight (11/17/2011) @ 6:30 PM EST. Just heard it,

Jtown.tv

[Don Parrish]

The setups I have seen so far on the EF version do not use the traditional tripod collar, will this fatigue the lens when all of the accessories are attatched ?? I know that it was normally used to de-stress the camera side on DSLR's but is the lens side strong enough for no collar plus accessories ??

[Jim Martin]

Not to bring it up again, but I had a fun conversation with Dana Christiaanson at the Canon Hollywood Service Center on Thursday night. We were there for the showing of "XXIT" followed by Q & A with Dana and Jung Ahn, Sr Pro Tech rep from Canon. Many questions were asked and, of course, about the 8Bit issue. Dana repeated that there were no issues and the camera performed extremely well. Most were amazed about the low light performance and how few lights were used. In the cable car scene, they used about 4 Rosco LitePads (3x12,3x6,3" circle) placed inside the car....and everyone was quite impressed.

As for the 8bit, Dana said he only found out about it when they went to prep at the Paramount theater 2 WEEKS before the event. All through the shooting, green screen, and editing, he had no idea it was 8 bit.He said he cringed when he heard, expecting the 4K projector to show problems, but then was blown away when they watched it.

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com

[Allan Black]

Interesting comments, if you haven't seen this .....

First Look: Canon EOS C300 Cinema Camera

Cheers.

[Brian Drysdale]

I'm not totally convinced that it'll have the level of impact that they're mentioning. With multipliable cameras those daily set up figures are already manageable and 3 day shoots aren't unusual on shorts. The factors that add to production times tends to be things other than the camera and the comments about large crews etc sound rather similar to those made during the early 1970s.

[Jim Martin]

BTW, We should have pricing info by mid-next week.....I see there has been some price info posted for Europe on various sites....

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com